Culinary Excellence - Oakland, Ca - Catering & Event Production - Serving the Greater Bay Area

This business made our wedding an amazing event. The food was amazing! They helped us plan the perfect wedding. Everyone raved about the food. Jessica was so kind and supportive the day off the wedding and helped everything go smoothly.

My now husband and I had such a great experience working with Samantha and Jody at Culinary Excellence! We utilized CE’s catering, coordination, and floral services for our wedding last week at the Brazilian Room, and everything turned out better than we could have imagined. They helped our vision come to life, and provided their expertise along the way. The food was absolutely delicious - all of our guests couldn’t stop raving about it. I was obsessed with my florals and all of the table arrangements! The staff were all professional, friendly, and experienced the day of the event. We highly recommend Culinary Excellence and would choose them again in a heartbeat!

We are so happy that we worked with Culinary Excellence for the catering and floral arrangements for our wedding at the Brazil Room. They took the suggestions we gave them at our initial meeting and made them even better. On the day of our wedding we were able to relax and know that we were in good hands. The staff were friendly and easy to work with (especially Sierra) and made sure that we had everything we needed for our wedding to go off without a hitch.The day of, the food was delicious, the dinner and venue staging was beautiful, and the floral arrangements were gorgeous. Everyone was very impressed by the service, and so were we. Our dinner was a buffet, but they served the two of us at our table and one of the staff members even found us after we came back from photos and made sure we got a tray of the appetizers.

Culinary Excellence was the absolute best choice in terms of caterers for our wedding. Every single staff member was professional and respectful. The servers and the bartender were phenomenal and absolutely a delight.A HUGE thank you to all the staff members again (especially Samantha. She's the best.) Sam took the time to get to know me and my husband. She listened to our concerns and responded so quickly to all my emails. She and Peter were incredibly flexible with our needs the day of our wedding as well as the days leading up to our wedding.The food was so good that the trays were depleted almost as soon as they were set out.We also had their cookies and hot chocolate! The only reason my husband and I had any dessert was because Sam set aside a generous portion for us. Our guests ate everything. It was a sight to behold.

I'm not sure how the the team at Culinary Excellence could have done a better job at our wedding. The team was responsive, delightful to work with (especially Samantha), the food was beyond amazing. They offer a complete range of services at such reasonable prices that we only needed to have 3 vendors total for our entire wedding, which took such a load off of our plates for planning. The company is family owned as well and the owner's furry "son" is adorable. The only suggestion I have for the business is to make sure you bring business cards to the events because everyone is going to want to get in touch with you to host their parties after seeing what you can do. 10/10 would recommend

Culinary Excellence is a great catering company that I worked with for my wedding reception. Jessica and Samantha at Culinary Excellence are excellent coordinators and planners and they were able to deal with my uncertainties due to COVID. The food was also excellent, and the reception went off without a hitch. The staff showed great service and were extremely friendly. I would certainly recommend Culinary Excellence for any wedding reception.

We were so glad that we chose to work with Culinary Excellence. The food was amazing and all of our guests commented on how delicious the appetizers and food were. We also had them supply some of our furniture and beautiful drapes for the wedding. Samantha was so great to work with. She was our primary contact point and our day of coordinator. She really helped us stay on task during the wedding and helped as we planned. We had booked them pre COVID and there were lots of changes along the way, but they were very flexible during all the up and downs and reassuring as we went. The serving staff and bartenders were really friendly and did a great job. I would highly recommend them for your wedding!

Culinary Excellence is amaaaaaaaazing! Their food is on point, their service is super responsive, and their prices are really reasonable for what they offer!I've used them a few times to send catering gifts to friends in need (recovering from surgery, etc.), but we also got to enjoy their food directly over Thanksgiving. Culinary Excellence set up a Thanksgiving-for-2 meal so that we wouldn't cook and waste an entire ten-pound turkey. The turkey meal came with a ton of side dishes, easy instructions to heat, and they even customized around my gluten sensitivity! We loved the meal AND had tons of leftovers even though we brought our huge appetites to Thanksgiving dinner.If you're looking for a really positive catering experience, look no further -- Culinary Excellence is the real deal!

