Values & Philosophy
From its inception, Left Coast Catering has built its foundation on a set of guiding principles and values that drive every aspect of business operations. It starts with always, always making great food, and every step from before ingredients are purchased to the moment the food service begins centers on this idea.
But values go beyond the food itself, to the people that make it and the people Left Coast Catering is proud to serve. With a staff full of chefs and employees who learned their love of food from their own family kitchens, and know how important putting that love into food can be, the philosophy of Left Coast Catering is also about treating people well and getting to know them personally, both inside the kitchens and offices and in every client relationship.
Beyond just the basic idea of treating people well, it’s also about doing things the right way, experimentation and fostering creativity, and putting love into every single job. It’s these values and principles that you’d see on any given day both inside and outside of the Left Coast Catering kitchen.
Putting the Food First, and Making It With Love
Left Coast Catering was founded with a simple mission – to focus on the food, and to let the quality of the ingredients and combinations speak to customers and event guests instead. From the early days where it was just Laurine and a small team in the mid 1990s, to today where the team is much bigger and still growing, making sure that food is made well, with care, and without any shortcuts is still essential to what Left Coast Catering does.
This value informs every step of the event catering process. It starts with choosing the ingredients themselves, with a focus on California-fresh produce and a combination of flavors both new and old. It’s reflected in the constant additions and updates to the menus, incorporating seasonal ingredients and flavors to reflect what’s fresh and good at the moment, and to avoid those standard catering stalwarts that people expect at every event.
While it may sound simple, keeping the food first and making it with love isn’t just a business philosophy – it’s also what motivated each member of the Left Coast Catering team to join the company in the first place.
One Big Kitchen Family
Making great food isn’t just about the raw materials – it’s also about the people that actually do the making. A constant theme among the members of the Left Coast Catering kitchen is of memories growing up in families where cooking was an act of love, something that was the backdrop of every family event and an experience shared between parents (or grandparents) and children.
From their first memories of hanging out in the kitchen while their parents and grandparents cooked for them as little children, to the joy in seeing satisfied guests after a big meal at every event they work, the Left Coast Catering team is full of chefs and staff that know how important it is for food to be made with love and care.
This connection between food and family is reflected in the kitchen itself – an environment where creativity, respect, and the desire to challenge yourself and each other are all not only allowed, but encouraged. While many of the staff have trained in more traditional and formal restaurant environments, they were drawn to Left Coast Catering by the chance to bounce ideas off one another, learn from colleagues, and let their creativity and love for food grow.
This idea of one big food-making family is also why the Left Coast Catering sales and management offices are located just above and all around the kitchen itself – even the members of the team who aren’t actually making the food are still “in the kitchen” every day (which might be why it’s a little noisy in the background when you give them a call!)
Build Personal Relationships With Every Single Customer
It may sound like a customer service cliche, but with a staff full of chefs and employees who all learned their love for food from their own families, getting to know every customer personally is essential to creating food service that stands out from traditional catering fare. This starts with the sales team, who focuses on getting to know each customer beyond simply what they need catered for an event, to create a personal relationship that extends to the actual catering itself.
Beyond lip service, this commitment to building relationships is reflected through the many repeat customers who continue to choose the company for events monthly, yearly, or even spanning decades. The Left Coast Catering team has seen children grow up, graduation parties turn into wedding receptions, and birthday celebrations turn into retirement parties, all while making the food that feeds the guests at every celebration.
It’s this chance to go beyond simply catering work to get to know clients and treat them and feed them like family that inspires much of the work that happens in the Left Coast Catering kitchen every day.
