It was an absolutely perfect day for an outdoor wedding at the end of August at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens and the catering served by Chef by Design was the icing on the cake. The food was fresh, beautifully presented, and flavorful, and our guests are still talking about it. Many are saying it is the best wedding they have ever been to. The staff were all so nice, friendly, professional, attentive, and organized, making the entire experience seamless from start to finish. Every detail was handled with care, and the service exceeded our expectations. I would highly recommend Chef by Design for anyone looking for exceptional wedding catering. Thank you Josie!!
Haley Brown
Chef By Design catered our wedding over the weekend and our guests are raving about how delicious the food was and how nice the servers and bartenders were. There was a few issues that popped up during the night and they were solved quickly and quietly. Thank you CBD team!
Matthew Stout
Chef By Design was amazing to work with for our wedding! Emily and Josie were great and made the whole process smooth and stress free. The food was delicious and we received so many compliments on it from all of our guests! Highly recommend!!
Alanna Miller
One of the first vendors we booked for our wedding (almost immediately) was Chef by Design. I have been lucky enough to experience multiple events that they have catered and they just keep getting better. Not just the food but everyone who works there is phenomenal and incredibly attentive. Need to give an extra special shoutout to Emily and Josie because they both worked so hard to make sure that our vision was met through planning, everything leading up to the day, and the day of. The food was incredible as well. Any allergies or dietary restrictions were taken care of very carefully. Our wedding was just over a month ago and I keep getting messages from friends and family raving about how great the food was. Looking forward to the next time I get to be at an event that they are catering.
Virginia Corbett
Simply the Best
Chef John and his staff wowed the crowd with crab cakes, spring rolls and meatballs to accentuate the grazing tables filled with baked garlic, pickles, and charcuterie galore for cocktail hour. Once we were called for plated delicacy we devoured the buttermilk fried chicken, the succulent salmon, the fork-tender brisket so full of flavor, the veggie bundles, mac n cheese and potato fingerlings. The cornbread, rosemary rolls, the delectable deserts were the perfect punctuation to our ceremony!!!
Niki Souza
Disappointed to hear that their staff told my guests “the couple didn’t pay to have that” when guests asked about a specific detail. Also, i’m hearing that they were cleaning up and taking plates before my guests were completely finished.
Paige and Bryan Wedding
We used Chef by Design for our wedding reception in June and they were incredible to work with. We got to work with Kellyn and she is absolutely amazing. She was so helpful throughout the entire process!
The staff were incredible so attentive the day of. The servers always made sure that my husband or myself had something to eat or drink during cocktail hour. The food presentation was amazing, and we got so many compliments from our guests on how great the food and kind the staff were.
We highly recommend Chef by Design if you are planning a wedding or any event for your catering needs!
Kristen Martzall
I was able to work with Kellyn from Chef by Design to bring our wedding vision to life. Kellyn was super patient with me and my husband as we discussed how to provide the best service and experience while also staying within a reasonable budget. Throughout all of our correspondence by email and phone, Kellyn was professional, warm, and passionate about providing us with exactly what we wanted.
Our guests raved about the food, and we were extremely pleased with Kellyn's team as the day went off without a hitch.
We went with a buffet style dinner, and we were very impressed at how much food there was and the quality of it all. They even sent us home with a lot of leftovers that we enjoyed the next few days! The cake and cupcakes were also amazing and decorated pretty much exactly like the picture I had sent.
Kellyn worked really hard to give us the best experience, which was made even more impressive by her having to hand off our project so she could have her baby! The event producer (Denise) in Kellyn's place was outstanding, and everyone was really easy to work with. Highly recommend Chef by Design; you get what you paid for!
Melody \u0026 Co. Entertainment
At Melody & Co Entertainment, we’ve had the pleasure of working alongside Chef by Design at multiple events, and they never fail to impress. Their food is consistently delicious, beautifully presented, and perfectly suited for any size gathering.
What truly sets them apart is their team’s professionalism and attention to detail. The service is seamless, the staff is friendly and accommodating, and they always go above and beyond to make the client’s vision come to life.
We love working with vendors who share our commitment to excellence, and Chef by Design absolutely delivers every time.
Savanna Cowling
I can’t recommend the chef by design team enough!!!! They catered my wedding two weeks ago and people are still raving to me about the food. The service and food are top tier, I highly recommend using them for any event!!!!