Chris and his team were amazing! I am from the Chicago area and we had a destination wedding in the Sonoma Area 2 weeks ago and Culinary Excellence exceeded every expectation I had! I was so nervous about booking a company so far away and if it would all work out - it worked out great! I would totally recommend them all the way around! The food was amazing, service great, organized, setup and take down and all of it!! Thanks Chris and everyone!!!

They don't give break or lunch

Culinary Excellence and their team were one of the best aspects of our wedding day at the Brazilian Room at Tilden Park in Berkeley. The team was incredibly professional, kind, courteous, and obviously invested in making this a special day for us, our friends, and our family. On the day of, the team was friendly and took great care to make sure the venue looked beautiful. We never had to ask for service or wait for basic needs. They went above and beyond to ensure that our guests had what they needed. Jess, our Day-Of Coordinator, was absolutely phenomenal. Seriously. I have been a wedding/event planner and coordinator for years, and I can say honestly that she is the best of the best. She has a high attention to detail, a kind and fun demeanor, an immense amount of knowledge about the industry, the venue, and her team. I always felt incredibly supported and cared about. She was quick to respond via email when she could, and it is so clear that she invests time, energy, and effort into every event that she oversees. She is a true professional, and I could never share enough to feel like I've adequately explained what a treasure she is. If I could offer one piece of advice to brides, add the day-of coordination package on for your event. You won't regret it - worth every penny and more. Lastly, the FOOD. The team absolutely knocked it out of the park. The food was delicious at the tasting, and even more delicious at the wedding itself. It was presented beautifully, had great flavor, and the family style dinner service was executed perfectly. One of the most special parts of our wedding was that the chef at CE was able to recreate a treasured family recipe for a groom's cake, and it tasted exactly like his grandmother's would have. It was a perfect surprise and so unique.We can't thank Culinary Excellence and Jess enough for what they contributed for our wedding day. I could continue on and on about their fantastic service, professionalism, and care. They are the best of the best, and we would recommend them time and time again!

We chose Culinary Excellence to cater our wedding reception at the Temescal Beach House. The team there is very accommodating, and Jess was great to work with for discussing details for our food and venue set up. We had a lot of last minute changes due to weather, and they were super easy to contact and work with to make it how we wanted at the last minute. The food they served at the wedding was excellent and was just like the tasting, and we received a lot of compliments from our guests that it was some of the best catered food they have had. The service during the reception was great, all the staff is super friendly. The quotes we received as we updated our reception plan were always clear on the pricing, and it was nice that Culinary Excellence could provide services outside of just the food. Highly recommend for use in catering your wedding reception or event.

I’m not sure if I have left a review yet or not. So I will leave a possible second one. Jessica and her staff were amazing. I really enjoyed working with her every step of the way. She was on top of things, she communicated very well, and worked with our budget. She even came to set up my wedding on an injured leg less than a week from her own wedding. Congrats Jessica and thank you for everything to help my day run smoothly.

Culinary Excellence was fabulous to work with when planning our 40th year Anniversary Gala. Jessica, Chris, and their entire bar and serving team were professional, very flexible, accommodating, kind, and easy to work with. Jessica and Chris were able to predict and fullfill needs we had at the last minute as they cropped up, without hesitation. The food, from the passed appetizers like the filo and chicken skewers, beautiful, light, and tasty salad, to their chicken breast, sweet potato, and brussel sprouts dish (as well as the yummy risotto) were delectable! Did I mention the gorgeous floral arrangements Jessica and her team created from pictures we sent her and which were visually stimulating - WOW! Thank you so much- you all helped make our special occasion memorable and remarkable! We had a blast working with you guys and look forward to working with you in the future! �

Culinary Excellence is the top all inclusive wedding and events planner in the Bay Area. Dr.Hardy, Jessica and their professional team are EXCELLENT at their job. They have everything you need for you special day and occasion from gourmet food and beverages, custom cakery, hand craved floral package, linen and table package, sound and lighting etc. It's totally worth every penny of your money. You can’t go wrong with CE.