Crushed Ice Catering

The Ice House

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Meet Rachel Martin – Summer Intern

Hello friends and followers of Crushed Ice Catering! My name is Rachel Martin and for my summer catering internship I will be working for the Ice House and Crushed Ice Catering. Here’s a little bit about me:

I am from Ashland, Kentucky, and I will be graduating from Eastern Kentucky University this December, GO COLONELS! I will graduate with a Bachelors in Communication Studies and a minor in Public Relations. So far I love my time working here Crushed Ice Catering and the Ice House. I am hoping to pursue a full time job here when I graduate;)

In my spare time I enjoy swimming, going to concerts, and playing with as many dogs as possible. In high school I was able to dip my toe into the event planning world and since then I have been obsessed! I have joined as many groups and organizations possible in college to help give me the experience and skills I need for this job. The best part about working for Crushed Ice Catering for my summer catering internship is getting to do both event planning and work in the food industry!

I will be taking over our blogs and social media for the summer. Be sure to check-in and see what I have in store for you!

 

Here’s what’s coming up:

I’m not going to give away all of my secrets so just stay tuned, to insure you don’t miss out on the all of the fun we have planned!

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2017 Catering Trends & Food and Event Trends

Every dreary Louisville January, after the excitement of the Holidays, Wedding Seasons and the New Year have worn off – you will find our Crushed Ice Catering & Ice House Coordinators and Culinary Team pondering over the previous year, and wondering with great excitement, what the future year will hold. This blog post is always one of my favorites to write – my fingers move faster than the keyboard will allow. I can barely keep up. And this year’s predictions exceed any we have seen thus far. Curious to see our predictions – check it out!

2017 Food Trends and  Predictions from our Executive Chef, Laurence Agnew and our Sous Chef, Zach Tackett:

2017 Catering Trends

  • Chicken Salt – long used and started down under in Australia in all the chippers. It’s actually a vegetarian seasoning used on chips (fries) that’s very tasty.
  • Proper old school butchery using animals either raised by the butchers or very close to the source and introducing real authentic bone broths and animal fats in classic and more modern takes.
  • Continued use of cannabis! As states continue to legalize recreational marijuana, so does the edible market continue to sky rocket into the billions from candies, tortillas, baked goods and cocktails.
  • Plant based cooking using Heirloom varieties, legume based pastas and dinners focused on plant leftovers and waste.
  • Drone delivery whether it’s pizza, burritos or burgers. We wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon started offering a delivery service for bigger cities and companies such as Shake Shack (it’s coming! you heard it here first).
  • Fried chicken in a bowl, bun, Nashville style, for breakfast, lunch or dinner – it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
2017 Bar/Beverage Trends and Predictions from Derek Steinbrecher, Bar Manager

2017 Bar Service Trends

  • Higher focus on beverages and beverage pairings (food/wine), vertical tastings for both beer and wine, bourbon themed events, bigger budgets for better quality booze.
  • For cocktails, continued pushing the envelope of high tech crafty cocktails. I see Italian wines continuing to be highly demanded and educated about also see Croatian and Slovenian wines continuing to be of high interest
  • Bourbon, Bourbon and more Bourbon great for all Kentuckians, and there’s even a bourbon emoji now, we’ve gone mainstream.
2017 Event & Decor Trends from the lovely ladies at Crushed Ice Catering, Lindsay and Madeleine 

2017 event and Decor trends

  • Creating more vertical impact for event spaces with the use of draping, aerialists, hanging lights, greenery ceiling installations and even an increased use of aerialist entertainers.
  • Black is Back – using black in a strong or subtle presence, which will lead to a more formal “feel” for events.
  • The bouquet and garter toss is going to be a thing of the past – and we are completely okay with that :)
  • Both Band & DJ – it’s the best of both worlds! Starting the evening with a live band and switching to DJ for dancing. It is sure to be a crowd pleaser, as the younger guests may enjoy the DJ (it’s hard to find a live performer that can belt out Hotline Bling) and the older crowd may love that jazz trio for the dinner portion.
  • Drone Videography, because who doesn’t want an awesome wedding video or a cool tech-y gadget flying around their event?
  • Lighting change during the event – transitioning from a soft romantic glow during cocktail hour/dinner to a more party atmosphere (think neons, gobos and strobes) for late night dancing.

