Not Too Late to Plan a Special Home Graduation Party

Chef Ziegenfuss has all kinds of ideas for the home planner.

ByCassidy Cleveland

Graduations all happening all over the area. Ceremonies are being staged to honor everybody from Kindergartners to college grads. A family can celebrate this special occasion  by dining out, or host a special at-home gala. Chef Greg Ziegenfuss of the Butler’s Pantry dishes out advise on how to make your event complete and a success for everyone.

Chef Greg Ziegenfuss: Executive Chef Butler’s Pantry on how to plan the perfect graduation party

Patch: How do you start preparing for a high school graduation party?

Ziegenfuss: You need to take into account how many people will be at the party, and what the graduate’s preferences are. Everyone will be mingling, so we’re always mindful of preparing things that can be eaten in one hand. Dishes such as chili, pasta salad, bourbon barbeque chicken fingers and kabobs are always popular.

Patch: How many days in advance do you start preparing for a graduation party?

Ziegenfuss: It’s like any catering affair. We start planning the menu a few weeks ahead of time and we’ll generally do some of the prep work a day or two in advance.

Patch: What type of budget do you recommend for a graduation party?

Ziegenfuss: Generally, you can plan a nice graduation buffet for $25 per person. That will give you a good selection of hot appetizers, cold cuts, a selection of sides, and an array of desserts. We’ll customize a dessert tray to the graduate’s liking. And, for the graduate, you can’t forget about the congratulatory cake!

Patch: Do you have a signature graduation buffet selection?

Ziegenfuss: I love setting up a quesadilla station. We can make this as detailed as you want with different types of cheese, chopped peppers, jalapenos, different proteins, a variety or tortillas, chips and dip. Adults and students have fun with this station.

Patch: Do you decorate the buffet table?

Ziegenfuss: We have a fantastic visual designer. Brian Blasingame will customize any floral arrangements to add a pop of color to your table. He’ll make sure the flowers correlate with your child’s school colors.

Patch: What else should we know about Butler’s Pantry catering?

Ziegenfuss: It’s important to know that we set up everything and clean up everything! You don’t have to lift a finger. Graduation is a busy day. The last thing you want to think about is feeding hundreds of people and making sure you remember the forks. We’ll do it all for you. We’ll bring the food, utensils and clean it all up when we’re done.

For more information, or to book Butler’s Pantry for your upcoming graduation party, visit their website or call 314-664-7680.

Related Topics:Butler’s Pantry, Chef Ziegenfuss, and Graduation

Read original article here.

Chef Greg will be on Show Me St. Louis Friday, May 25th at the 12 o’clock hour. He’ll be offering advice on how to plan the perfect graduation party. Don’t miss it!

“Dear Sarah,
Thank you for working with us to produce a very successful session of The Mayors’ Institute on City Design! The food was delicious!
The session provided Mayors the unique opportunity to present urban planning challenges facing their cities to an expert resource team of distinguished urban designers. Members of the resource team were given an invaluable opportunity to learn more about the realities that these cities face daily. With all of your hard work, this event occurred flawlessly.
We wish you continued success and look forward to continuing our relationship with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Radhika Mohan”

“It was a pleasure working with Indra. She was delightful, helpful and professional.”
-Mrs. Hullverson

“Both of our families loved the catering. The food was raved about and the service was excellent. Bridget was a big help and always pleasant to talk to.”
-Mrs. Carrow

Chef Greg Ziegenfuss, Executive Chef at Butler’s Pantry, and Brian Blasingame, Director of Visual Design at Butler’s Pantry, will be appearing on KPLR on Wednesday, May 9th at noon. Greg will be cooking delicious Mother’s Day brunch recipes and Brian will be demonstrating how to embellish the typical Mother’s Day bouquet. Be sure to tune in and get inspired for Mother’s Day this coming Sunday!

Brian Blasingame, the Rebel Florist, has this advice for those of you struggling to come up with the perfect Mother’s Day idea:

“Show the stylish mother in your life that you are in-the-know about what is in style from trendy flower design styles to popular types of flowers and color combinations.

