A Catered Affair - HeyWire Burgers

Grilled Portabellas 

One of the cool things about my job is that my "office" keeps changing. Last weekend we were cooking beef tenderloin out of a countryside home in Maine. A couple nights earlier, we were grilling up burgers and chicken at a rooftop party in Cambridge. If there's anything I love as much as the cooking itself, it's the change in venue and excitement of the challenges that go along with each event.

The Rooftop Venue

This past Thursday, HeyWire hired Burger Boy and I to cater their open house rooftop party, serving up - what other than - burgers! We showed up at their office, armed with trays full of hand packed patties, burger condiments, bags full of buns and we got right to work, cooking for the 60-100 people that we had expected. With one grill it was tricky to cook everything but we were feeling good. Here's a peek at our menu:

Argentinian Steakhouse Burger

Cilantro-Mint Chimichurri, Fresh Sea Salted Tomatoes

The Bacon Burger

Caramelized Bacon Jam, American Cheese

Spice Rubbed Chicken Kebabs 

Cilantro-Citrus Mustard Marinade

Portabella Mushroom Sandwiches

Whipped Red Pepper and Goad Cheese Spread, Olive Oil Ciabatta

I was able to snap a couple of pictures at the beginning of the event but then, we were swamped by masses of hungry party goers and sadly, not a picture of a burger was taken.

Sea Salted Tomatoes, ready for the burgers!

One of the biggest challenges we have as caterers is being able to predict the amount of food needed. We base our numbers on the information that we're given and what the client wants. In this case, the client anticipated 60-100 guests and we had a fixed budget to work with. At one point I was able to look up from my burger assembling station and assumed that twice the number of people showed and all were hungry - HeyWire knows how to throw a party! At one point, I couldn't help but feel like I was on an episode of the Next Food Network Star. I had a mob of people huddled around me, watching me furiously assemble burgers and shouting out questions. "What's in the bacon jam!?" "How did you make it?" "What's Chimichurri?" It was a little overwhelming but exciting at the same time to have so many people interested in the food that we were preparing.

Chicken ready for the grill

I'll consider it a compliment that 190 sliders were polished off within the first 45 minutes! The chicken was next to go (we had 10 lbs of it) and the mushroom sandwiches got finished before they even hit the table. We were amazed at how quickly the food got devoured and we were flattered by the compliments. Special thanks to HeyWire for hosting such a fun event!

The view from the grill