I cannot begin to recommend this company enough. From the beginning, they had been very attentive to making sure they knew every detail of what we wanted on our special day. They have an expansive menu to choose from and were even accomodating to adjustments we wanted to make to the french fry bar. The food was excellent both at the tasting and at the event itself. We got so many compliments and would be happy to hire them again!
Marianthi
We were absolutely thrilled with our choice to use Chef By Design for our wedding! The food was nothing short of delicious! We worked with Kellyn throughout the planning process and she was so organized and made the planning process seamless. Every detail was taken care of, which allowed us to focus on enjoying our special day. We highly recommend Chef By Design to anyone looking for fantastic food and an stress-free catering experience!
Lindsey Gasecki
Chef by Design was so great to work with for my wedding!! We had the pleasure of working with Kellyn during our planning process and she was professional, nice, helpful, and quick to respond. Kellyn and her team made the planning process so easy and day of was so smooth and amazing.
Their food display looked so great (not just in boring silver chafers), their staff was SO nice and quick day of. Their bartenders were so attentive and always made sure my husband and I had a drink in our hand while also making sure our guests had what they needed. I 100% recommend having Chef By Design for your wedding or any of your other catering needs!!!
Michael Mahgerefteh
Quite literally the most infuriating and shameful waste of money I’ve ever encountered. If you’re even considering this company, stop now. Do not give them a single cent of your hard-earned money, and especially not for an important event like your wedding.
They catered my wedding, and it was an absolute disaster. First off, you should know that this company is obscenely expensive—hundreds of dollars per person. And for what? For them to butcher one of the most important days of my life. I’m warning everyone: DO NOT hire them.
We paid for what was supposed to be a top-tier, high-class service, and they delivered the absolute bare minimum. Let me start with the wedding cake—no decorations. None. Can you believe it? A wedding cake with no decorations! And when I pointed it out, their excuse was that they thought it looked “good enough.” A wedding cake! Just a plain, white slab sitting there as if it belonged at some cheap buffet.
The food was bland, uninspired, and lacked any semblance of presentation. Just sad-looking food sitting on cold metal trays. Supposedly, this was their premium service, yet they didn’t even cook on-site—everything was just reheated. And the bartenders? Slow as molasses. So slow that many of our guests couldn’t even get a drink for the first part of the wedding. The service was so appallingly slow that we had to cancel parts of our planned programming and extend the wedding just so people could eat. And the most insulting part? When we voiced our completely justified complaints, they had the audacity to offer us a free lunch as compensation. Tens of thousands of dollars spent, and all they had to offer was a lunch. It was insulting, degrading, and downright pathetic.
This company has no concept of customer service. They are fully aware that once you sign the contract and hand over the deposit, they’ve got you. They no longer care. They know you have no recourse, and they are completely shameless in their ripoff tactics. The only way I can warn others is through this review because, unfortunately, they know exactly how to get away with providing subpar service while pocketing your money.
I wanted an exceptional catering service for my wedding, just like anyone would. They lure you in with their fancy tastings and expansive menus, making you believe they’re the best choice. But I’m begging you—do not fall for it. These thieves will take your money, give you the most lackluster, unprofessional service imaginable, and then act like they did you a favor.
If you think the presentation in their photos looks passable, just know that we were charged tens of thousands of dollars for that disgraceful excuse of a “service.” I am absolutely furious that I trusted them with one of the most important days of my life, only to be completely ripped off.
Oh, and let repeat one more time—THEY BROUGHT OUT A WEDDING CAKE THAT WASN’T DECORATED. A blank, white, sad excuse for a cake. This is the “top-tier” service they offer. And when a significant portion of our guests didn’t stay for dinner, they gave us ONE small box of leftover food. So, they pocketed money for the meals that weren’t served—just straight-up robbery.
And for anyone at that company thinking of responding with some smug excuse, save it. Their reasoning for the delayed service was that one of our speeches went 10 minutes over. TEN MINUTES. You’re supposedly a top-of-the-line catering company, yet you can’t handle a 10-minute adjustment? No contingency plan? No professionalism? It’s laughable.
To anyone reading this—don’t make the same mistake I did. Do not hire these thieves. They’ll rob you blind and ruin your day without batting an eye.