• Popular flower varieties for Mother’s Day gift bouquets include classic types such as calla lilies, roses, hydrangea, lilies & gerbera daisies as well as multiple types of cut orchids which grow in popularity each year and last a really long time.
• Monochromatic flower arrangements are tres chic and always a good bet; pick her favorite color and give her a bouquet composed of a mix of flowers in that hue. Also popular are classic, soft, feminine tones such as blush tones of pink, ivory & cream. Spice that combination up with a dash of a stronger or hotter complimentary color like a darker red or a deep purple.
• Design styles that are fashionable include arrangements composed with flowers arranged in clustered grouping which in a mixed bouquet lend emphasis to each variety it includes. Also popular, style-wise, are arrangements composed of one flower variety en masse. Her favorite flower can be celebrated in that kind of mono-flower type design.

Personalization isn’t just for flowers; do something that suits her interests. If she is a gardener the kids can paint a new watering can so each time she is out in the garden she will be reminded of their love. Or if she is an avid biker, a new helmet that is covered in the art of her children will be worn as a badge of love and long enjoyed beyond its practical use. She will be the only one with one like it in all the world – just like her.

Mother’s Day isn’t the only day to show your love & appreciation. Give your mother an arrangement or plant of the month so that she will know you are thinking of her throughout the year. Each month your thoughtful gift will arrive and be a constant reminder of how much you appreciate her being in your life.

Blooming plants are a great gift for Mother’s Day. For example potted Hydrangeas, Azaleas, Kalanchoe & even blooming orchid plants make a lovely gift that last a long time as they continued to bloom.

Vases personalized by the kids can be a forever keepsake. One way to make them last is take that artwork first to the local copy making business and have them laminate it for you. Many tall cylinder vases can be perfectly wrapped with a laminated piece of art about the size of a placemat. After the flowers have run their natural course she can hang it up or use it on a kitchen table or elsewhere around the house.

This same idea can become a tradition. Just like an add-a-pearl necklace, a gift like this can be started when the kids are young and continued again with a fresh design each year so that she has years of memories to enjoy when the kids grow up and leave the roost.

Vases themselves can be easily trimmed and embellished in other ways. A plain, clear glass vase can be dressed up by using nail polish as an alternative to paint to draw on flowers or other fun shapes and forms. The way it dries on glass leaves an embossed character to their image or design.

We were honored to be a part of the Table Top Annual Spring Event again this year. Brian Blasingame, the Rebel Florist, was inspired by the lily pond outside the Piper Palm House when he designed this years table. It was a huge hit! Thank you for all your hard work, Brian!! Click here to see additional photos.

In fact, as judged by his professional peers, he was recently recognized nationally with the 2012 Ace Award, the top honor in the catering industry. The company was recently notified they are the recipient of the nationally acclaimed Catersource 2012 Ace award for the Midwest.

The award was based upon:

• Best on-premise catered event, budget under $200 per person (Palladium St. Louis and Butler’s Pantry)

• Best food presentation

• Best tabletop design-budget $500 and over per table.

Nix was raised in catering. Butler’s Pantry is celebrating its 47th year in business. His father started with Pope’s Cafeteria, and his parents ran their first operation out of the present House of India location at I-170 and Delmar starting in 1966.

Before entering the family business in 1988, Nix worked at the old Arena Club for the St.Louis Blues; waited tables at the old Viking Restaurant on Watson Road and was a manager at the Greenbriar Hills Country Club in Kirkwood.

Nix’s biggest bold move was the acquisition of the Palladium on the site of the old City Hospital in South St. Louis. “We wanted to be downtown, but we didn’t want to be downtown,” reasoned Nix.

The Palladium was the laundry facility built as a public works project in 1937 at the long defunct City Hospital. The nearby Darst-Webbe house projects have given way to a burgeoning and robust Benton Park neighborhood at the doorstep of the Lafayette Square neighborhood.

“We aren’t exactly pioneers on the new frontier. We have a building brides just love. The facility is contemporary with soaring glass windows. Brides go crazy with this facility without spending a fortune,” he said. The place seats 300 and can handle cocktail receptions for up to 700.

For decades, Butler’s Pantry has handled the really big and important events. Nix can name everyone on his team. “We don’t go to temporary agencies to get our help. Rather, we hire people and we tell them to recommend people that will also work for us.”

