Kitchen & Culture
At Left Coast Catering, everything starts with the kitchen – not only in terms of the food being made, but also because the kitchen at Left Coast Catering is central to the company culture and values that drive it. The Left Coast Catering kitchen is full of individuals who grew up with a love for food, and especially for food that comes from the heart, and the kitchen and culture of the company reflect this in a variety of ways.
From a physical layout that encourages everyone to collaborate and feel like a part of the kitchen (even if they work in other departments), to a consistent integration of best practices and environmentally conscious methods through every step of food production (from purchasing the raw ingredients to composting leftover food and waste), the Left Coast Catering culture and identity is truly reflected by the kitchen located at the heart of everything the company does.
The Kitchen
Collaboration and the ability to work together and bounce ideas off each other is baked right into the physical structure of the Left Coast Catering space. The company offices are located around and above the kitchen itself in an open floor plan, which means that everyone in the company, no matter what their department or specific role, is always “in the kitchen”.
This backs up one of the main goals at Left Coast Catering, which is always to keep the focus on the food first – even for employees not actively working on the menus and creating the dishes themselves. While this may lead to some additional background noise when you call into the offices, keeping the energy and excitement of the kitchen fresh in everyone’s mind is an important focus of the kitchen’s design.
While a major aspect of the kitchen itself is the sustainable design that guided its physical construction, it’s also a beautiful, well-lit, open space with tons of natural light – a far cry from the industrial or cave-like kitchens that many associate with corporate catering. Built in 2015, the kitchen was designed to include the open floor plan and numerous amenities that facilitate collaboration and creativity, as well as to serve the logistical demands of offering both event catering and corporate delivery work in a single space.
This includes having two of basically everything a catering-centric kitchen needs: two convection ovens, two stoves, two candy burners, and two of everything else needed to allow both the delivery and event catering sides of the business to operate and thrive seamlessly. When production can be done easily and efficiently, food waste and unnecessary consumption can be limited – just one of the many ways Left Coast Catering endeavors to remain sustainable and eco-friendly.
In addition to making life easier on the kitchen staff, this also helps to keep the food delicious, with different areas of food production receiving dedicated spaces to avoid mixing savory and sweet, for example. The kitchen features a dedicated baking area, meaning that delicious pastries and confections are kept far away from savory foods and everything goes from kitchen to dinner plate tasting exactly as it should.
Beyond the logistical layout of the kitchen and how it is designed to support the chefs, there are a number of other design and layout choices meant to reflect the culture of the company as well.
The Culture
Aside from its central location among all of the offices of the company, the Left Coast Catering kitchen also reflects the focus on sustainability and eco-friendly practices that drive the company and the work that it does, including:
- Housed in a green-certified, solar-powered building
- 100% energy efficient
- Low waste practices, including non-bleached, 100% recyclable paper products
One of the proudest moments of the company recently was to be recognized with a Green Business Certification, awarded in recognition of the practices and focus on operating efficiently and with minimal carbon footprint.
This focus on sustainable methods and practices goes beyond just using considerate products or solar panels – it also is reflected in menu choices that avoid ingredients and products that are created in harmful or inefficient ways. Whether that is working in more vegetable, vegan, or gluten-free items when possible, or finding new methods for purchasing and using produce and ingredients produced in ethical ways, the culture of sustainability and ethical production informs everything that goes on in the Left Coast Catering kitchen. This extends to using only vendors who are sustainable and progressive, and buying free-range meat, ethically raised fish, and organic produce.
Finally, the goal on limiting carbon footprint extends to how Left Coast Catering handles food waste and excessive food products in a thoughtful fashion. Whenever possible, the team does its best to minimize food waste through a variety of techniques. If there’s still extra food left over, Left Coast Catering takes pride in feeding their neighborhood, as well as partnering with a company called Food Runners to deliver extra food to shelters and needy citizens in the Bay Area.
These practices are just the latest innovations for a company that has made a focus on conscientious operations and food production a mainstay over its past twenty five years of existence. As the company continues to move forward into the future, the team is always learning about, experimenting with, and integrating new methods to make exceptional food in the most ethical and environmentally friendly way possible.
