Where would we be without food and beverage? I’d rather not think too deeply about it. One thing we do know is the power it has to serve as a medium for connecting with others and solidifying lifetime bonds.
Thoughtful wine selections can elevate our programs. While we often meticulously plan the culinary experiences at our events, beverages, particularly wine, are frequently chosen from a generic banquet menu. A well-thought-out wine program doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does need to be intentional.
While curating a delicious food and beverage experience can seem like a simple task given the right team in place, it’s important to take into consideration the current trends and important topics that are impacting the industry.
As much as my wife and I love trying new restaurants and learning about new food cultures when we travel, this has often been difficult in the past. If you’ve never tried, you would probably be surprised to see how challenging it can be to dine out without wheat, cheese, cream and eggs.
The category most often referred to as Ready-to-Drink (RTD) beverages are gaining popularity, also changing the meaning of adult beverage.
January is when thoughts turn to rejuvenation. A brand-new year to adopt healthier habits and do the right thing by our bodies. In short, it’s time to spa. And at the best of these, to dine well in the truest sense of that word—with the emphasis on wellness. These wellness resorts are serving up our favorite resolutions.
We asked a sampling of meeting professionals and chefs for their expert predictions of what 2022 will bring to catering. Here’s what’s in and what’s out for this year.
Smart Meetings was in attendance at June’s Le Bon Appetit fundraiser for Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and brought back this report on how to blend the richness of a destination into the agenda for a meaningful event.
This year, one of the country’s largest and most comprehensive conference centers (originally planned as a Xerox learning campus) became a partner with the U.S. government as part of Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). The program at The National began in February and is set to run through September 2022.
When meeting planner Tracy Stuckrath got diagnosed with food allergies 19 years ago, she had an epiphany—on a plate. “As a planner, I realized that I could not eat at my own events,” she says.
Greek mythology has it that the god Vulcan was the first noodle maker, but Italians supposedly didn’t know about this staple so celebrated in their food culture until Marco Polo carried them back from the Far East in the late 13th century.
Michael Pollan notes in This Is Your Mind on Plants, caffeine is “the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world, and the only one we routinely give to children (commonly in the form of soda)…It’s so pervasive that it’s easy to overlook the fact that to be caffeinated is not baseline consciousness but, in fact, an altered state.”
Some of the best berry-filled desserts can be found on the Las Vegas Strip. Strawberries, blackberries and raspberries carry many beneficial nutrients your body needs. So, when next in Vegas, berry it up!
As a meeting professional, you wield enormous power. In ways often overlooked, you help create a demand that eventually topples the dominoes toward purchasing upgrades. Use it wisely.
For planners and chefs alike, last year seemed like the end of the world as we know. But, what do the experts say about F&B in 2021? Read on for trending flavors, practices and more.
If you’ve planned F&B during these months, you’ve had to learn to do what you do in new and different ways. In that spirit of learning—and, hopefully, growing—now is the perfect time to look at F&B afresh. Take this opportunity to consider leaders in the food world who have embraced the alternative.
Chefs are getting good at take out. Whatever your heart’s desire, you can probably find it to go. Herewith, a sampler.
April may be the cruelest month for some, but not for a perennially perky harbinger of springtime—by which we mean asparagus. Here are four hotel restaurants dishing the best of.
In California’s Napa Valley, more wineries are offering chef-driven, small-plate creations for perfect pairings, private tastings and dining experiences. Here are outstanding examples.
Wolfgang Puck, the legend behind hospitality (and America’s) culinary trends and successes, shares his celebrity chef experience with Smart Meetings.
The story behind Inglenook, the largest wine estate in Napa Valley’s Rutherford—and a great place for groups.
Looking back over our coverage of how planners, hotel chefs and caterers adapted to a changed world, here are highlights of what we learned from 2020 F&B.
Was there ever a year when liquid cheer was more welcome? These hotel bar mixologists go above and beyond with creative and delicious cocktails.
Las Vegas boasts some dozen vegan restaurants in town, with enticing, celebrity-chef-led meatless, dairyless choices.
Planners have had to innovate in order to continue connecting people over a shared meal during the pandemic. Wolfgang Puck Catering says these six post-pandemic F&B trends are here to stay in 2021.
The much-anticipated 4/20 tribute to marijuana culture is just around the corner and we all know what that means, cannabidiol (CBD)-infused alcohol!
Not so long ago, bartenders gave no respect to nondrinkers. As in, a disdainful look and maybe a desultory question, such as, “You want fruit in that club soda, mister?”
