FAQ’s: Let’s Make Planning Easy

We offer a variety of dinner service styles for any event, including buffet, family style, plated, cocktail style and themed food stations.

Our buffet service allows guests to serve themselves at their own pace. Family-style service creates a warm, communal experience, with platters of food placed at each table for guests to share. Plated service offers individually plated meals in two courses, served directly to each guest.

Cocktail-style service provides a more social atmosphere, featuring a mix of passed and stationed appetizers, grazing boards and raw seafood and oyster bars designed for mingling. And for something unique, our themed food stations highlight interactive chef stations with plenty of variety.

Absolutely! We conduct private tastings during the late fall, winter and early spring months at our kitchen and tasting room in Seattle. For your tasting we ask that you pick 8-10 items you’d like to try from our online menus (excluding desserts, these are considered a separate tasting). You are welcome to invite 4 additional guests (6 guests total) as we like to make it a nice meal for friends and family. Please inquire about our current availability and pricing.

We can certainly provide direct substitution entrees for allergies and dietary requirements at no additional cost to the client, and we can discuss this in detail when we confirm your menu. We are also happy to cater the entire menu around specific dietary requirements.

Children ages 5-12 are able to eat the same meal at 60% of the cost for dinner service. Children under age 5 are able to eat for free.

Yes, vendors are able to eat the same meal at 60% of the cost for dinner service.

Yes, we have a variety of small bites for a dessert bar, or to accompany your cake. We recommend 2-3 bites per guest, with a 4 dozen minimum per variety.

We can offer a wide variety of savory dishes and dessert bites for your event; however, we are not full-time bakers and do not make wedding cakes.

Yes we offer complimentary cake cutting your cake and serving slices to the dessert table.

Yes we offer a variety of comfort-style late night bites perfect for passing on the dance floor. To ensure all guests have the opportunity to enjoy them, we recommend choosing one option to serve.

If you bring to-go containers, our staff can box up leftover items to take away with you, otherwise we are required by law to dispose of them after your event.

We offer licensed bartenders and customizable drink menus, with plenty of packages available for flexibility. Alcohol can be provided by the client and poured by our staff (depending on venue rules), or we can offer one of our bar packages to help you take the leg work out of your event while offering quality items at a great price.

Absolutely! We have the option to add our freshly made nonalcoholic beverages for your event. These will be served in large glass beverage dispensers with glassware for guests to self serve.

We also have French press coffee and hot tea available to serve along with dessert.

We will have pre-filled water glasses placed at each place setting, as well as a self serve water station set out for guests throughout the event.

We offer 10.5” white china dinner plates, accompanied by hammered silver knives and forks as our standard dishware.

We work with Pedersen’s Rental company for linens, and so if you’d prefer to choose different plates / silverware from their range, you are welcome to visit their showroom and choose your own styles and we will manage the rental order for you.

Yes, we have a wide range of glassware available to offer you a full range of water, wine, beer, cocktail and accessory glassware for your event.

Yes, we rent linens on your behalf from Pedersen’s Rentals, which allows us to offer you a full range of linens colours and sizes.

We use picture-frame menus at the start of the buffet for guests to read before taking their food.

For family-style and plated meals we can help print table menus at cost-price.

For corporate events we will print tent labels.

This varies depending on the style of the event - but we always make sure there are enough Front of House staff to set the tables before guests arrive, tray-pass appetizers, set and restock the buffets, keep the event space tidy by bussing away used plates and glassware, and fully clear and clean all catering-related spaces as the event finishes. We typically aim to staff 1 lead and 2-3 servers for any event of 50+ guests, with an additional waitstaff added for every 40 guests (numbers can vary depending on the type of service and size of the venue). 

 Event Leads will be your dedicated point of contact on-site. They’ll oversee timing, coordinate service flow, and ensure everything runs smoothly from setup to cleanup. Our leads begin working on your event 1-2 days before pulling items to prepare for your event (buffet platters, serving ware) as well as gathering all of your rentals, thus they are billed at 10 hours. 

Our waitstaff will arrive at least 2 hours before guests arrive to begin setup, setting linens, folding napkins and place settings, etc. During your event they will focus on making sure food and beverage service is seamless and your guests are well taken care of throughout the evening. They will also continuously work on keeping the venue tidy and tables bussed throughout your event. At the end of the evening they will stay to breakdown, pulling linens, boxing up all rentals and cleaning up any catering related needs

Yes, we provide licensed bartenders. Our bartenders arrive 2 hours before guests for setup, this includes icing beverages, organizing and setting up glassware, cutting garnishes, pre-mixing and batching signature drinks, tapping kegs and doing any necessary work to prepare for guest arrival. Typically one bartender is sufficient for up to 75-100 guests for beer and wine only menus, and a second bartender is required for over 100+ guests (beer and wine only) or for any bar offering mixed drinks.

We are happy to keep a hold on your wedding date until you are able to come in for a tasting. After we have a chance to meet we will draft up an invoice and contract for your event and request a 30% deposit to officially reserve your date. The remaining balance is due 5 days prior to your event.

We will be sending our final checklist out about a month before your event date, which will include your final guest count numbers. This will be due two weeks (14 days) prior to your event.

In the event of a cancellation, The Tall Chef, LLC must be notified more than 180 days prior to the event in order for the deposit to be refundable. A $600 administrative fee will be deducted from this refund for planning / consulting work completed prior to any cancellation and all tasting fees will remain nonrefundable. In the event of a cancellation less than 180 days prior to the event, the deposit becomes non-refundable. In the event that there is a cancellation less than four weeks before the event date, the full balance will be due.  

In the event of a date change, we will do everything possible to accommodate your new date at no additional cost. Extra charges may be incurred if perishable ingredients for the previous date were already purchased.

Our team will begin to arrive at least 2 hours prior to your event start time.

Cleanliness is very important to us! The Tall Chef staff will be responsible for leaving the catering area clean, and will dispose of all trash/recycle in the proper receptacles provided by the venue. An additional fee will apply should The Tall Chef be required to take garbage/recycle from the property. Compost can be taken free of charge.