Caterer to Stars Also Serves the Less Fortunate

At a recent fundraiser for AIDS research in Santa Monica, designer Tommy Hilfiger showed off some of his latest fashions while actress Sharon Stone served as a guest auctioneer.

Meanwhile, the more than 1,000 guests at the Macy’s and American Express Passport party dined on such exotic dishes and hors d’oeuvres as molasses-cured salmon, grilled New York steak salad, duck confit and yellow grit cakes before moving on to desserts such as chocolate tuilles.

Later that night a refrigerated truck arrived to pick up any food that went unserved. The bounty would go to social service organizations such as Victory House in Burbank, a shelter and counseling organization for people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

“We don’t have a lot of money, and we try to do the best we can with what’s available,” said Sam, 53, a supervisor and a recovering addict at Victory House, who asked that his last name not be used. “You really notice the difference when they bring stuffed mushrooms and fancy sandwiches and a combination of stuff you don’t get at a recovery house.”

The upscale fare is courtesy of Mary Micucci -- often called the “caterer to the stars.”

For more than 20 years, Micucci’s company, Along Came Mary!, has catered to the dining needs of the entertainment industry, including glitzy corporate events, premieres of movies such as “Titanic” and Grammy and Oscar parties.

During that time, her company also has donated unserved food from such lavish events to numerous homeless and battered women’s shelters and other social organizations.

“As a business owner and entrepreneur, I’ve always thought it was my moral responsibility to give back to a community that has given to me,” Micucci said. “I find this to be true more and more every day.”

The executive director of Angel Harvest, which picks up and delivers food from catered events to feed the city’s hungry, said Along Came Mary! has consistently been its largest contributor. “She’s not only the queen of catering, she’s an incredible Angeleno,” said Helen verDuin Palit. “There is a huge need for food to feed the hungry. There’s five emergency shelters within blocks of each other in downtown alone.”

About 10 years ago, Palit approached Micucci about collaborating to get food to a vast network of shelters, soup kitchens and other organizations.

Before, such organizations would mostly pick up the food, but their trucks were not refrigerated, Micucci said. Because many of the events Along Came Mary! caters are late-night to early morning affairs, some organizations could not always pick up unused food, which otherwise could be thrown out, because of the timing and lack of refrigerated vehicles.

With its refrigerated trucks, around-the-clock schedule and ability to pick up food on short notice, Angel Harvest helped Along Came Mary! deliver not only more food but a wider array of delicacies, Micucci said.

“Her events are really huge,” Palit said. “She has some events with 25,000 people.”

Among the organizations that get donations from Along Came Mary! are the L.A. Mission and Union Rescue Mission in downtown L.A., the West Hollywood Coalition’s mobile soup kitchen, and the Neil Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program at Childrens Hospital.

At times, Micucci will cater free for charitable organizations.

“Mary does the food for our events,” said Joyce Bogart, co-founder of the Neil Bogart program, named for her husband, a record-label founder who died of cancer in 1982. “She’s always there and involved and wanting to know what’s going on and how she can help.”

Sam, of Victory House, said he could tell when the food served at the center is from Micucci. That shelter received 1,150 pounds of food from the Santa Monica AIDS fundraiser.

“A lot of people here lost everything, living on the streets, eating out of trash cans. A plain sandwich is better than anything they had,” Sam said. “We’re thankful for whatever we get. But to get food like this, we really enjoy it.”

Along Came Mary! handles about 200 events a year, for clients such as ESPN, Paramount Pictures and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Most events yield food for shelters and other social service organizations.

“Being the Italian I am, I always make more food. My mentality is you can’t run out of food,” Micucci said. “There’s always something to be picked up and delivered to a shelter.”