Ensure your event Catering is values aligned.

The Table Catering cares about


Your Health

Food should nourish our bodies.


We serve vegetable-forward California Mediterranean cuisine, bake whole wheat bread, cook with extra virgin olive oil, and
follow slow, traditional cooking methods.

Our Earth

Ingredients grown close to home
combat climate change, support local farms and taste great!

We celebrate Northern California’s bounty and source from regenerative and organic farms and strive for zero-waste.

Our Community

We partner with like minded
mission-driven socially responsible woman owned businesses,
including Piikup who provides job training for those facing hiring barriers.

We strive to pay livable wages and partner with farmers with fair working conditions.

The Table Catering donates food to non profits and food insecure community members within Berkeley and Oakland

Delivery Partnership

Their business model is holistic in their approach to consider the needs of their workforce - paying special attention to women, adults and youth facing barriers to employment. Piikup provides training, transitional employment and above minimum wage with an inclusive team and work culture.

Piikup is the only Employment Training Delivery Service for businesses and the preferred choice for quality, reliable, and customer focused support. Piikup makes a positive impact in communities while supporting local and emerging food and beverage and retail businesses.

Their mission is to strengthen communities by being intentional to support emerging businesses, but equally, Piikup hopes to support those hyper-local businesses owned by people of color and women of all cultures as they try to enter the market and work to establish themselves towards becoming a legacy business.

Their vision is to empower people to reach personal development goals and economic stability by supporting not just commerce but ensuring that black communities are able to build wealth and legacy for generations to come.

Nicole and Peter Callis partner in life and in catering since 2011.

Nicole is devoted to increasing access to nourishing meals by facilitating gatherings over nourishing food, she wants to bring our East Bay community together and create spaces where everyone can have a seat around the table.

Nicole holds a Bachelors of Social Work and offers 20+ years of hospitality experience. She has served in numerous food service management roles with Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Fenton’s Creamery, and service partnership and program management roles to increase food access with Alameda County Community Food Bank and school meal provider Revolution Foods.

She has led corporate kitchen operations as Cafe Manager at an 800 guest cafeteria at Google, led a staff of 50 and coordinated $1M in annual revenue as Catering Manager at UC Berkeley International House and led Social Event bookings including weddings with Hotel Shattuck Plaza.

Nicole is married to Peter, has two kids, a dog, some chickens and is an Oakland native.
She enjoys outdoor movement, photography, interior design and documentaries.

Chef Peter prepares Mediterranean-California cuisine with spectacular ingredients and low environmental impact.

Peter has been cooking in the East Bay since 2003. He holds two culinary degrees from California Culinary Academy and a Bachelors in Chemistry from UC Berkeley. He honed his skills preparing fine dining dishes at Bucci’s, Chez Panisse, and Garibaldis. As Executive Sous at Google, Peter led kitchens of 50 staff and 800+ daily guests with new, daily menus.

His work as Culinary Trainer in West Oakland’s St. Vincent de Paul Oakland was honored by NBC Bay Area Proud. Peter most recently served as Chef & Hospitality Director at a Berkeley nonprofit, serving 200 guests weekly, leading a team of community volunteers, creating innovative dishes, and fostering community fellowship through hospitality.

Peter is married to Nicole, has two kids, a dog, some chickens, grew up in San Diego.
He enjoys video games, comedy and gardening.

Favorite Farms

  • Avalos Organics

    Onions, other vegetables

    In 1998 Efren Avalos founded Avalos Organic Farm on 4 acres of land near Hollister, CA. Since then, he has expanded to 17 acres, growing a broad selection of produce for markets and restaurants. When you see Efren at the market, he is always smiling.

    As he says: “I love my job because I can bring this nice community a little bit of the good food that they deserve.”

  • Happy Boy Farms

    Tomatoes, squash, melon, greens, root vegetables

    Owner Greg Beccio has been growing organically for over 20 years in the Central Coast region of northern California. Happy Boy Farms is based near Watsonville and tends to multiple plots of land located in neighboring counties. Each field has a unique microclimate and soil structure, creating a multitude of growing conditions for a wide array of row crops chosen and planted specifically for each region and the changing seasons.

  • Kashiwase Farms

    Stone fruits, almonds

    Steven Kashiwase is a third generation farmer. Steven transformed his family’s farm from a conventional operation growing two cropsinto a mixed orchard producing fresh fruits and almonds for farmers markets and a few retail stores.

  • Burroughs Family Farms

    Bringing hand-raised and regeneratively grown products directly to you while protecting soil and water for generations to come.

    We feature Burroughs’ whole chicken, eggs, extra virgin olive oil and organic grass-fed beef.

  • Capay Mills Flour

    Capay Mills is a stone flour mill near Chico, California, that transforms sustainably grown heirloom grains into uniquely flavorful, fresh, & nutritious flours, rich in character and history.