Tiffany Wood
Absolutely incredible catering company. Their team was amazing to work with, answering all of my questions and making sure we had the perfect menu. Our guests raved about the food, they loved it so much we barely had any leftovers! Could not recommend them enough for any event.
It was an absolutely perfect day for an outdoor wedding at the end of August at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens and the catering served by Chef by Design was the icing on the cake. The food was fresh, beautifully presented, and flavorful, and our guests are still talking about it. Many are saying it is the best wedding they have ever been to. The staff were all so nice, friendly, professional, attentive, and organized, making the entire experience seamless from start to finish. Every detail was handled with care, and the service exceeded our expectations. I would highly recommend Chef by Design for anyone looking for exceptional wedding catering. Thank you Josie!!
Chef By Design catered our wedding over the weekend and our guests are raving about how delicious the food was and how nice the servers and bartenders were. There was a few issues that popped up during the night and they were solved quickly and quietly. Thank you CBD team!
Chef By Design was amazing to work with for our wedding! Emily and Josie were great and made the whole process smooth and stress free. The food was delicious and we received so many compliments on it from all of our guests! Highly recommend!!
One of the first vendors we booked for our wedding (almost immediately) was Chef by Design. I have been lucky enough to experience multiple events that they have catered and they just keep getting better. Not just the food but everyone who works there is phenomenal and incredibly attentive. Need to give an extra special shoutout to Emily and Josie because they both worked so hard to make sure that our vision was met through planning, everything leading up to the day, and the day of. The food was incredible as well. Any allergies or dietary restrictions were taken care of very carefully. Our wedding was just over a month ago and I keep getting messages from friends and family raving about how great the food was. Looking forward to the next time I get to be at an event that they are catering.
Simply the Best
Chef John and his staff wowed the crowd with crab cakes, spring rolls and meatballs to accentuate the grazing tables filled with baked garlic, pickles, and charcuterie galore for cocktail hour. Once we were called for plated delicacy we devoured the buttermilk fried chicken, the succulent salmon, the fork-tender brisket so full of flavor, the veggie bundles, mac n cheese and potato fingerlings. The cornbread, rosemary rolls, the delectable deserts were the perfect punctuation to our ceremony!!!
Disappointed to hear that their staff told my guests “the couple didn’t pay to have that” when guests asked about a specific detail. Also, i’m hearing that they were cleaning up and taking plates before my guests were completely finished.
We used Chef by Design for our wedding reception in June and they were incredible to work with. We got to work with Kellyn and she is absolutely amazing. She was so helpful throughout the entire process!
The staff were incredible so attentive the day of. The servers always made sure that my husband or myself had something to eat or drink during cocktail hour. The food presentation was amazing, and we got so many compliments from our guests on how great the food and kind the staff were.
We highly recommend Chef by Design if you are planning a wedding or any event for your catering needs!
I was able to work with Kellyn from Chef by Design to bring our wedding vision to life. Kellyn was super patient with me and my husband as we discussed how to provide the best service and experience while also staying within a reasonable budget. Throughout all of our correspondence by email and phone, Kellyn was professional, warm, and passionate about providing us with exactly what we wanted.
Our guests raved about the food, and we were extremely pleased with Kellyn's team as the day went off without a hitch.
We went with a buffet style dinner, and we were very impressed at how much food there was and the quality of it all. They even sent us home with a lot of leftovers that we enjoyed the next few days! The cake and cupcakes were also amazing and decorated pretty much exactly like the picture I had sent.
Kellyn worked really hard to give us the best experience, which was made even more impressive by her having to hand off our project so she could have her baby! The event producer (Denise) in Kellyn's place was outstanding, and everyone was really easy to work with. Highly recommend Chef by Design; you get what you paid for!
At Melody & Co Entertainment, we’ve had the pleasure of working alongside Chef by Design at multiple events, and they never fail to impress. Their food is consistently delicious, beautifully presented, and perfectly suited for any size gathering.
What truly sets them apart is their team’s professionalism and attention to detail. The service is seamless, the staff is friendly and accommodating, and they always go above and beyond to make the client’s vision come to life.
We love working with vendors who share our commitment to excellence, and Chef by Design absolutely delivers every time.
I can’t recommend the chef by design team enough!!!! They catered my wedding two weeks ago and people are still raving to me about the food. The service and food are top tier, I highly recommend using them for any event!!!!
