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Alyssa:
All right, hello and welcome to the wedding reporter podcast. I’m your host Alyssa DiCicco and today we have a really special guest, a friend of mine for a long time, Jim Hagy. He is with a company called chefs market. He and his wife Cheryl own chefs market and they have been named Nashville’s number one caterer by the Nashville scene for so many years
Alyssa:
Chefs Market is a full service catering company for weddings and corporate events. And Chefs Market is also a restaurant and gift shop located just north of Nashville. And they’re ready to serve couples getting married with any cuisine they desire for their wedding catering. So welcome, Jim, welcome to the Wedding Reporter podcast. Yeah, awesome. Thanks for chatting today.
Jim Hagy:
It’s a pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me. I appreciate it.
Alyssa:
So I gave just a really brief background of you and your wife and what you do. And so maybe in your own words, introduce yourself and let us know how many years you’ve been in catering and all the things chefs market.
Jim Hagy:
Gotcha. Well, you know, Cheryl and I had decided to open Chef’s Market in 1997, which is about 27 years ago. And we were inspired for a couple of different reasons. You know, we had Cheryl was an interior designer with a busy schedule that I was working for a restaurant company and I was a regional director, traveled a lot and then did research and development and concept development. And I think we both loved our job, but there was a point at which we thought, well, this is, we want to do something on our own. And there was a vision for doing this. And when we opened the market, we had envisioned that we wanted to do chef quality food. We wanted to make it affordable. We wanted to make it casual because, you know, it seems like it’s a quarter of a century ago, but before that, there wasn’t fast cash. There was either fast food or there was, oh, Charlie casual or there was really fine dining, and there wasn’t anything that kind of meshed the kind of more casual food served really, really quickly in a fast manner. That was really, really good food. And so we had that desire to do that. And Cheryl being an interior designer, the gift shop was a part of what we wanted. She had a great recipes for cakes and cookies and those kinds of things. So in that, we incorporated a bakery.
Jim Hagy:
So when you come into Chef’s Market, it’s kind of like a cross between a Southern meat and two in a New York deli. So you go through this almost like cafeteria line. I’d like to think it looks better than that. But European last case, there’s the with salads that might be like quinoa or tabbouleh or those salads that are very healthy, vegetarian, gluten-free type options as well. And then there’s a case where we make salads for them. These are leaf salads like a traditional Caesar or Greek, but we have some specialty. And then we have the chef’s hotline, which has a huge selection of entrees and vegetables and homemade bread. And through that, that grew to be a really big success. And immediately people would say when we opened, they wanted us to cater something for them. And, you know, I’ve been in restaurant business in my life. I grew up in it, but really had a lot of catering. And so at that particular point, the restaurant business can be tough. I thought, well, we’ll do this. We needed to do it. And it turned out we loved it. And this is another fun story. Cheryl and I met when we were 19. And she was an interior design major and I was a hospitality major. And as we were getting ready to graduate, we both helped each other with our senior project. She had to design a restaurant and I had to design a restaurant. So we did two completely different ones, but we had this sort of pipe dream, sort of fun thing that what we would do is just go around and I would design the kitchen, help design the menu. She would do the aesthetic of that. And that was a 21 year old pipe dream. But as we got to doing catering, we realized that we were kind of doing that. Doing an event and catering event is a lot like opening a restaurant. And so we had a lot of fun with it because people would come to us and they would say, I have this sort of a static in mind. This is the venue. Let’s develop a menu. This is the venue, let’s develop a menu. And then we would work together on making the food. And it wasn’t we weren’t just bringing the food. We were working with them, are their planner on the aesthetic. And we loved it. We really liked it. We developed a lot of great relationships with people doing those first weddings and all through the years. And so that’s how it took off. And it grew to be more than just weddings. We do galas and a lot of other stuff.
Alyssa:
Yeah, you guys do a lot of really big events. And I really like what you just said about how each wedding is kind of its own restaurant that you’re opening because it has its own unique food. I never really thought of it like that. But it’s so true because there is, like you said with Cheryl, like the whole design aspect of a wedding, the whole atmosphere that you’re setting, it’s different every time. And then the food is different every time. So it’s like when you’re ordering your wedding catering, it is like creating your own restaurant during that dinner time, which is really cool. I love that you said that. I’ve never really like put two and two together like that.
Jim Hagy:
Right. And, you know, so a part of that process is there is that fun sort of aesthetic and establishing the menu and all of that. And there’s that creative element. But there’s also that logistical real world process of how you make that happen, knowing when you can get into the venue, knowing when the rentals can get there. All of those elements are a part of making events really, really work. So, so that those are things that after, you know, many, many years, we’ve developed a lot of processes that I won’t necessarily bore you with all of those. But but the but there are there’s a lot going on like in any party, if you have a party, you know, you’re creating, or you’re doing a play or production, you know, you’re you have this presentation, but there’s a lot behind the scenes that’s going on. A certain amount of equipment that you need to rent. There may be tables, chairs, designing the space. And so, you know, a lot goes into making it happen. We love the challenge and we work with a lot of planners that do so much of that. Yeah.
