Mango Tropical Cheesecake

Kraft recently concluded its Food Service Recipe contest, which enables Purple Stove catering to announce our entry. The contest was entitled Foodservice Philly recipe contest. The guidelines are as follows:

• Recipe must serve 16 to 24 people
• Use 10 or fewer ingredients (Water not included)
• Recipe must include Original Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Chef Carla came up with a delectable dessert that captured the vibrancy of the tropic and the sweetness it brings.

Recipe:

Crust:

• Honey graham cracker
• Sugar
• Butter
• Walnuts

Cheesecake:

• Frozen Mango
• Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• Mango puree
• Sugar
• Corn starch
• Water
• Gelatin powder

Purple Stove is proud of its entry and the recipe will be included on our menu for ordering.

Whipped Kraft cream cheese topped with sweet mango compliments the nutty crust base. Yummy.

Bridal Shower

Purple Stove loves all their clients with their quirkiness and openness to new dishes; the latest Norcal-based client from Yelp.com is no exception. She emailed her inquiry more than a month before the bridal shower she is throwing for her sister, which made PS love her even more. It gave the kitchen enough time to prepare the menu with numerous recommendations good for 2o people according to their liking. The request was simple. She wanted a brunch-like menu with healthy finger food appetizers and small bites. The client narrowed down the order to five dishes for pick up at the kitchen.

This Italian salad on a stick comes with mozzarella cheese, basil leaf, and a grape tomato. The soft texture of the cheese is interrupted with a mini-explosion of the grape tomato, and blends perfectly well with the slightly sweet flavor of the leaf.

 

The spinach and feta cheese samosa is a delightful surprise. It is PS’ first time to serve this dish; the blanched spinach mixed with feta cheese and baked to perfection is a healthy Indian treat.

Filipino Chicken Lumpia. To our regular readers, PS doesn’t want to bore you with this dish since it is a regular, however to our new readers you can check the previous entry that discusses this crunchy and veggie-filled roll.

 

PS assumes that the finger foods will be served while the bridal shower games and contests are conducted. Once those are done, you expect to have a hungry bride-to-be with her entourage and few guests. Another Italian dish called Foccacia with Prosciutto di Parma was served. The Foccacia is a type of Italian bread spread with pesto butter, with Parma ham, basil, tomato, and mozzarella cheese. The saltiness of the ham carries the whole dish where it dissipates with the tomato and creaminess of the butter.

 

The main entrée is another Italian dish the Angel Hair Pasta with chicken. The smoothness of the mushroom sauce blends perfectly well with the seared chicken breast topped with chopped chives.

Purple Stove sends a warm Best Wishes greeting to the future bride and groom!

Baby shower before the Holidays

This client was a guest in one of the events we catered. He loved our food and service and invited us to cater for the baby shower. The dishes ordered were very similar to the one’s we have catered before with a slight variation.

Everybody simply loves our Beef Lasagna, its thick layer of pasta with beef reduced in wine, béchamel sauce, drizzled with cheese and baked into goodness.

The lumpia was ordered, the favorite Filipino egg roll substitute with chicken and veggies then deep-fried. You can hear the crunchy “yumminess” in every bite.

Eating chicken wings always ends up messy because the meat is spread all over the wing. But we transformed the wing to a lollipop for an all easy access to the meat that is why it is called Chicken Lollipop.

Aside from these favorites, PS introduced two new dishes into the mix; Mini-burgers and White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake.

The preparation of the mini-burgers was easy but serving it was quite a challenge. The mini burgers have to be set up separately with the lettuce, tomato, and cheese on the side while the bun and meat will be as one. For 30 guests, the client didn’t have enough space to accommodate 30+ plates of mini burger. PS prepared the food in the house, while constantly refreshing the food in the tent, where the baby shower was held. It was good exercise walking in and out of the tent.

PS can foretell that aside from its delectable cupcakes, the cheesecake will be the next in line as the 2^nd most favorite dessert. It was individually served on a 3-tier white platter wrapped with white and blue textile drizzled with blue sand sugar for the “It’s a boy” theme. The sweet chocolate crust perfectly compliments the zesty cheesecake and decoratively painted with purple raspberry syrup on top. You can see the guests taking to-go cheesecakes. 

The menu will not be complete without the fruits. PS served a fruit platter a layer of cantaloupes, melon dews, strawberry, grapes, and oranges. Now, that is a fruit attack!

The fruits were also extended to our salad, the Waldorf. Served on a lettuce bed with apples, raisins, and walnuts tossed in mayonnaise. It is a definite appetite starter.

