Tastebuds: A Taste Catering Blog

Creating a Living Painting for your Garden Wall

At the recent Macy's Flower Show Demonstration I showed an eager crowd how to create a living painting for their garden wall.  Here is how to do it.

 

Choosing and Prepping Your “Frame” (a wooden serving tray works very well!):

1.     Drill two holes through the back side near the top to use to hang when finished
2.     Measure a piece of chicken wire (purchased from your neighborhood florist) to fit inside the tray, then double the size. It’s good to cut the piece a few inches longer than you think you will need, just in case-- you can always trim away excess.
3.     Staple the chicken wire to the inside of the tray. This should use up almost one half of your pre-cut piece.
4.     Cover the stapled chicken wire with moss, filling the tray. Sphagnum moss that you can purchase at a local nursery or at the flower market works best.
5.     Fold the remaining half of the chicken wire back over the top of the moss and staple down the sides to the top edge of the wooden tray on three sides.
6.     Finished stuffing in sphagnum moss (you want to fill the wire in the tray as if you were stuffing a pillow) before you staple down the last side of chicken wire.
7.     Soak moss thoroughly with water.

 


Planting Your Topiary:

1.     The kinds of plants you use depend on where you are going to hang your “painting”(shade vs sun). Also consider how large the plants might grow (you don’t want them outgrow the tray too quickly). Choosing plants that are drought resistant is also helpful, they’ll survive better if you skip a watering or two.
   
   
2.     It is helpful to choose flats of plants in smaller pots/containers, as they will be easier to work with.
3.     Arrange your plants on your work area before you actually start to affix them to the “frame.” Start with simple shapes/geometric patterns or maybe an initial.
4.     Using a pair of wire cutters, clip a small hole in the chicken wire. Taking care not to poke or cut your fingers on the cut wire, pull a bit of damp moss out to form a small hole to in which to plant. Insert plant and pack moss back in around it’s roots/soil to help hold it in place until it actually starts to root.
5.     Repeat the above procedure until your “painting” is complete. Take care not to cut holes in the wire too close together, as you want the overall web of wire to hold your plants together. You also will want to leave a little room for the individual plants to settle in and grow. If you like, you can tuck in some decorative moss or other accent to add interest.

Et viola! Hang your living painting in outside in your entryway, on your balcony or on your garden wall. Be sure to water every couple of days, and enjoy watching it grow and fill in!

What Kind of Bride Are You?

Design Sample: Casual Garden Bistro

An easy-on-the-budget sample design concept for a bride who is looking for a wedding with outdoor casual ease.   Table with simple white linens, rustic wood-slat chairs and centerpieces of glass jam jars filled with old-fashioned garden flowers lend a romantic open-air ambience. 


Buffets could be propped with more contemporary wooden risers and clean glass tiles for a more sleek edge, and then accented with vintage bottles filled with an eclectic mix of  heirloom blossoms and botanicals.  A hand-written chalkboard menu adds a personalized touch, reminiscent of a menu du jour posted in a garden bistro in Sonoma County, Spain or the south of France.

Macy's Flower Show "Bouquet of the Day"

Taste décor department's design for Macy's Flower Show "Bouquet of the Day," was on display on the second floor of the Union Square store the weekend of April 9th.  Whew!  "April showers/May Flowers" sure was a haul, but it looked fabulous!
     

Woodsy Chic Casual

My demo,"Woodsy Chic: Casual, Wild Northern California Table Top," at Macy's for the closing weekend of the Flower Show  was  incredibly fun!  At Taste, we source directly from local farmers and purveyors, and I like to carry this practice over to design as well.   Woodsy Chic has been one of my signature looks for years, especially since it reflects a dedication to using fresh, organic sustainable and environmentally friendly products.   
Casual, wild Northern California table top décor can literally reflect what you’re eating for lunch or dinner, and reflects a certain organic or “green” aesthetic that has become incredibly popular.   I purchased the ingredients for t he edible floral centerpiece at the Ferry Building Farmer's market from White Crane Springs Farms, Marin Root Farms, Heirloom Organic Gardens, Knoll Farms Tairwa Produce and Far West Funghi.  Our Chef Chris created a wonderful Orange Blossom dressing to accompany the greens and flowers.

