If the San Francisco Bay Area is renowned for its locally sourced cuisine, it’s little wonder. The region has all the ingredients required: a year-round growing season, a wealth of nearby organic farms and wineries, fresh seafood and skilled chefs and purveyors with a commitment to sustainable practices.
At the forefront of this commitment is LRE Catering (415.522.1417), which has met the stringent requirements to become a San Francisco Green Business. According to Douglas Monsalud, partner-executive chef at LRE, the company’s sustainability focus dates from its inception back in 2000.
"Right off the bat, we had an ethics and moral compass pointing toward sustainable foods," he says. "I’ve been a chef in the Bay Area for over 15 years and have created a lot of relationships with local farmers. The Bay Area is 25 years ahead of the rest of the country in being able to deliver sustainable foods to the marketplace."
A growing number of meeting groups have been drawn to LRE because of its emphasis on local, healthful foods, according to Monsalud, who enjoys presenting the region’s natural bounty at events.
"When you’re cooking for large groups from around the country, you can’t get too unusual, but we like to show the local food off," he says. "We love to serve vegetables in different varietals—tomatoes, peppers, eggplant in colors and forms that people haven’t seen before. People are blown away by this."
LRE’s events often take advantage of the area’s natural settings, including local farms, wineries and parklands, and food stations showcasing chefs at work are especially popular, according to Monsalud.
"We like to get creative, so that people can get involved with the process," he says. "For instance, we’ll have a chef who makes mozzarella by hand-stretching it and slicing it. We also like to cook on-site over grills using organic hardwoods. We can prepare a huge paella over an olive-wood fire, which is very dramatic."
When it comes to beverages, LRE serves organic wines and also makes specialty cocktails that reflect the company’s sustainable focus.
"We use our own handmade items in cocktails—simple syrups made from fresh lemon verbena or huckleberries from the North Coast," he says. "It’s a simple touch that makes the event go the extra mile."
Two years ago, Monsalud and Kim Stevens, partner-event director at LRE, launched
Kitchenette (415.552.6628), which serves creative lunchtime sandwiches from LRE’s back dock, located in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood at the base of Potrero Hill. With "Spontaneous, Organic, Covert Nourishment" as its slogan, Kitchenette gets the word out on the daily special via its website, Facebook and Twitter, where it has thousands of followers. Kitchenette also does a thriving business in catered lunches and platters for local companies.
"Kitchenette is LRE’s brash younger brother. It’s offered at a lower price point and involves very simple food done in an old school way," Monsalud says. "For instance, if we’re doing a pastrami sandwich, it’s with our own brined and smoked pastrami and house-made mustard, topped with sauerkraut that we pickled ourselves."
In addition to serving local, sustainable and organic food, LRE is committed to products that are recyclable and nontoxic and waste that is compostable.
According to Stevens, one of LRE’s next initiatives will be environmental impact reports for events.
"Increasingly, planners have to furnish environmental impact reports on their meetings, so this is a service we can provide," she says.
