Palate Catering & Events

We had Joshua cater our recent wedding in Napa, CA. His food was amazing, presentation great, and professionalism on point. Our guests talked highly about the food and LOVED the desserts. There are so many things Joshua took care of that made it so much easier for me. He is very quick to respond to any questions or concerns and easily reachable. He was able to give very helpful suggestions about flow of the evening and timing for different phases of the evening along with set up suggestions to make everything flow well. He was very flexible and helped us form a menu that suited us well. I would highly recommend Joshua and I would gladly hire him for future events.

We hired Joshua for our wedding of 125 people in Sonoma, CA. Ours was an inter-​faith wedding and we wanted the food to reflect the same as well. We had two caterers for our wedding. Joshua was the point person running the show and provided refreshments during and after our ceremony, hors doeuvres, cocktail hour beverages, 3 main courses and desserts (including wedding cake, macaroons, etc.). We had a separate ethnic food section where the food was dropped off by the second caterer and was served by Joshua and his crew.
We are based in NY and communicated with Joshua long distance. We liked the reviews on thumbtack and met him in person during visits to the bay area. We found him very easy to work with and he communicated clearly, patiently answering all of our questions about anything and everything. We were not disappointed!
Joshua met us the weekend before our wedding at the venue and we did a thorough walk through of everything and we discussed the nuts and bolts (down to the specific place settings, table cloths, water pitchers, etc.). He went out of his way to get the beers we wanted as well and met all of our guests’ needs in terms of food restrictions etc.
Our guests had a beautiful experience and everything went according to the plan with no surprises. We went into the event with a strong day-​of coordinator and very clear timelines; we made sure Joshua and his team were aware of our schedule well-​beforehand and we maintained close communications leading up to and throughout the event. There was enough food and wine for everyone. His staff was super polite and did a great job of making sure guests were taken care of on our wedding day.
Many of our guests commented on how remarkable the food waswith some of the them saying its the best food Ive had till date! :-) So thank you to Chef Joshua for making our wedding day seamless.
We would totally recommend Joshua & Palate Catering for your celebration.
D&L

My husband and I hired Palate Catering to cater our wedding. Joshua was initially very accommodating. He met us in Alameda for our initial interview, and prepared a tasting menu in our home. During our initial meeting, Joshua answered many of our concerns with reassurance. He spoke with us about his long list of accomplishments, places he had worked, taught, etc. Joshua is an amazing chef, the tasting menu he prepared was something really quite spectacular, and while my husband and I knew the level of perfection would be difficult to replicate on a much larger scale, we figured it the food is *this* good, then the corresponding large scale food would still be pretty damn great.
At this point, we hired Joshua as our wedding caterer. We soon saw how a great chef does not necessarily make a great business man. We overlooked the vague and sometimes sloppy invoices, although that should have been a telling clue. Joshua did have some very nice personal touches, he invited us to a small party at a winery for our cake tasting which was very thoughtful. However, as the wedding drew near, many emails came back and forth with conflicting information. Joshua had difficulty keeping track of his notes and thus his promises.
The day of the wedding was a mess. The bridal table was not served some of the apps, and then was served cold apps. The chicken at many of the tables was undercooked, and at the bridal table, raw. The cake had been handled incorrectly and had a large bulge in the bottom tier. After the cake was cut, large portions remained in the prep area, leaving guests searching for dessert. The steak was still very good. My husband and I opted for some late night snacks to be set up near the dance area, and as the evening went on, the snack table was yet to be seen. Finally, with about 90 minutes left in the night, Joshua brings out the snacks, including mustards in Tupperware like containers. All in all, there was not enough food for everyone, and many of my guests went home hungry. After telling my family how excited I was for the food, how Joshua had promised a lot of fun and innovative stylings, I was embarrassed and disappointed. At the end of the night, Joshua made it a point to let me know he ‘didn’t like how the evening went, either.’ At that point, I did not want to hear his opinion unless he was apologizing for under delivering at our celebration.
Unfortunately, the story does not end there. When I returned to the hotel, my mom informed me that the top tier of our cake had been dropped by one of the servers, leaving a wrapped mass of essentially jelly. As my husband and I continued onto our honeymoon, we soon received word that our rental company had accidentally picked up Joshua’s platters, and he had picked up theirs. Joshua refused to acknowledge he had picked up anyone else’s platters, but also said his rental company had the right number of platters. After multiple phone calls, he finally admitted to having 6 of the other rental companies platters, but still has not been able to find the other 16. He has stopped taking our phone calls and emails regarding this error, which has left us with a large bill. His business incompetence is quite staggering. I would not rehire Joshua or recommend Palate Catering to anyone.