    We prefer to cook and bake exclusively with Capay Mills whole wheat flour.

  • Massa Brown Rice

    Massa grows their brown rice in fertile soil using regenerative farming practices that are better for the land, our communities, and the environment.

    When it comes to the farm, they accept no compromise: great foods, vibrant soils, healthier planet.

    We prefer to cook exclusively with Massa Organics brown rice.

Featured Local Publications

Berkeley caterers talk about the motivations, the changes and the challenges in becoming a certified green business.

“For Nicole and Peter Callis, the husband-wife team behind The Table Catering, issues of food justice, insecurity and sustainability were just archetypal Berkeley. “I’m local,” said Nicole. “I went to Berkeley public schools. You grow up with Michael Pollan and the Slow Food movement. You’re just in this environment where people are paying attention.”

“Following a similar philosophy, The Table Catering is a “full-animal butchery” using all the parts of the local cows, pigs and chickens it buys.  They do it because buying parts-only uses multiple animals, which are often transported far and require more plastic packaging.  “We’re always in the process of minimizing the distances that our products travel,” said Peter Callis.”

Peter Callis agrees. “If you’re thinking about the last chapter of green business, it’s about plastic,” he said. 

As a potential solution, both businesses are exploring a pilot program with Berkeley startup FoodWare that makes it easy to replace single-use packaging with reusable containers and cups. It provides an app that quantifies the environmental impact for businesses and their customers. The company also works with restaurants, colleges and corporate campuses across the Bay Area, helping them save money while becoming more sustainable.”

“How do we offer high-quality, farm-to-table meals that are accessible to a broad audience while honoring our farmers, our team members, and our own expertise?”

Nicole Callis and her chef husband, Peter Callis, try to answer that question each day as they find more and better ways to make and serve healthful and appetizing meals packed with great flavors for their East Bay customers.

“We want our meal subscriptions to benefit busy professionals and parents and also give back to the community,” Nicole adds.

Alternatives to Sugar and Salt

“I love cooking and I love to cook food in the most natural of ways,” says Chef Peter, who is always looking for ways to reduce the use of processed and refined ingredients. “If a recipe calls for salt or sugar, you can find substitutions,” he says. For sweetness, Chef Peter relies on puréed dates, persimmons, or honey. For salty and umami flavors, he turns to soy sauce or miso. Try out his chocolate chip cookies and spaghetti and meatballs recipes, which show home cooks how this creative chef might revise his recipes to arrive at a more nutritious end product.

Peter Callis has a broad range of experience as a Bay Area chef. After earning a degree in chemistry at UC Berkeley, he attended culinary school, interned at Chez Panisse, worked at several Bay Area fine dining restaurants, and fed 2,000 Google employees daily with his culinary team at the Mountain View campus…”

“Before the duo opened the Table Catering, they had both held restaurant and corporate food-service jobs and worked for various mission-driven companies. They also frequently stepped up to help when friends or family needed their entertaining expertise for large gatherings.

But when the pandemic hit and they were both laid off, they turned to each other and said, “What better timing to go in and launch our own business!”

Former Google Chef Now Serving Up Help For Oakland's Needy

By Garvin Thomas • Published March 5, 2014 • Updated on March 6, 2014 at 9:35 am

“In spite of what you may think, Chef Peter Callis says working at Oakland’s Society of Saint Vincent de Paul isn’t all that different from running Google’s largest cafe.

As far as the clientele goes, it's hard to imagine two more different groups than the ones Chef Peter Callis has cooked for at his last two jobs.

Up until a few months ago, Peter was the executive sous chef at Charlie's Cafe, the largest restaurant on Google's Mountain View campus. Peter now, though, runs the kitchen for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul of Alameda County, feeding 800 of Oakland's neediest five days a week.

From fueling the movers and shakers of Silicon Valley, to feeding  the down and out of Oakland's streets, might seem like a dramatic change. Peter, however,doesn't see it that way.”

He sees the two jobs as more alike than different.

"No money exchanged between the people I cook for," Peter says. "It's large batch cooking, you try to make it as nutritious as possible, and it's the same people you see day to day."

"What is in a Bread" from The Table Catering

Specializing in providing nourishing, local food, The Table Catering is ready to serve your event needs! You may have seen or tasted something from their thoughtful, seasonal menu at the North Berkeley Farmers' Market or a North Shattuck event.

As North Shattuck celebrates the fall season, Chef Peter from The Table Catering shares a few words on their innovative approach to the bread crafted for the items on their fall seasonal menu. Check them out at a pop up and inquire about their full service catering!

A taste of our own urban farming

  • Our backyard honey bees

  • Our front yard avocado tree

  • Our backyard harvest

  • Neighbors bounty

  • Our backyard lemon tree