Vendor Spotlight: Royal Fig Catering
A caterer can make or break an event. From guest service to the quality and freshness of food there are so many different variables that have to come together to make an event run smoothly. That is why when we find a caterer that checks off all of these boxes we try to use them for as many events as possible! Royal Fig Catering is one of those caterers. They are the cream of the crop, and they always ensure that our events run as smoothly as possible. This past week we had the privilege of sitting down and talking with Kristen & Jesse of Royal Fig Catering for a Q&A! Enjoy our interview below!
Q - When did Royal Fig open and why did you decide to start your own catering business?
Kristen - Dan and I got married in February of 2009 and we could not figure out a catering company that fit our vision so we decided to start one ourselves. In May of 2009, a couple months after our wedding, we started Royal Fig.
Q - What would you say makes Royal Fig stand out from other Austin caterers?
Jesse - The main thing that separates us is that everything is sourced from local and organic sustainable farms in the Austin area which is why our menu changes throughout the year. If you are getting married in the winter you will see a much different menu than you would see in the summertime. During the summertime you would see your peaches and watermelon while in the wintertime you are going to see your deep root vegetables. It is always fun to tell the clients that they are going to get a menu that is very representative of the time of year that they are getting married in. I think another thing that separates us is that, for the most part, we do all of our cooking onsite, putting an emphasis on quality and freshness.
K - I think, too, that there are so many caterers out there that are trying to be that new trendy farm to table company but we are the ones that make our own bacon and our own mayonnaise and our own vinegars and our own butter, so when we say scratch kitchen we truly mean it. I think service has a lot to do with it, too, because we have a pretty comprehensive training program that we have really worked hard on. We actually have an education director to make sure all of our staff is trained properly on how Royal Fig does service. For example, our family style service is very specific. We do not do it how everybody else does it and I think that is the reason that we do stand out is because we have worked really hard on our team.
Q - Any logistics advice for putting together the ultimate wedding menu that you want to share to couples when they are looking at your menus?
J - Logistically, one thing that I have noticed is that we always have to educate our clients and help them understand what their vision is for the style of service at their reception. It is a lot of education and helping them understand that this particular menu is designed to be a cocktail party vibe over the course of a couple hours versus a scheduled sit down dinner where you can get your plate and go to stations. Do you envision having a formal sit down dinner with all of your family around tables or are you looking for a casual free flow kind of party? At that time a lot of couples will say, “Oh no, I want more formality.” At that point we’ll say, “Okay, well you are looking for more family style or you are looking for a plated dinner and we can help you with that.” We coach them along the way, and once we know their vision we can help craft a menu from that.
Q - Is there a difference in cost between plated, family style, stations or buffet?
K - Yes, plated is definitely the most expensive because it has the most staff. It is the most labor intensive from the back-of-house perspective so that does tend to be the most costly followed by family style and stations. Family style & stations, I feel, are kind of the same in terms of cost. Stations can tend to be more expensive if you are using all china as opposed to disposable plates because you have to order more rentals. Buffets are your most economic option.
Q - Any tips for couples who are scheduling a tasting at Royal Fig?
K - Have an idea of what you are looking for before you start giving us lists and lists and lists of everything on our menu. Understand that yes of course you want to taste some things that are going to be on your wedding menu but most of all you want to get a feel and vibe of the vendor that you are choosing. You need to have trust in your vendors. That is the reason that you are hiring a professional. If you absolutely have to taste every single little crumb of food maybe they are not the vendor for you because you do not have that trust instilled. Another important thing to keep in mind at your tasting is that you want to not only taste the types of food that you want to see at your wedding but you want to taste the amount of food that you are going to serve guests. This way you know how full your guests are going to feel. Are they going to feel like not dancing because they have eaten too much or are they going to want to leave and go get a burger because they have not had that much to eat? For your tasting, just go in and enjoy a nice meal.
J - Another thing we always try to tell clients is do not schedule multiple tastings in a day. If you do want to try another caterer please do not come in and let us be the third one of the day. You will take one bite and be done. It is shocking how many people will come in and say, “Yeah, we just came from one and we are going to another one after this.”
Q - What is your favorite dish on the Royal Fig menu?
J - My favorite dish is not anything outside of the norm of everyone’s favorite dish but I would say our short ribs with truffle mashed potatoes are my favorite. I have worked here for 9 years and I cannot stop eating them. Also our fried chicken is so good, too.
K - The fried chicken, I love the fried chicken. Well that and I think our bavette with the bacon jam. The bacon jam is kind of my jam, and bavette is my favorite cut of steak.
Q - What is special about your cocktails and do you have a favorite from the Royal Fig menu?
J - I think that why people love our signature cocktails is because a lot of them are not anything too wild and crazy from an original recipe. We like to make herbal infusions, make our juices in-house, and do a twist on a classic cocktail. People love our Basil French 75 which is literally just a French 75 with basil simple syrup. Then we throw a cute basil leaf in it and people go crazy over it. Same thing with our Gentleman’s New Fashioned which is probably our most ordered drink. It is a classic old fashioned but we add sage simple syrup and a blackberry for aesthetic and flavoring. That goes a long way with people. I really love our Saucy Fig for one because I think it is a fun representation of our company but also because it is so good. The sweetness of the fig and the bourbon balance each other out so that is one of my favorite ones.
Q - With COVID-19 do you think there will be a change in which style of service couples are booking? How are you addressing sanitation? And are you anticipating a change?
K - Oh yeah. We just ordered a hundred branded masks for all of staff. Everything is changing. We are doing an entire revamp of our training procedures for our staff. We need to be in control of the food service, and we need to cut down on how many hands are touching each plate. We are using the new guidelines that just came out for restaurants as our starting point: not having tables any closer than 6 feet apart and no more than 6 people at a table.
I think plated meals are going to be a lot more popular than they ever have been. The buffets are going to be served buffets which will slow things down. Opposed to a double sided buffet we are going to have buffets that are served by staff. Unfortunately, it is going to be a little bit more costly because you are going to have more staff, but we are doing everything that we can to minimize that and to put as many things in place to see that there are not too many changes to every contract. At the end of the day food safety does have to be our number one priority.
Q - Anything else you would like to share?
K - Recently we have been trying to figure out ways that we can give back and we have started a program on our website where we are donating soup to healthcare workers. Hopefully by the end of today or tomorrow we will be up to donating 200 quarts of soup to local healthcare workers. We are really excited about that and people have been super, super supportive. Twice a week we go and take a whole bunch of soup to different locations. We have been to Dell, and yesterday we were at Baylor Scott & White. It has been really cool being able to give back in that way, so here is a shout out to all the people who have helped. Every time we do something philanthropic like this the Austin community is always just awesome about supporting.
Thank you to Kristen and Jesse from Royal Fig for their time and for always being an amazing catering team to work with! Thank you to all the photographers who provided photos for the article. Lisa Woods Photography, Feather and Twine Photography, Lisa Hause Photography!