Purple Stove is pleased to announce that we have teamed up with Square.com. We now accept any major credit/debit cards for payment.

Merry Christmas y’all!

It is a First!!!

Every catering business owner will attest that an everyday experience in running a business allows you to encounter new things such as dealing with a quirky client, out of this world orders, and etc. This order is not just a new experience; it is a new process. This is Purple Stove’s first weekday pick-up order at their kitchen in Glendale, CA.

The client emailed PS on Friday in the afternoon and wanted to pick up the order on Monday at lunchtime. PS took the project and submitted the estimate Saturday morning, few hours after submission PS got the approval. Alas, Sunday morning the client emailed requesting to tweak the menu to accommodate a member of their crew who was vegetarian. Tweak PS did! The menu was:

Salad:

Grapefruit Walnut Feta – Greens with grapefruit, toasted walnut, and crumbled feta cheese drizzled with sweet salty vinaigrette

 

 

 

Waldorf – Sweetest apples, celery, raisins, topped with walnuts tossed in mayonnaise

 

 

Main dish:

Vegetable Lasagna – Layers of zucchini and eggplant with cheesy goodness

 

 

 

 

Chicken Pastel – Chicken casserole dish baked in a pie crust.

 

 

 

 

This experience allowed Purple Stove to streamline its operations when it comes to weekday orders. Efficient scheduling of grocery shopping, more appropriate food container for transportation, and a better pick up method. This order will guarantee a better experience for the client for future pick-up orders on a weekday.

On a separate note, Purple Stove would like to congratulate our resident chef for completing the Basic Food Safety Course. This is another testament that PS significantly values quality in delivering its services. Food safety is definitely a high priority.

Hello Kitty Explosion!

“A repeat customer is the best indication of a satisfied customer” – Purple Stove

That’s right, Purple Stove is confident to come up with their own marketing quote based on the experience they had with this project. Not only did this  happy client, again, hired PS to serve dinner for Nina’s 2^nd Birthday party but they also requested the same dishes from last year. You may refer on their blog post dated July 31, 2012 entitled Nina’s 1^st Birthday party for reference.

Hotdog with Marshmallow

Though the dishes were the same the challenges were very different. It involved party design and set-up and worked with a vendor.

This year the client wanted to do a full Hello Kitty themed party using the colors of pink, turquoise, and brown. The tasks involved ordering an organic Hello Kitty jumper, table design, balloons, and rentals.

The client was specific with the requirement of the jumper: it has to be the real Hello Kitty design, not an ordinary jumper plastered with Hello Kitty stickers and this is what PS delivered.

A mansion-like jumper with a slide on the side.

The food station design never fails to join the bandwagon. PS adapted the turquoise tulle to lighten up the white table skirt, littered with Hello Kitty table confetti, and highlighted with a Hello Kitty balloon flower. The nameplate design used the bright pink color background topped with a white text and covered with transparent white tulle.

Hello Kitty food station

Unfortunately, PS was not able to photograph the balloon design as a centerpiece on the guest’s tables. PS used a turquoise balloon using a white tulle textile as a substitute for the ordinary strings. There were three balloons on each table, which were held by a transparent turquoise shaded box at a size of 2”x2.” These boxes were filled with Skittles to weigh the balloons down. This set up allowed the parents to easily bring the balloons home for their kids and “experience the rainbow” inside the boxes.

PS found a very reliable rental place that had a very reasonable price, exact delivery and pick up time, clean tablecloths, and sturdy tables and chairs. They became PS’s tables and chairs rental partner.

With another successful project, PS hopes that they will cater all of Nina’s birthday party until she turns 18 or all of Nina’s partying needs. 🙂

A warm kitchen for a house warming

A new occasion has been added to the list of projects that Purple Stove has catered – a house warming. A new project yet same level of service, quality of work, and delicious gourmet dishes have been delivered. The project is timely because Purple Stove has just revamped its menu adding more gourmet dishes to the list.

Food Station

Since it is a housewarming event, the focus should be the house; therefore there was no elaborate table design just a simple carnation bouquet in a tall vase, with purple textile, and a white table skirt. On the food station, the only highlight is the food.

Caprese Kabob

The meal starts with Caprese Kabob, as the appetizer. It is made up of a slice of mozzarella cheese with a basil leaf in the middle and ends with a slice of tomato all in a skewer, and then drizzled with special oil mixed with herbs. A perfect meal starter as the saltiness and soft texture of the cheese compliment the fresh basil flavor and juiciness of the tomato.