2017 Event & Decor Trends from the lovely ladies at The Ice House, Erica and Christina

2017 catering event trends

  • Seeing a shift in DIY from crafts/goodies to DIY services – photo booths, videos, DJ service apps and other service related niches that Brides can simply download on their phone and plug in to their event.
  • Less Instagram Hashtags to more event specific snap chat filters and groups
  • More unique configurations of event space and design. Away with the traditional “head table” or half round conference style set-up. We will see more unique table configurations (elevated, stage, etc) as well as alternatives to traditional “boardroom” style – more lounge furniture, and creative workspaces.
  • Event Flips – larger budgets will give way to satisfying client’s high demands for flipping event spaces during an event. From theater style, to cocktail hour, to seated dinner – clients will be more demanding than ever. And we will aim to please!
  • Mixed wedding parties – with marriage equality passing in 2016 we expect to see less common and new titles such as Best Lady or Man of Honor
  • Color Trends: Winter=glamorous (silver, white, gray), Spring=floral (blush, sage, champagne), Summer=bright (yellow, blue), Fall=earthen (amber, sage, orange)
  • Incorporating Pantone’s Color of the Year “Greenery” – We are not seeing this trend go anywhere anytime soon. It will be continuously popular – Eucalyptus, Ferns, Sage, Thyme color themes are here to stay in 2017.
 So there you have it folks – Do you agree with our predictions? There is only one way to find out if we are correct… wait and see what 2017 really has in store for us here at the Ice House and Crushed Ice Catering!
Cheers!
Erica

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Louisville Wedding Spotlight: A French Themed Wedding

French Themed Wedding in Louisville, KY
Champagne Celebrations were in order for this French Inspired Wedding!

When our Bride, Emily approached the Ice House, she immediately challenged our culinary and design team at Crushed Ice Catering in Louisville. She wanted a French American Wedding to take place in Louisville, all the while planning from New York City.  Our team rose to the occasion – and delivered Emily and Loic’s dream wedding.

Emily was kind enough to share her experience and amazing photographs from her special day. Check it out:

Crushed Ice Catering: Share with our readers a helpful tip/quote you learned during the planning process or valued advice for future Brides to be:

“Take Pinterest with a grain of salt. While it was such a useful tool for certain things, I also found myself loving ideas that would never go with the style of my wedding, and being disappointed in other ideas that were too expensive to put together. Pick a style and a vibe for your wedding and go with it. Your intuition and decisions will lead to a beautiful event that is exquisitely you.”

Crushed Ice Catering: Give our readers a personal insight on what it was like to work with our team members at the Ice House and Crushed Ice Catering:

“The Ice House had a tall order to help create our wants for our French American wedding from all the way in New York City and they were the incredibly helpful every step of the way. From the first meeting we knew the Ice House was where we wanted to have our event as they assured us they would work with us to make our evening as personal to us as possible. Erica and Lindsay both did an incredible job of helping me create my dream space for the evening and keeping me in a timeline that left me unstressed. They paid as much detail to the small aspects of our wedding as I did, helping me with linens, arranging a Skype session for our tasting, and in general just taking extra care that we didn’t feel out of touch with how things were going even from so far away. Lindsay and the Chef with Crushed Ice Catering were phenomenal and pulled off a full French dinner and appropriate wine pairings that were not only complimented by our French guests, but they also worked with us to ensure we got exactly what we asked for without breaking our budget. Many of our guests commented it was the best meal they’d ever had at a wedding. Thanks to Madeline and Lindsay, day of the wedding I walked into a event space that looked beautiful, was decorated exactly how I imagined, and I truly felt like a guest at my wedding rather than a bride having to call the shots. I am forever grateful to these women for such a fantastic wedding day experience and I highly recommend both the Ice House and Crushed Ice Catering if you want a wedding that you, or anyone else, will never forget.”

Crushed Ice Catering’s Executive Chef created a fabulous menu for the Bride, Groom and all of their International Guests.

French Themed Family Style Dinner menu

As we have said before, it truly takes a village to pull off such an exceptional affair. Emily and Loic’s Wedding would not have been made possible without the collaboration and attention to detail from her wonderful team of wedding professionals.

Reception Venue: The Ice House

Catering: Crushed Ice Catering

Photographer: Bella Grace Studios 

Florist: Nanz & Kraft

Planner: Ashby Wedding & Event Planning

Videographer: LW Films

Dress/Shoes: Theia from the Lovely Bride, Shoes Badgley Mischka

Hair: Xhale Salon and Spa

Make Up: Jess Harrison, Dollface Brows and Beauty

Entertainment: Complete Music and Video

Cake: Sweet Surrender

Transportation: Royal Transportation of Louisville

Ceremony Venue: Midlane Farm

The Lovely Couple at their Wedding Ceremony held at Midlane Farm
Guests enjoy the Cocktail Hour on the Ice House’s Rooftop Garden
Emily and Loic’s First Dance as Mr. and Mrs.
The Happy Couple!
Who are these models?!
Even the gift table had a personalized touch from the Bride and Groom
The Bridal Party Table
Beautiful, Delicate Florals
Guests enjoyed a French-American Menu prepared by Crushed Ice Catering’s Executive Chef, Laurence Agnew
A fabulous time was had by all!
We just love the simplicity of this cake!
The guests enjoy the wonderful fall weather

A big Thank You goes out to Emily and Loic for sharing their personal experience with our readers. We are so truly blessed to have such fantastic clients. It makes our jobs so enjoyable. When you do what you love, it’s not really work, is it? Congratulations to the happy couple – Thank you for sharing your special day with us here at The Ice House and Crushed Ice Catering.

Cheers!