Restaurantji Recommends
I cannot begin to recommend this company enough. From the beginning, they had been very attentive to making sure they knew every detail of what we wanted on our special day. They have an expansive menu to choose from and were even accomodating to adjustments we wanted to make to the french fry bar. The food was excellent both at the tasting and at the event itself. We got so many compliments and would be happy to hire them again!
We were absolutely thrilled with our choice to use Chef By Design for our wedding! The food was nothing short of delicious! We worked with Kellyn throughout the planning process and she was so organized and made the planning process seamless. Every detail was taken care of, which allowed us to focus on enjoying our special day. We highly recommend Chef By Design to anyone looking for fantastic food and an stress-free catering experience!
Chef by Design was so great to work with for my wedding!! We had the pleasure of working with Kellyn during our planning process and she was professional, nice, helpful, and quick to respond. Kellyn and her team made the planning process so easy and day of was so smooth and amazing.
Their food display looked so great (not just in boring silver chafers), their staff was SO nice and quick day of. Their bartenders were so attentive and always made sure my husband and I had a drink in our hand while also making sure our guests had what they needed. I 100% recommend having Chef By Design for your wedding or any of your other catering needs!!!
Quite literally the most infuriating and shameful waste of money I’ve ever encountered. If you’re even considering this company, stop now. Do not give them a single cent of your hard-earned money, and especially not for an important event like your wedding.
They catered my wedding, and it was an absolute disaster. First off, you should know that this company is obscenely expensive—hundreds of dollars per person. And for what? For them to butcher one of the most important days of my life. I’m warning everyone: DO NOT hire them.
We paid for what was supposed to be a top-tier, high-class service, and they delivered the absolute bare minimum. Let me start with the wedding cake—no decorations. None. Can you believe it? A wedding cake with no decorations! And when I pointed it out, their excuse was that they thought it looked “good enough.” A wedding cake! Just a plain, white slab sitting there as if it belonged at some cheap buffet.
The food was bland, uninspired, and lacked any semblance of presentation. Just sad-looking food sitting on cold metal trays. Supposedly, this was their premium service, yet they didn’t even cook on-site—everything was just reheated. And the bartenders? Slow as molasses. So slow that many of our guests couldn’t even get a drink for the first part of the wedding. The service was so appallingly slow that we had to cancel parts of our planned programming and extend the wedding just so people could eat. And the most insulting part? When we voiced our completely justified complaints, they had the audacity to offer us a free lunch as compensation. Tens of thousands of dollars spent, and all they had to offer was a lunch. It was insulting, degrading, and downright pathetic.
This company has no concept of customer service. They are fully aware that once you sign the contract and hand over the deposit, they’ve got you. They no longer care. They know you have no recourse, and they are completely shameless in their ripoff tactics. The only way I can warn others is through this review because, unfortunately, they know exactly how to get away with providing subpar service while pocketing your money.
I wanted an exceptional catering service for my wedding, just like anyone would. They lure you in with their fancy tastings and expansive menus, making you believe they’re the best choice. But I’m begging you—do not fall for it. These thieves will take your money, give you the most lackluster, unprofessional service imaginable, and then act like they did you a favor.
If you think the presentation in their photos looks passable, just know that we were charged tens of thousands of dollars for that disgraceful excuse of a “service.” I am absolutely furious that I trusted them with one of the most important days of my life, only to be completely ripped off.
Oh, and let repeat one more time—THEY BROUGHT OUT A WEDDING CAKE THAT WASN’T DECORATED. A blank, white, sad excuse for a cake. This is the “top-tier” service they offer. And when a significant portion of our guests didn’t stay for dinner, they gave us ONE small box of leftover food. So, they pocketed money for the meals that weren’t served—just straight-up robbery.
And for anyone at that company thinking of responding with some smug excuse, save it. Their reasoning for the delayed service was that one of our speeches went 10 minutes over. TEN MINUTES. You’re supposedly a top-of-the-line catering company, yet you can’t handle a 10-minute adjustment? No contingency plan? No professionalism? It’s laughable.
To anyone reading this—don’t make the same mistake I did. Do not hire these thieves. They’ll rob you blind and ruin your day without batting an eye.
Absolutely incredible catering company. Their team was amazing to work with, answering all of my questions and making sure we had the perfect menu. Our guests raved about the food, they loved it so much we barely had any leftovers! Could not recommend them enough for any event.
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