Butler’s pantry had 325 workers at the 2008 BMW golf championships at Bellerieve Country Club and  he could personally name 315 of them.

Other mega events included catering the 1984 World Series party under the Arch; the visit of Pope John Paul II, the Mayors Ball and the U.S. Senior Open to mention a few.

Nix has an interesting and diverse family.The family grew up in University City, attended Our Lady of Lourdes and transferred to Immacolata Parish in Richmond Heights during his teen years. His brother Paul runs a catering company in San Antonio, TX. His sister Nicole Nix works for U.S. Food Service and his sister Ann Marie Lemcke runs the “Art of Entertaining,” a gourmet food store in Webster Groves.

Richard and Elizabeth are in the midst of raising five children.

Ricky, MICDS graduate is an English major at Hobart College, New York. Peyton is a senior at Westminster Christian Academy, headed to a study arts and archeology at Mizzou. Reilly is a sophomore at MICDS. LuLu is a sixth grader at Oak Hill School and Grace is a fourth grader, also at Oak Hill.

On Easter Sunday, Butler’s Pantry served 1,000 meals at Bixby’s Restaurant at the Missouri History Museum and Cafe’ Madeleine in Tower Grove Park. “We work when other’s don’t,” said Nix.

“I’m blessed with great people who run my business so I don’t have to be there all the time. The business model has not changed a bit over 47 years. We always give the people what they want.” It’s that simple.

That’s why the Butler’s Pantry is thriving and winning awards after 47 years in business.

Watch this video to see how St. Louis was connected to the sinking of the luxury steamship 100 years ago:

ST. LOUIS • Wreath-layings, a movie and a champagne brunch  are among commemorations here this weekend of the steamship Titanic, which sank  100 years ago in the North Atlantic.

The anniversary of the sinking of the British luxury liner, killing 1,517  passengers and crew, is Sunday.

At noon Friday, representatives of Bellefontaine Cemetery will lay wreaths at  the graves of Carlos Hurd, a Post-Dispatch reporter who was the first to  interview survivors, and Elizabeth Robert of St. Louis, a Titanic passenger who  survived. Hurd died in 1950, Robert in 1956.

A spokesman said the cemetery, 4947 West Florissant Avenue, will post signs  leading to the two sites. Hurd and his wife, Katherine, were passengers on the  Carpathia, the steamship that rescued Titanic survivors.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday, the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park will show the  1958 movie, “A Night to Remember.” On Tuesday, some tickets remained at $10  each, available through MetroTix at 314-534-1111.

Two events were inspired by the Titanic’s First Class dining rooms. A formal  dinner at the Fox Theatre, which is sold out, replicates the menu on the ship’s  last evening. A champagne brunch Sunday at the Piper Palm House in Tower Grove  Park will be of the liner’s breakfast fare. Some tickets remain for that event  through MetroTix.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/commemorations-planned-for-th-anniversary-of-titanic/article_be5d61d6-aa81-58c5-b50b-2e9c51ff64e0.html#ixzz1rvm6sSMy

“Brian,
Thank you so much for the fabulous flowers for our wedding! You took my vision and made it better than I could have even imagined! Your creativity and knowledge are amazing! It all was fabulous! Thank you!”
-Chris and Jenny Mabie

“The food was fabulous! We had a wonderful experience!”
-Christine Stallis

Here at Butler’s Pantry, we are honored to have received the Best Caterer award in the Ladue News Platinum List as well as Bixby’s at the Missouri History Museum winning the Best Brunch!

Best Caterer

BUTLER’S PANTRY

No matter the occasion, the one thing that will get people raving about a party is the food. And when you put your event in the hands of Butler’s Pantry, you’ll understand why. From weddings, to private parties, corporate bashes and community events— for small groups or huge crowds—nothing is impossible for the experienced caterers at Butler’s Pantry. Art of Entertaining Catering St. Louis Steven Becker Fine Dining LaCHEF and Company

Best Brunch

BIXBY’S

Bixby’s in the Missouri History Museum has become more than a pit stop between exhibits. New management (Butler’s Pantry) and a beautiful space with fl oor-to-ceiling windows have made the restaurant once again a destination unto itself, especially for brunch. Grab a mimosa and enjoy a beautiful view of Forest Park—you won’t regret it.