Erica

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In the Kitchen with Crushed Ice Catering: Q&A

In the Kitchen with Crushed Ice Catering: A Q&A with our Sous Chef, Zach Tackett.

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Meet Zach, Crushed Ice Catering’s Sous Chef

There are many moving parts that make up Crushed Ice Catering. There are the sales girls, the executors, the creative geniuses, the servers, bartenders, the list goes on and on. These are the faces that you see when you attend an event at the Ice House, or one of the many Louisville venues we cater to. What you don’t typically see is the back of house grind. The dishwashers, the Chefs, the lines cooks, the janitors. Without this hidden support system, we would not be as successful as we are. So we decided to take a minute and introduce you to our Sous Chef, Zach Tackett. Zach is one of our main “grinders” – you see him at all hours, in good spirits and ready to rock out in the kitchen.

In an effort for our fans, followers and likers to get to know Zach, we sat down with the talented Sous Chef and picked his brain on the following…Check it out! (And no, we decided not to edit any of his responses – because #1, this is who Zach is and #2, if you’ve ever worked in a kitchen or restaurant, you know the lingo. Excuse the bad language and occasional F bombs. You’ve been forewarned).

Why did you decide to get into the culinary arts?

My first job was washing dishes in a BBQ restaurant over a decade ago. It didn’t take long for me to move up to working the grill and fryer. I really loved the rush so I stuck with the industry until I was going to college, I thought I wanted to be a teacher but after a few years of school I thought to myself, “I teach people how to cook everyday.” I just thought there was a lot more to be said about passing on a useful skill than peddling the college dream to kids who will end up in debt and hating the job that they have to keep just to pay their student loans.
I have love for all types of skilled labor and realize that the world needs plumbers, welders, and carpenters and I believe that kids these days are not being marketed these trades as viable career paths as much as they are careers that need graduate degrees (lawyer, doctor, etc.) Among the skilled trades though cheffing has always stood out to me as the perfect marriage of art, science, and manual labor. Cooking is probably the only thing that could ever hold my attention long enough to actually make a career out of it, it’s basically ritalin for my scatter-brain.

If you had to eat ONE LAST MEAL, what would it be?

1.) Donald Trump, because THAT would make America great again.

2.) Carnitas because that dish has everything I love

3.) maybe I would make “Donald Trump carnitas” because I love irony

What is your favorite spice, and why?

Cumin, few things in this world smell better than fresh ground cumin. Someone should make a cumin cologne. I don’t know if there is much of a market for such a cologne but I would wear the hell out of it. Cologne and bodywash manufacturers if you’re reading this I also wouldn’t mind smelling like cilantro all day.

What advice/recommendations do you have for those people that cook at home?

Very few, if any, recipes are written in a way that they will not allow interpretation. Get out of your comfort zone. Experiment! Cook with loved ones! That way even if you made shit food you still made some good memories!

What food trends do you see emerging in 2017?

If I was a betting man I’d say a focus on historic and region specific dishes is just over the horizon. The last few years the industry has been awash with young chefs pumping out gluten-free-vegan-asian-mexican-fusion-burritos. There is nothing wrong with this especially if it is done right and there is an audience for this type of food but I do think this younger generation of chefs is now, and naturally so, starting to ask themselves, “where did this dish/ingredient come from? What is it’s story? Historical significance?”

Even I often wonder aloud at work, “who was the first guy to see a terrifying toothy ass monkfish and say, ‘fuck it let’s eat him’ “?
I keep threatening to write a collection of funny fictional short stories about cavemen or other historical people making culinary discoveries.

What is your favorite item on Crushed Ice Catering’s menus?

ALL OF THE NEW STUFF! We recently gave the menus an overhaul and put in tons of exciting new stuff. Book an event with us and ask to see me so I can personally point out all of my awesome suggestions! (check it out here)

What are you so over/tired of seeing/making?

Hot browns. There is just so much more to Kentucky than the hot brown.

If you could have one meal with anyone, past or present, who would it be and why?

The dude who discovered fire. I would show him all the things that made possible. Communication might be an issue but I feel like I’ve got a pretty solid “grunt and point” that he might understand.

Who cooks at home, you or Andrea?

I cook on days that I am home early enough. Most weekends I just text her ridiculously specific instructions if she wants to cook something or prepare what I can ahead of time. Now that we are expecting though, I am encouraging her to eat out more when I work late to help develop the baby’s taste buds with minimal effort on her part.

What is ONE item in the kitchen you can’t live without?

The obvious answer is my wusthof chef’s knife, as far as tools go nothing compares.
A better answer in my opinion though is pride, without being proud and confident in the dishes I produce I wouldn’t be as fun to be around or as patient and nurturing toward my crew which is really paramount to the success of any culinary establishment because at the end of the day I can’t be the only one doing the cooking. Very meta/domino effect way of looking at things but also very true.

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Zach doing his thing in the kitchen with pride.

And that’s all folks. We hope you enjoyed Zach’s Q&A as much as we did, and got a few laughs out of it!

Cheers!