Chef and Baker Events and Catering

We used Chef and Baker for my daughter’s wedding and could not have been more pleased. From the communication leading up to the tasting that was prepared, to the tasting, to the all the preparations to the details before the wedding to the amazing food — — - — beyond PERFECT! I could go on and on! It was a dream come true! The food was amazingly delicious — so many guests said it was by far the best wedding food they have ever had AND so many said some of the best food they have ever had. .. period! It was so amazing that we plan on visiting their restaurant as often as we can!

From the start, we knew that we wanted our wedding celebration to feel entirely like «us.» We decided on a casual, intimate affair, centered around loving family and friends, good music, and delicious food! My family owned a restaurant growing up and is pretty particular about what they like and don’t like. I’ve also spent a lot of time working in restaurants and currently work at the local farmers market. So food quality (within budget) was at the top of our list!
We drooled over the pictures and descriptions on the Chef and Baker website, but it wasn’t until the tasting at Cask and Barrel /​Enotria in that we fell in love. The food was insanely good, fresh and flavorful, and Gabriel and Kristel couldn’t be nicer or more accommodating. So much stress in the planning process melted away after our tasting; if nothing else went right, at least we’d share a beautiful meal with our loved ones.
We opted for the buffet and dessert bar. Wedding buffets can be scary; things sit for too long and dry out, or worse, run out. No such things happened as Kristel was on top of everything! The buffet and bar looked great and tasted great. Folks are still telling us, more than a month later, how wonderful the wedding was and how much they loved the food! I’m still bummed that I couldn’t try one of every dessert because they were so popular, but we hope to visit their restaurant soon for more delicious food and friendly service. So thankful to Chefs Gabriel and Kristel for making our special day a celebration!

I have worked with Chef + Baker on several events… and let me tell you they are AMAZING… Not only is their food delicious but the customer service is outstanding. I am an even planner and I rarely see a caterer handle so many logical details… this is such an important part because the whole event flows so well. Great food and great peeps.

We didn’t pick the caterers for our wedding, they came with the venue (Inn at Park Winters) but we seriously lucked out because we couldn’t have found better food or more friendly people if we had looked all over town! We had a great time doing the tasting and meeting Kristel and Gabriel, and we got so many compliments on the food at the wedding. They are so passionate about what they do and that really comes through in their food. Their restaurant (Cask and Barrel) is wonderful too!

I’m a terrible bride for waiting so long to tell everyone how great Chef & Baker is! I was married back in May at the Park Winters, but my love affair with Kristel and Gabriel goes back to the previous year when we met to talk about catering options. Both my (now) husband and I walked away from that meeting feeling like they completely ‘got’ us and were the best people to help us envision and execute the menu for our wedding (in fact, we’d planned on getting a cake, but after meeting Kristel we just had to know what she would do for our desserts and we couldn’t have been happier!).
Kristel was such a pleasure to work with on the operational end: responsive, well-​organized and truly helpful with her suggestions and advice. Her attention to detail was evident all the way through to the gorgeous and delicious dessert bar. While there were a dozen things to stress about, this was one aspect that I felt completely confident in from day one due to Kristel’s confidence and experience as a top-​notch caterer and chef.
Gabriel clearly has a great joy for his work. When we met for our tasting at their newly opened restaurant Cask & Barrel in Sacramento (go there ASAP if you haven’t been), he’d put the same time and care into the preparation of our tasting menu as he did the day of our wedding, and his food was absolute heaven. I was doubly glad we’d had a chance to try all of his creations that day because, as everyone told me, I spent too much time talking to people to eat that day (and when Gabriel found out I hadn’t tried one of the appetizers he plated up a big pile of them and brought it over personally!).
We are so glad Chef and Baker could be a part of our wedding, and couldn’t have imagined it any other way. I unreservedly recommend them to anyone looking for a caterer, a restaurant to visit or just two cool folks to spend and hour chatting with about food!

Thank you SO much to Kristel and Gabriel for the wonderful catering experience for our wedding at Park Winters last week. They were so accommodating, professional, and pleasant to work with. We even had some issues in getting to our tasting day lined up and Kristel was very nice and helped us find a solution to a last minute schedule change. She was easy to get ahold of and prompt in returning phone calls and emails.
We were initially surprised that our «tasting» was just our proposed menu served at their restaurant, because we didn’t actually get to try any different options, HOWEVER, this ended up being an amazing experience! We LOVED everything we ate and we even had leftovers to take home. It was also just really lovely to sit and savor our wedding meal together well before the big day (when we were so busy and excited we didn’t end up having a long time to sit and eat anyway). They even prepared wine pairings for this meal so we could taste our options. Chef Gabriel and Kristel talked to us about our food and shared their passion for the business and providing high quality, locally sourced food.
We did a buffet with the caesar salad, veggies, whole roasted potatoes, veggie lasagne and pecan-​crusted pork. Our guests raved about the food. We added a charcuterie station for the cocktail hour which was beautiful and added some heartiness that helped stave off guest over-​intoxication ;)
Overall I cannot imagine a better experience with our wedding dinner and highly recommend Chef & Baker.