Chicken lumpia

The second dish is an all-time favorite Filipino appetizer – Chicken lumpia. It is a mixture of ground chicken with minced carrots, celery, cilantro, and onions wrapped in a spring roll wrapper then deep-fried. The perfect accompaniment of the lumpia is a dip in sweet chili sauce. It transforms the lumpia into a crunchy and appetizing finger food.

Waldorf

The refreshing streak continues as the Waldorf comes in to represent the salad. The sweet slices of apple dominate the dish as it is mixed with sweet raisins and crunchy walnuts. The sweetness mellows down when ingredients were tossed in mayonnaise and slices of celery. A sweet salad with a hint of sourness: it makes a perfect blend to start a meal.

Basil Pesto Chicken

The three dishes will definitely prepare your appetite and palette for the main dishes. The 1^st main dish is the Basil Pesto Chicken. The sauce is a combination of pureed fresh basil leaves, garlic, and pine nuts with extra virgin olive oil. The refreshing taste of basil leaves are complimented by the garlic and the ground pine nuts that create the perfect consistency for the pasta, then topped with roasted chicken and parmesan cheese.

Baked Salmon

The 2^nd main dish is a common seafood meat – Salmon. This seafood is easy to serve for big groups since it already has been filleted in big portions. Like any other seafood, salmon is not any different when it comes to the fishy smell. This recipe covers the fishy smell without altering the taste of the salmon. The fish is marinated in fresh basil, parsley, garlic, olive oil and drizzled with lemon juice. After baking, the olive oil concoction retains the fish’s moistness, while the lemon juice gives the dish a tangy flavor.

Ginger Beef with Green Beans

After the chicken and seafood dishes, the last main dish on the food station is the Ginger Beef with green beans. This dish is Asian in origin, where sautéing the meat with vegetables is customary. What makes this dish exemplary is the secret concoction that is included that makes it very different in taste. Also, the sautéing allows the ginger’s juice to seep out and blend with the secret sauce. Just letting you know it is not oyster or hoi sin sauce, it is a secret.

Any full course meal is not complete without a proper closing dish that is commonly referred to as dessert. This dessert is a traditional Filipino dish but it has a strong Spanish influence for its origin. The dessert is called Leche Flan or Caramel Flan. This is made up of egg yolks and milk. The leche flan is topped with a dark caramel to give it a slight bitter taste that compliments the sweet flan taste and it undergoes a bain-marie process to cook it gently. This gives the dish a soft and consistent smooth texture.

Purple Stove wishes the homeowner good tidings to her new abode!

A Tinkerbell Celebration

It is the first time for Purple Stove to deal with a Disney-themed party, inevitable but it is the first. With that said, this gig is for a little girl celebrating her 4^th birthday with Tinkerbell and her friends. Purple Stove wants to make the food station as magical as Tinkerbell like pixie dusts are sprinkled on the table. 

The food station is wrapped with a linen table skirt covered with a white tablecloth. On top of the table is a light purple textile with Tinkerbell and fairies centerpieces and printed confetti of ladybugs, birds, and bright colored flowers. The centerpiece was highlighted with a Tinkerbell metallic balloon and latex balloons. Purple Stove also applied the Tinkerbell color of green and yellow to its nameplates with an altered orientation to come out playful and fun. For the little girl, the table design could never get magical than that. 

The magical touch is also extended to the food. Aside from the previous dishes Purple Stove has served before like Pancit, Lumpia, Chicken Lollipop, and Hotdog and Marshmallow, new gourmet dishes are ordered.

            

Hotdog and Marshmallow – juicy meat with the gooey sweetness of marshmallow. And yes, this hotdog is really red.

The first dish is the Traditional Spanish Paella. This is a rice dish cooked with the expensive saffron spice and broth mixed with clams, mussels, shrimp, chicken, and Spanish chorizo. This dish is rich in taste and very filling as well.

The second dish is the Thai Beef Salad. The beef is marinated in fish sauce (Asian in origin) then seared to medium rare. The organic greens are mixed with the beef then tossed with the sauce made with the perfect balance of the sweetness of sugar and saltiness of the fish sauce.

 The third dish is the Beef Steak. These are thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce and lemon, cooked, then topped with sautéed onions. This makes it a full flavored dish because of the complimentary taste of the marinated beef and sautéed onions.

