Caterers Who've Worked For The Super Rich Are Revealing Their Secrets And Stories, And OMG
Have you ever wondered what it's like to cater a party for the rich and famous?
Well, turns out plenty of people who've actually done it have exposed the realities of it on Reddit in this, this, this, and this thread.
Here's what these caterers revealed:
1."I heard one guy say, 'The wife and I managed to keep our spending down to $2 million this year. It's been difficult, but we're quite proud of ourselves.'"
2."My aunt was a caterer, and one time, a customer didn't want to pay because they were an influencer and were 'advertising the food after agreeing to a contract.' The whole thing ended up with a lawsuit, and my aunt got the payment plus the settlement."
3."I met Mark Cuban while catering an event at the Indianapolis Public Library. It was so weird seeing how he treated EVERYONE with the same amount of respect. He's one of those guys who just enjoys being around people. After the event, he stayed for soooooo long so that anyone who wanted a picture with him could get one. Catering staff included."
4."My sister works as a high-end caterer/pastry chef in New York City. She has to sign NDAs all the time, sometimes even for simple jobs (like making and delivering a cake) in which she never even interacts with the wealthy/famous person."
5."We catered a big, high-profile party for a politician who was up for re-election. At the event, someone died of a heart attack in the toilet, and I found him. I had to diplomatically usher all the guests into the other room without making a scene. It was really tactfully done, actually."
6."An interesting/bizarre/cause of many an eye-roll on my part is how we'll take fancy food and make it into American junk food form, like lamb push-pops and lobster donut holes, which were apparently great, but I didn't snag one."
7."I used to work a high-end catering hall in high school. The biggest take-away I had from serving some of the more well-off parties was how rude otherwise seemingly pleasant people can be when surrounded by other people of their socioeconomic background. People tend to only be snobby when trying to impress other snobs around them. I guess the psychology behind it is to create a line between the 'haves' (them) and the 'have-nots' (workers/staff) which somehow brings them closer together."
—Anonymous
8."I’ve always found the young money to be the worst. Catering for the rich in general really changed my perspective on life, though. Chefs aren’t the only people who work hard — we're the few of the only ones dumb enough to work that hard for no money. A lot of the rich people I've catered for are actually way more down to earth than I expected at first, though."
9."I'm a caterer for the wealthy and famous. I recently catered a $2,500 a table fundraising ball, and another event that featured a taxidermy lion."
10."Interactions with celebrity guests are very off-limits. Our captain always briefs us before we do high-profile events, and we're essentially forbidden to talk to them. A couple of people got screamed at for asking for autographs/pictures with someone famous. I believe a couple of people got fired that day."
11."Every night we eat the uneaten dishes, and holy crap, it's the best food I've ever eaten. One night, we served wild boar appetizers. I ate about 12. The food is a real perk."
12."I worked in Silicon Valley for some very wealthy families, and old money was almost always chill and new money was 50/50. Typically the CEO/breadwinner spouse was super cool and polite to staff, but their trophy wives would be a monster/super rude. Oh really? You don't trust food professionals to clean up after themselves in your kitchen that has more expensive hardware than our prep kitchen? Sure, we can use our portable oven and stage a kitchen outside or out of your garage, but your food won't come out as good."
13."I'm an event chef at a fine dining catering company. Wealthy people don't talk about weird things around us. It's upper-middle class people who think they're rich that treat us like we don't have ears."
14."I got really tired of dealing with entitled rich people who wanted a full, coursed-out meal without letting me touch anything in their kitchen. I used to play a fun game with the servers called 'How badly did this person waste their money?'"
15."I've only catered one event, and for some reason, all the rich 'donors' were told the servers were volunteers. Like, why would I volunteer to bring rich people their food? I made $80 at the end of the night. Two people at a table discussed how '20-year-olds these days are lazy' and 'don't know what hard work is.' Meanwhile, there I was — 18 at the time — cleaning up the napkins they had thrown into the walkway. It was super humiliating to basically be on the floor serving these people while they simultaneously called me lazy."
And lastly:
16."I worked food and beverage at a really famous country club for a while. The weirdest thing was just the sheer amount of older people behind on the times. I would be serving people while they literally spoke about how stupid my generation was, and how we didn't deserve 'handouts' for education. Also, the rampant homophobia and racism was shocking to see as well."
Answers have been edited for length and/or clarity.