Alyssa:
Yeah, for sure. So let’s talk about the couples. And so a couple gets engaged. When should they go ahead and start planning with a caterer or planning their tasting or planning their wedding food?
Jim Hagy:
You know, well, the tasting typically would come later, but I’m glad you asked about that process because here’s what we do. And I guess every caterer and venue may be different in how they do it. But I think for the most part, it kind of falls in this thing is people contact us. They’ll email us or they’ll call, and we welcome both of those. And then in that process, we’ll be going back and forth with them. We’ll talk about… Do you have a venue yet? What venue might you, what are you looking for? Do you want a plated seated dinner? Do you want a buffet? Do you want it to be fun stations? Do you want this passworders? What is your vision for that? One question that I always ask and our different event specialists ask different questions. But I’ll say, now if you were gonna have a restaurant catered this, tell me, what it might not be your favorite restaurant because that might be a Mexican restaurant or something like that but if you can envision a restaurant catering your event what would it be and that gives me a lot of insight into the food that they might want and even the aesthetic that they want for that particular event and so we go through that process and then what we’ll often do is if they want to come in and do what we call a consult now this is not a tasting but because we have a restaurant they can come in and they can sit with one of our planners and taste the food, get an idea of the quality of food that we have. It may not be their whole menu because we don’t, we haven’t discussed it enough to know. And in that time, we’ll ask a lot of questions. And then from that, we will put together a real comprehensive proposal that would include all the elements that they’re gonna need to make it work. How much staff are they having in bar attenders? Do they, what rentals? They need it if their planner is not handling that. And then, and so when they got this proposal from us, when they get it, it has pretty much everything that they’re gonna need. There’s no, hopefully there would never be any surprises like, oh, we’ve gotta add your staff or we’ve gotta add this rental. We try to do that in advance. So once they had that proposal and they said, you know, this looks good. We’re ready to come in, then we would do that exact menu for them. And, you know, I know that there’s a lot of things like what questions should you ask when you come in for a tasting. I really think by the time we’re doing the tasting, all those questions have been answered. Are there any dietary restrictions? What all of that’s done? So when they come in, they’re really, we like to make it really special. And so we, it’s really more of a time for us to really get to know them, get to, you know, connect with them. They’ll have their person that is their self-person planner that’s that’ll lead that. And then every wedding, once it’s booked, is assigned a logistics specialist, the person that dots the I’s and crosses the T’s and makes all the list. And so that person will come in to the tasting as well and introduce themselves. And so we really try to make it an experience that is one that’s really memorable and a good time. And they’re really tasting and enjoying food. And they can say, you know, I’d like it to be less spicy or we make all of those notes. It really is about tasting the food, but it is equally as much about getting to know them beginning that process. And there isn’t a charge for the tasting somebody’s booked with us. If they haven’t booked, there is a charge. That’s often a question, how does that work? There is a charge, but that charge, once they’re booked, is just subtracted from the total of their booking.
Alyssa:
Oh, that’s great. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I love that you said that I love how the concept that you guys have, I feel like is very unique. Like, I remember when I was going on my catering tastings, which was like 13 years ago, almost, it was like, here’s our beef, and here’s our chicken, and you could here’s a plate of each and you try it. And here’s some sides and try it and like that’s what your option was. Like it wasn’t very customizable back then, but like now it makes sense where it’s like, that’s what weddings are. That’s been the biggest trend over the last five to seven years is like a customized branded wedding. And you want exactly what you want, whether it be beef or chicken or pasta, whatever type of cuisine, you have it and you can make it and it makes total sense to have all those questions answered before you go ahead and make those meals for them so then they can taste exactly what they would be getting instead of here’s our five options have a little bite of each and now make your menu from that. So I think that’s a really cool way that you guys do it.
Jim Hagy:
We’d like to, you know, I would say that a lot of times, you know, we’re not typically fan, our food’s not fancy, you know, it can be, it can be fancy. Typically it’s really, uh, more bespoke and about making sure that people are getting what they want. And, and the other thing is that they’re getting plenty of it, you know, so that, uh, you don’t want anybody to walk away, uh, from a wedding, um, having not.
Jim Hagy:
had enough. So those are some things we prod ourselves. You know, there’s one wedding I’m working with. With a planner, in this particular case, I don’t know the broad, the sub-broad that I’m working with, and they happen to live, interestingly enough, you can see across the road, I don’t know them, but in a farm, maybe a quarter of a mile down.
Alyssa:
Yeah, you don’t want to have to get fast food after a wedding.
Jim Hagy:
And this young lady is of Asian descent, but she’s moved to LA. And she loves California, but she loves her Tennessee roots. And so the menu that we proposed for her, we did a plated version, and then we did, she wants it more to be a party. So we’ve developed stations. And in those stations, there’s that sort of a fusion of those influences. But then we paired each station, which is at a bar, with the California wine that she likes. So there’s a food, it’s kind of like a food and wine pairing, which speaks California and speaks to the farm and the place that she has it. And so that’s an example of, you know, what we can do to be able to create something in a venue where they’re looking to have their event. In this case, it’s at their beautiful farm.
