ICA Regional Education Day

I got away for an inspiring day of learning and sharing with caterers from the International Caterers Association. The workshop was held in Long Beach CA, hosted by Jay's Catering in Garden Grove and Good Gracious Events from LA. The day was so filled with information and ideas that it is hard to focus on any one aspect.
Good Gracious treated us to a "Cocktail" Breakfast with fabulous cocktail style breakfast foods!

How fun is that!

There was Yogurt with Granola, Fried Deviled Eggs, Bacon Wrapped Sausage, Mini Muffins, Nutella French Toast Bites, Smoked Salmon, Melon Skewers, Very Cute Doughnuts and the cutest Juice Bottles w/ Black Straws.

Jay's Catering facility was most impressive and awe inspiring. We were able to tour the whole space including their huge warehouse and wonderful kitchen. They are so busy that they have crews working 24 hours a day! They catered 17 events on Saturday; we were there on Monday and everything was back on the shelves, neat & tidy.

Right before lunch we were divided into teams and each team decorated a table. My team grabbed the gold chairs with orange velvet seats first, so from there we got a great green table cloth and it all just came together. It was great fun!

Jay's served us a delicious lunch.

I took over 200 photos in this one day, but many of them were of slides and did not turn out well. Needless to say there was plenty of creativity crammed into one day, and we were being fed every time we turned around. The afternoon break was catered again by Good Gracious Events, and consisted of a Black & White Quinoa Salad, BLT Soup Sip and Petite Strawberry Shortcakes.

The afternoon sessions included a trip to the pastry kitchen to learn from Joanne Purnell, ICA Chef of the Year, about French Macaroons, Gelees & Marshmallows.

The final session of the day was an over the top tented mixology event with ambiance provided by Rriver Davies of River Works Designs.