Orange Blossom Vinaigrette (makes 3 cups)

2 T Dijon mustard
4 T fresh lemon juice
4 T tarragon vinegar
1.75 cup olive oil
4 T orange blossom honey
1 t orange blossom water

Macy's Passport 2009

Macy’s Passport 2009 Benefit Night reception was a design challenge this year, incorporating not only a  VIP reception but also a multitude of sponsors with individual branding needs.   Macy’s "Come Together” theme combined the notions of “Fashion + Compassion” for the fashion show fundraisers for HIV services and prevention, as well as their  September campaign, “Hunger Action Month.”  (See http://social.macys.com/cometogether/ for more information on this fun project, whose goal is to provide 10 million meals through Feed America!)

To sharpen these ideas for the purposes of the gala reception, we expanded them to encompass local community and sustainability.   Once MeMe decided on a farmer’s market concept for the theme, I set to work to design an event that would reflect her vision of showcasing the bounty of the bay area and the strong sense of unity, health, ecology and economy that results from “coming together“  in support  of local non-profits working in the HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment arenas. 

Once I had this strong concept to build on, design of an urban plaza farmers market came quickly.  I was able to sketch out layouts for over-all guest flow, food/beverage service and sponsor participation.  I chose props, furniture, linens/fabrics, and lighting to design vignettes complete with produce, plants, flowers and an abundance of trees and hedges.   After only a few weeks, I was able to finally put together my budget and encapsulate my vision in a slideshow presentation.  Macy’s thought MeMe’s concept was a perfect fit and that my design was fabulous.  They decided to have us implement it in San Francisco, and Penny Barr of Along Came Mary in Los Angeles.

Needless to say, the original design took many twists and turns over the following months (it does with almost every event!) but as you can see in my snapshots, the results were just as we all hoped.  Beneficiaries of the event, corporate sponsors, volunteers, various event production teams, farms and entertainment from the San Francisco Ferry Plaza market, all with Macy’s as the host came together as a community.

Andy Warhol: Creator of the Modern Day Party!

Last Sunday my boyfriend Julian and I went out to the de Young Museum to interact with the “Warhol Live!” exhibit.  Everyone knows Andy Warhol for his Campbell soup can paintings, Brillo boxes and celebrity silk screens (which are prominently displayed), but many don’t realize just how intimately connected Warhol was with the world of music. The “Warhol Live” show explores how this incredible pop artist made so many contributions to the world of pop music.  During his lifetime, Warhol made over 50 album cover designs, for such artists as the Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin.  Warhol created and promoted the first performances of the Velvet Underground, and was responsible for designing their memorable “banana peel” album cover.  Similarly, Warhol was closely involved with the Rolling Stones throughout the 1970s, as evidenced by correspondence between him and Mick Jagger, and his Grammy Award-winning (and, at the time, considered somewhat obscene) cover design for the album ”Sticky Fingers”.  When Warhol became immersed in the glitzy and drug-infused late 70’s Studio 54 milieu, he also befriended pop stars like Liza Minnelli, Grace Jones and Debbie Harry.  Their silk-screened images, along with Jagger’s, adorn some of the exhibition walls in this retrospective.

          My favorite portions of the “Warhol Live” show are works he produced at The Factory, a 1960s midtown New York loft space used not only as Warhol’s working studio, but also the epicenter of multiple social cultures from uptown and downtown.  A screening room in the exhibit is coated with silver paint to conjure up the image of the monochromatic color palette of the studio itself. Photographs and videos from this era feature Warhol ‘superstars’ Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga, Pope Ondine and Bridget Berlin.  Wall projections of Warhol films like “Empire” and “Sleep” are also prominently displayed.

Walking around these galleries reminded me why I’ve always thought of Andy Warhol as the creator of the modern day party.  His “ultimate” art piece, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, was a concept in which an eclectic guest list, stimulating décor, live music, and elaborate lighting were implemented to create a fantastic, otherworldly atmosphere. The guests, whether they looked on in shock or participated wholeheartedly, were considered an equally important part of the performance. This concept was absorbed by Timothy Leary’s Acid tests, Hippy happenings, rock shows, discotheques and nightclubs all over the country---and is how we’ve come to imagine parties in general.  There are elements of Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable in almost every fundraising gala, corporate event, wedding and bar mitzvah. Event design still utilizes the glamorous key elements of the crucible that was the Silver Factory, represented in the sixties by that futuristic silver space, the silver screen and Andy’s silver hair…

Flash forward to last Friday afternoon, event designer Una Traynor and I in a studio in one of the Taste Catering warehouses, surrounded by thirty silver wigs.  Scissors and super-hold hairspray cans in hand, we were absolutely coated in Andy’s silver hair.  Taste had partnered with Allison Speer PR, Blueprint Studios and Got Light? to produce a Warhol-inspired event for the de Young Junior Committee’s gala.   Una and I were determined that the wait staff would look the part with their white wigs.  Andy would have been delighted with our implementation of his post-industrial, mass production methods---creating an Andy Warhol hair-do once is fun… but thirty times!?   By the end of the day we were giddy superstars, after inhaling all that hairspray!

