.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Potatoes boiled for eight straight hours and when they finished, three Food With Flair Inc. employees spent another eight hours chopping those spuds.

After 16 hours, they had enough dill potato salad to feed a whole town, literally.

To celebrate its 100th birthday, Johnson Machine Works in Chariton extended an open dinner invitation to the community. Food With Flair had the job of feeding the guests.

“Posters were up in all the business windows; banners stretched across the town,” said JoBeth Hanke, manager of Food With Flair. “There are 4,000 people living in the town. One thousand guests were confirmed by businesses, but the rest was just a guess.”

Food With Flair began arranging platters a week and a half in advance, 900 pounds of beef were smoked and 10 employees cleaned corn for five hours, Hanke and her mother, Diana Quick, owner of Food With Flair, recalled.

Logistics, flexibility and the support of every employee made feeding 3,000 Charitonians within 90 minutes possible.

“It takes everyone – from the people that do the dishes to the people that serve the food – to make an event happen,” Hanke said.

Local catering businesses have taken the task of accommodating hungry customers to a new level, as requests for unusual locations, events and menus become more frequent.

“It is more and more regular to get something unusual,” Hanke said. “…It is something different every time we go out.”

By attending conventions and following trends from the coasts, Food With Flair joins the catering industry in bringing new ideas to Iowa.

“You get to see the background of everything, and there is always something different,” said John Maher, owner of Execuserve/Catering by John Maher.

In 35 years of catering, Maher has served all kinds of people in many diverse locations, from two United States presidents, Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, to “innocuously” slipping meals to exclusive parties waiting in private jets flying off to various destinations, and over the waters of the Des Moines River for the reopening of the Court Avenue Bridge.

“[Catering] is a planning process,” Maher said. “You plan to fit the product to the venue and determine the best service it needs.”

The chef and owner of Phat Chefs, Dean Richardson, created a broad menu for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to include food from different countries and keep Las Vegas showgirls entertained on a visit to Des Moines.

Extravagant decorations, tall flamenco dancers, tables representing 10 countries from around the world, native foods from each and five to six wines coordinated with each cuisine made for an elaborate menu and event. Having an unlimited budget made it all possible, Richardson explained.

Business can take caterers all over the world.

“Sometimes people just call up and ask you go to their house on an island and cook for them,” Richardson recalled of his experiences working in homes on the Turks and Caicos Islands near Cuba and Amelia Island off the coast of Florida.

Another trend takes meals and parties back to an ordinary location – the home. Catering provides a distinctive twist on a traditional location.

“Hosting events in the big homes…provides a great stage for us to work, and in some cases the kitchens are nicer than we work with here,” Richardson said.

From airborne meals to manufacturing plants to homes, catering businesses function in an assortment of extreme locations with creative menus and event ideas.

Peter Worsham, field manager at Christiani’s VIP Catering, finds himself working with heat and horses every summer on a polo field for Variety – The Children’s Charity. As he caters a growing number of unusual events, locations and menus, Worsham attributes the trend to increased access to the media. Television shows featuring weddings and other festive occasions influence the public.

“People now have more set ideas,” Worsham said. “It is beyond the old punch and cake reception. Tastes are definitely changing.”