Cafe Services Fall Harvest Festival Makes Corporate Dining Room Place to Be in November

In days past, it was common for businesses to treat corporate dining as a basic, non-essential convenience. Corporate cafes were often bare bones — stark, sparsely furnished, unadorned cafeterias serving up quick, mass-market fare as an alternative to employees who ran out of time to pack a lunch or eat out.

Those days are long gone. Today, many of Cafe Services’ Massachusetts corporate food service management clients treat their food services program as an asset and investment in employee morale and performance. Consistently strong participation rates are a priority.

Says Matt Stone, Café Services Vice President of Business Development, “Diners at our corporate accounts look at the café not just as a convenience, but as a comfortable, lively place to recharge in the middle of the day, socialize with colleagues or maybe even get some business done.”

To satisfy employees’ high expectations for quality onsite dining, Massachusetts corporate food services management customers look to Café Services to create an ambiance and culinary experience that makes the café the place to be.

Creative, Lively Dining Experiences Draw Crowds & Drive Business Success

Café Service is widely known in northeast business circles for its unique ability to create dynamic, contemporary, corporate dining environments that draw lunchtime crowds and help customers reach their revenue goals.

The main attraction is the variety, quality and presentation of the food, which rivals that of many restaurants. But in corporate settings, business diners also come for the experience.

At Café Services, the day-to-day dining experience is carefully crafted to evoke feelings of warmth and vitality. To build community, Café Services regularly stages creative themed and seasonal celebrations featuring food specials and attractions that are relevant to the occasion — like a Vietnamese taco station and Cuban fried rice bar during fusion month; or, baseball stadium-inspired fare to celebrate opening day at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

Fall Harvest Festival Appeals to Tradition and Tastes for Seasonal, Regional Flavors

On November 18, the company hosted a Fall Harvest Festival at all Massachusetts corporate food service management locations and throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic.

The highlight of the menu was Café Services’ Signature Café entrée; herb-encrusted pork tenderloin topped with apple demi-glace and accompanied by cinnamon maple butternut squash. Sweet potato bisque was the soup special. To top the meal off, Café Services offered home made apple crisp at the dessert bar. Apple cinnamon pancakes were served at locations with breakfast programs.

At Café Services, developing menus is a collaborative process involving managers and culinary professionals in a variety of roles. Recipes are tested for their suitability across all Café Services business locations. Leading the effort is Stephen Rice, Café Services Director of Culinary. While many special occasion menus highlight the exceptional talent and creativity of Café Services’ chefs, Rice planned the Fall Harvest Festival to appeal to diners’ respect for tradition and the iconic, regional foods of the season.

He accompanies recipes with suggestions on how to bring out certain flavors or vary the presentation. Because every Café Services client is different, Rice encourages chefs to give the recipes their own special twists to satisfy diners’ unique tastes.

“We adapt to what our customers need and encourage innovation,” says Rice. “It’s one of the best parts about working at Café Services.”

Adapting Meals to Diners’ Tastes is Encouraged at Café Services

Giving meals a twist is just one of many qualities that set Café Services chefs apart. The corporate food service management company puts a premium on hiring experienced, professionally trained chefs who have a passion for food and thrive on opportunities to show off their creative chops.

“We have a lot of talented chefs at Café Services who like to think out of the box,” says Rice. “Creating a meal and seeing how people execute it is one of the most fun parts of my job.”

I’ve been born and bred corporate dining and corporate catering from the very beginning of my career in the Silicon Valley and now, since 2001 in the Boston Metro Area. While working my way up through the ranks, all the experience has led up to my current position as the Corporate Executive Chef for Café Services, based out of Manchester, NH. I have the privilege to be able to utilize creativity, research and technology to dream up our company’s new culinary programs and custom menus for corporate cafeteria clients and bring them to life. Café Services supplies the resources to ensure success of our ever-evolving companywide culinary initiatives and I’m very grateful for the opportunity. Seeing the success of new programs in the field is my motivation. It’s a win win.