Our wedding was in August at Park Winters and we used Chef and Baker Events to cater our wedding. They were amazing! Gabriel and Kristel were so friendly and helpful in answering all our questions about the food and even where the food was going to be purchased from. We did a buffet menu at the wedding and everything was delicious! All our guests kept telling us how great the food was even after the wedding. We also used them to do our dessert table which looked beautiful. Unfortunately I was dancing the night away so I didn’t get a chance to try any desserts but my guests loved it and the photos we have of the dessert table look like it could have been in a magazine. With their great service, delicious food and amazing desserts we would highly recommend Chef and Baker for every wedding and special event.

I got married at Park Winters last week and used Chef and Baker’s catering services and am so glad I did! They were extremely professional and well organized. They also responded to emails right away and had excellent planning worksheets to make sure everything was exactly as we wanted it. We went with the buffet option and added on a cheese and charcuterie station during cocktail hour and printed menus at each setting. Everything was delicious (Kristel made sure I had food available to me at all times even though I was too excited to eat much) and complimented the look and feel of the venue. It was all also set up so well! Check out some pictures of the cheese and charcuterie station here:
I am so grateful to Chef and Baker for making my wedding delicious, beautiful, and stress-​free. I highly recommend them!

My husband and i were just married this past August, at INN at Park Winters. I was a little worried about having a set in house caterer… BUT after meeting These two wonderful people and trying their delicious food i was over the top excited for our food on our special day!!! I was so thankful that they share the same respect for local and organic as we do. We have so many diet restrictions and we are paleo. They worked with us and made the most tasty food;) Our guest said it was the best wedding food they had ever had and maybe just over all just a super enjoyable meal! Im sure we will get out to their restaurant soon, yum;) Oh, also they are just great people to work with!!!

Our wedding was in August at Park Winters and Chef and Baker (Gabriel and Kristel) catered our food. We couldn’t have been happier with the food and their catering. From the moment we selected them as our caterer, we knew we were in great hands. We had a personal tasting of our menu at their restaurant (Cask & Barrell) and we were overjoyed by how great the food was. Kristel contracted me along the way to give me helpful reminders of the information she needed (menu selection, linens, # of guests, etc.). This proved to be invaluable since I was dealing with about 3000 other details! The food at the wedding was displayed beautifully (get the charcuterie display for the cocktail hour!) and in the words of our guests, «It’s the best food I’ve ever had at a wedding, or at a restaurant.» Everyone felt so well cared for by the Chef and Baker team, and the braised short ribs will go down in history as a culinary work of art. The Caesar salad with homemade sourdough bread pudding croutons were off the charts! Every menu item has a special twist! We also had a beautiful cupcake bar that was scrumptious. Kristel is a baker and the table was attended by two staff people and guests could choose the filling and frosting of their choice! YUMMY! If you ever have a need for a catered event, look no further. Chef & Baker will exceed your expectations. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Chef and Baker catered our wedding at Park Winters with their beautiful food. They nailed the quality, attention to detail & flavors we were seeking with careful hands-​on preparation. Gabriel & Kristen were very welcoming & after speaking with them at our tasting, we were confident that they would execute our theme with precision & awareness. Together with Park Winters, our experience was more than we could have realized ourselves. In reflection, what we are hearing most from family & friends is how great the dinner was, from appetizer to entrée. Truly the best meal they’d had at a wedding. For Judy & I it was perfection with one exception: We didn’t have time to eat enough, we were having too much fun! At least we are blessed with the opportunity to experience Cask & Barrel whenever we see fit, & we surely will!!!

Our wedding was last year, but I have to write a raving review about Gabriel and Kristel. Two of the nicest people my husband and I have ever met and the best two Chefs. We had our wedding at Park Winters and were hoping to match the ambiance of the entire venue with fantastic food. Chef and Baker did NOT disappoint. We had an amazing food tasting were Gabriel told us all about the ingredients he uses and why and walked us through his entire process for not only the food, but for the service (Amazing food service!). We could not decide on what to serve at our wedding because every thing was just delightful. In the end, we were able to make our selections, Kristel made some amazing Macarons and bite sized desserts. People were raving about the food. My only wish was that we had gotten seconds at the wedding, haha, but that’s what visiting their restaurant is food!
(Side note: the honey lavender dip and lemon mint yogurt with fruit… sounds so simple, but it was amazing.)

I can not express how incredible Chef Gabriel’s food is! We had so many compliments on the food served at our wedding. They are very professional as a company and over delivered! After our initial tasting, we were more excited about the food on our wedding day than we ever anticipated. They definitely added little details too that made our day extra special!

For our September wedding’s reception, we first encountered Chef and Baker since they are the in house chef for our venue, Park Winters. After the tasting we immediately decided to go with them and didn’t even bother to go tasting somewhere else. Kristel and Chef Gabriel were both super friendly and professional and the food was exquisite using organic and local produces. They were both so kind to alter the menu multiple times to meet my needs even til the last minute! All the food came out great and everything was coordinated perfectly and all the guests complimented on the food afterward too. Thank you so much Chef and Baker for making our wedding day even more special than it already is!