As the company grows, it starts to invest on materials that are substantial to the business. Purple Stove has done that through the purchase of 8-quart gold accented chafing dishes. These new chafing dishes will surely fit in any event and complement the gourmet dishes that are served on it. Another investment is the 4-quart food pans to accommodate numerous yet small orders.

 Purple Stove hopes to do more Disney catering gigs, as this has been a fun and exciting project. 

Purple Stove Turns the Heat on High

Purple Stove, a gourmet catering company based in Glendale, CA , has overcome doubts and financial hurdles as it celebrated its one-year anniversary last month. The three business partners who knew each other way back when they were 5 years old all hailed from Davao City, Philippines. The team is comprised of Carla Calamba, the notable Chef, Kimberly Manajero a master in accounting, and Rommel Rojas the sociable marketer. With their hard work and business gut, they have arrived onto this momentous milestone. 

How did Purple Stove start?

Carla: Our friend asked me if I could bake them 40 cupcakes as a give away for her son’s baptism and they would be paying. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it so I consulted both Kim and Rommel.

Rommel: We right away said yes and took the offer. We thought that it was a good opportunity and also that Kim and I are confident with Carla’s culinary skills.

Kim: Then, that is when we decided to start Purple Stove.

How much did you invest for the business start up?

Kim: We agreed to start with $50 each, so it was $150.00 in total.

Just $150.00??

Rommel: Yes. With very minimal budget, during the 40-cupcake project we only had one 12-cupcake mold and Carla finished the cupcakes with frosting at 4am.

Kim: We don’t think that we are running a huge company yet. We are still a budding company but very much thriving.

So far, what is the least and most number of people you have served?

Kim: The least serving we had was for 10 people and the most we have served is for 100.

Carla: In relation to that, we have served a minimum of one gourmet dish to a maximum of 9 gourmet dishes in one event. We have catered a birthday party, business meeting, and a wedding reception.

As you continue to your second year, what should clients expect from Purple Stove?

Carla: We make gourmet dishes and we do not do ingredient substitutes. We always take pride in that. We can also make your favorite dishes that are not in the menu.

Kim: We are now exploring on how to improve our table designs. We believe that fine food presentation improves the dining experience.

Rommel: Timely response and great customer service. When able, we will always take an extra mile for the client.

Is it true that you have known each other since all of you were 5 years old?

Rommel: That is true. We went to Ateneo de Davao University since pre-school until High school.

Kim: We then parted ways when we went to college, where I went to UP Los Banos, Carla to Xavier Univeristy in Cagayan de Oro, while Rommel stayed in Ateneo.

Carla: When I got my degree in International studies, I decided to pursue my passion in culinary, where I attended the International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management in Makati, Philippines.

Congratulations to Purple Stove and keep the heat always on high. 

As they celebrated their anniversary, they prepared vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting and Indian spiced chicken for their class in Thousand Oaks, CA. 

Vanilla cupcake with butter frosting

Indian spiced chicken

Holiday Cheer!

This holiday gig was one of the special projects Purple Stove had worked on. It wasn’t just a Christmas dinner but also an intimate wedding celebration for the newly wed  – Anna & Frank. 

Surprisingly, the couple wanted to focus the look of the food station as more holiday festive rather than a wedding reception. PS was happy to oblige.

This gave Purple Stove the opportunity to explore other table designs that would capture the theme.  The table was wrapped with a white linen skirt, topped with a green cover, sprinkled with red poinsettia and green holly confetti then it was accented with a white poinsettia flower tied with a holiday ribbon and with name plates printed on a red background. 

The Purple Stove food station has clearly improved since the launch of the company. Tasty gourmet dishes paired with attractive theme appropriate decorations. The company is excited to explore more creative and fun designs as PS services more clients. 

Inventive and exciting designs will fall out if the food selection is average. Purple Stove, definitely, has not forgotten this, therefore, the gourmet menu is as follows: 

Appetizer:

Boston Roll

Lumpia

Salad:

Caesar

Main course:

Dijon Salmon

Beef Stroganoff

Pancit (Off the Menu)

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Dessert

Christmas vanilla and chocolate cupcakes

Holiday food station

Cupcake holder twined with holiday lace.

Happy Holidays Y’all. Cheers!

15-15-15 is on!!!

Purple Stove is giving a 15% discount on all orders above $150.00 until January 15, 2013. 

That’s right, Purple Stove is offering a Holiday promotion on all dishes in the menu.

This is our way of sharing our gourmet food during the season

with your family and friends.

Mention this ad when you order to avail the discount. 

Happy Holidays! Email or call us!