Renewing Our New Year Resolutions
Welcome!
If we have not already met, my name is Nicole. My Chef husband, Peter, and I own and operate The Table Catering, along with a fantastic team! We proudly serve sustainable, made from scratch meals featuring local and organic ingredients from regenerative farms.
Sustainability for us, looks like the pursuit of cooking in an almost pre-industrial method, with actual single milled whole wheat and organic brown rice free of pesticides, fruit picked within miles of its origin (think East Bay - gasp!) and a real care for the future of our planet.
Chef Peter and I each have over 20 years in hospitality and food service.
Make it stand out
I collected food donations and funds for the Alameda County Community Food Bank, managed front of house cafa operations at Google campuses, and later, worked as a Northern California account manager for a healthy school meal company, which served primarily students who qualified for free and reduced price school lunches.
We supplied meals for food insecure groups with limited funds who relied on private donors and government subsidies.
Nicole managed FOH Front of House operations at a large Google Mountain View Cafe.
One of several large cafaterias at Google Mountain View
After running one of Google's largest cafeterias at their Mountain View campus, Chef Peter found himself teaching low income residents culinary skills and provided free meals to West Oakland residents on a daily basis. As mentioned in a NBC Bay Area proud feature years ago, he saw these groups as more similar than different - food cooked in large batch cooking and regulars grabbing their buffet style lunch.
Chef Peter with culinary trainee at St Vincent de Paul, Photo care of Mercury News
During our time in these mission driven organizations, we witnessed the challenge and the contradiction - to both feed food insecure community members, while also showing respect for the growers, farmers, pickers, drivers, and warehouse and cafeteria workers who deserve safe working conditions and to be paid a living wage. Balancing these factors while also trying to care for our planet is a challenge in a society that uses so much plastic that ends up in landfills.
As we reflected, Chef Peter and I wondered: While the recipients of free meals may have had full bellies, were the packaged grains and factory meats actually nourishing their well being and our planet?
Fast forward to 2020 when Chef and I both found ourselves navigating pandemic job layoffs: searching for affordable options for ourselves and our two elementary school aged children, joining the low income residents we once served and now purchasing food with government assistance EBT cards, aka food stamps. (Shout out to all of the East Bay farmers markets that take EBT cards and provide produce credits to encourage the purchase of organic, local fruits and veggies!)
Instead of rejoining the 9 to 5 rat race and, in some cases, positions that underutilized our broad skill set, we asked ourselves: What are the opportunities that lie in front of us, and how can we best serve our community? What had each of us learned in our two decades of working in nonprofit, corporate, restaurant and retail environments, and what did our experiences as dishwashers, servers, line cooks and customer service reps teach us? Would it be possible for us to provide nourishing and accessible meals to a broader audience? Could we all come around a table to feed ourselves and the greater community?
Our daughter offering a community meal in reusable containers.
That’s where you come in! Is there any reason why you would not partner with us in the New Year? Together, can we provide nourishing clean meals, help feed you and your household on a regular basis, and/or bring you and a friend, housemate or family member around the table for a mid-week meal. Or, maybe a catered weekend fundraiser or community event.
While partnering with us, you will also be supporting:
A regenerative farm and five generations of farming in Denair, CA
A woman owned BIPOC business, Piikup, which delivers weekly meals and catering for our events, while also providing job skills to those seeking a second chance
A single grain whole wheat flour mill in Chico, CA
Partnerships with Black farmers and other marginalized communities
Feeding food insecure community members and our unhoused neighbors who sit blocks from our commercial kitchen.
Our local delivery partner, Piikup. Montez and owner April, above.
In 2023, we are recommitting to giving you, our community, Chef prepared, fine dining style accessible meals. Every week, know that while you are feeding yourself, you are also collectively investing in our community!
Thank you for joining us!
We look forward to nourishing your family and our community.
Nicole