The event itself was a big hit.  Seeing all the reproductions of Warhol silk screens that Blueprint hung in the tent on the museum’s terrace and the light projections that Got Light? threw on the walls, I couldn’t help but feel satisfied with the idea that the spirit of Andy Warhol’s Factory lives on in catering and event planning companies everywhere!

For more on the Mid-Winter Gala go to the Bigalow Report and read Catherine Bigalow's post on the party.   

Tiptoe Through the......

Tulips!  The cold and wet of last week had me obsessing  about tulips, one of the brightest  symbols of spring.  In the world of cut flowers February is prime spring season, and since Northern California/Oregon and Washington have become prime locations for global tulips production, San Francisco has been swimming in them!

Saturday I headed down to  Pier 39 to check out Tulipmania, their yearly showcase of bulb plantings.  Tulipmania at Pier 39 was not quite what I expected.  I had never been down to check it out, but after reading the website blurb promoting it, I was imagining ad-hoc carts selling bulbs alongside buckets and planters brimming with blooming tulips.  I, of course, arrived there late and missed the free guided tour, which started at 10 am (there was only one tour per day for the three days of the event).  The gray, wet weather and the smell of waffle grilling from the ice-cream shop seemed like I could be strolling along the Singel Canal near Rembrandtplein during tulip-time, but the actual Tulipmania really was more focused on planters placed all over the pier.  (The accompanying sales associated with the event, turned out to be the run-of-the-mill tourists gifts in the many shops on the Pier.) The planters were amazing, though.  As examples of urban bulb gardens, they were extremely well designed, with a flair that reflected Northern California aesthetics.  Each grouping of planters showcased a different variety of tulip, coupled with other spring plantings like pansies, daffodils, hyacinth and Icelandic poppies, as well as herbs and lettuces like parsley and red romaine.  Every year the pier plants 15,000 bulbs and over time have honed in on which plants do well in the salty sea air.  It’s a great sampling of varieties that you could put in your garden here in San Francisco—and the planters will be blooming still for another few weeks.

Still desperately searching for my fix, I headed up over the crest of Russian Hill to visit Cherries, a boutique flower shop near the corner of Polk and Union.  It being Valentine’s Day, I was coming late in the day to be able to see a vast display, but I thought that surely if they were to be sold out of anything, it would be roses.  The shop was humming when I popped in just after lunch time.  There were still some roses left-- but they had absolutely sold out of tulips.  Kimberly Engle, one of the owners, told me that tulips were generally popular with clients because they were easy cut flowers to care for.  She called tulips the “Levi’s of flowers,” because of their versatility:  “They are right at home at a gala event, a wedding, or on your kitchen counter next to the Sunday paper.”

 

Tulips are easily the most approachable of all cut flowers; inexpensive, easy to arrange and care for, and incredibly diverse.   Aside form the standard varieties of “ice tulips” found in grocery stores, a glance at your neighborhood florist or farmer’s market will reveal tulips with fringed petals, interesting bi-color combinations and other exotic varieties of parrot and Rembrandt tulips.  From a design perspective, you couldn’t ask for anything more perfect!  Masses of one variety fit into a clean, modern look.  Multiple bud vases grouped together make for a more stark, graphic table top.  Mixing Old World varieties with a few carefully placed herbs or other spring bulb flowers lends a soft, gardeny feel.  There are colors and textures to fit every palette-- it’s amazing that one species can cover so much visual territory!  It’s as easy as stripping off any damaged leaves, giving the stems a quick slice and dropping them in cold water.

 

I ended up waiting until this Friday morning to get my mega-dose of tulips.  I got up early and dropped in at the San Francisco Flower Market.  At last I could wallow in piles and piles of tulips--  and say hello to all my flower friends!  Almost every flower vendor is moving mountains of them right  now, even though they’re grown throughout the year these days.  What’s really exciting for me is to see all the new and unusual varieties imported from Holland only in the spring!  My camera was flashing non-stop as I glutted on the visual over-load, and my own yearly tulipmania is satisfactorily sated.