Alyssa:
Yeah, I think that is such a cool experience. And like you said, people are looking for more of that experience within their food and bringing that to their wedding guests too, because let’s face it, food is probably one of the most expensive things in your wedding planning that you’re going to be spending money on. And so you want it to be good. And the food is like one of the main things that people talk about after a wedding too. And like you said, you don’t want really good food that people talk about and have an experience with. And so I guess that can bring us to what are some of the popular cuisines that couples are asking you for. I know you said you did the stations with, you know, the California infusion and everything, which is so cool. But are there any like really fun examples of things? Are people doing big displays or is it more past apps and that type of thing?
Jim Hagy:
You know, it’s interesting, I think, you know, people have so much information now and they see, you know, Instagram has got so many great, wonderful ideas. And every year at the first of the year, I might even write an article, what I think, you know, the trends are that kind of thing. And I was been trying to write an article. And, you know, one of the things I’ve noticed is that I don’t necessarily see any like new trends that stand out. But I do see variations of trends that have been with us for a while. And one of those trends would be, I think, for instance, after COVID or through COVID, people were like, I’m going to look at, go back to hotels and more packages and just trying to work in that. And there’s been some really in national, some really cool new hotels. But I think that those have lost a little bit. They’ve really realized, well, I can’t, it’s still gonna look the same, but they love to be able to go to venues where there’s pretty much a clean slate. Like the, you know, there’s so many of them in town, I would hate to mention them, but they can create whatever the visual is they want there. So I see that as a trend, which we really already kind of talked about. As far as specific food, I see, you know, like grazing tables, which I love, those are still, on trend. It is not a new trend, but what you’re seeing is that people are coming up with different ways to, and different things that they’re putting on a grazing table. It used to be before it was just cheese, fruit, all those kind of things, but now you know we’re incorporating a lot of their favorite hors d’oeuvres, or many sliders, are you know one of my favorites and you probably tell by looking at me is the butter board. I love the butter, you know, adding that as an element on it. Or the hummus, you know, we have a station we call Hummus Among Us and there’s like five different hummus and they’re beautiful colors and there’s all these different things that can go with it. It’s still a grazing thing. And it may be a part of a larger grazing table, but adding in, I think, trying to make the grazing tables more than just that original sort of…
Alyssa:
Oh yeah, those are so good!
Jim Hagy:
…fruit, cheese, nuts, and all looking the same. The personalization of those, I think, has really gotten to be something that’s, the trend that’s been around for a few years, but coming back, and more coming back, because you wouldn’t do a grazing table during COVID. That was not something you did. So, it’s coming back.
Alyssa:
Right, yeah. It was more like everyone had their own individual box of the grazing table. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Jim Hagy:
Right, right. So we did a lot of that. Yeah, and you know, one of the things I would say is still doing individual things. Like I’ve done individual charcuterie boards at a plated seated dinner. Maybe that was between two seats. And it can be really impressive. And one of those things that delights people when they sit down, you know, that’s fun. The other thing I would say is, you know, I want to talk about desserts a little bit. And this has been being done for a while is, it’s doing a little bit smaller cake and they can get a smaller cake from somebody that will do an elaborate style, you know, cake, or we do small, simpler wedding cakes. That is a cutting cake, but then we’ll do a really interesting dessert display. It could be really lavish with a lot of things, or it could be more…
Alyssa:
Yeah, let’s talk dessert.
Jim Hagy:
…simpler but with the groom’s favorite banana pudding shot or something that their grandmother used to make. They could say, you know, shoot, make this. They could share that recipe, we’ll do it. Or, you know, we’re okay with them allowing them to, we think it’s so special. You know, a lot of places say, no way you’re not bringing in anything. You know, Aunt Sue wants it. No, we’re not going to put it out. But, you know, it’s obviously really a special…
Jim Hagy:
thing and those people want to be included sometimes. So if they want to bring their cookie and have it a part of the dessert display, they can personalize it and make it really good. So I love the that dessert. I think it people love cake. But, and you got to have it. There’s some fantastic cake makers in Nashville. But they also like the fun interactive thing that happens with have you tried this, you know, macaron, have you done, you know, there’s so many different ones. Uh, the other thing I would say, and this is something I’ve seen, it’s kind of a trend and something I’ve seen newer is a lot of times. And one of the things we see is when there is a large cake, there’s a lot of cake leftover, you know, it’s just people are partying. They’re not necessarily in the cake mood, but having a little personalized box that you’ve got a message, uh, you know, that you want to create and have us box that cake in our box of desserts and just have it there when people are leaving and offer them to take it with them. I love that idea. I think it’s a way, you know, a lot of times, the mom or somebody will take the cake home, but you know that it’s gonna be a lot to eat.
Alyssa:
Yeah, for sure. Sharing the wealth with all the leftovers, I think, is really good. I think that’s so cool. Like, my mom said that when she was little, her parents would bring home wedding cake for them, like her and her brothers and sisters, like anytime they would go to a wedding, and that was like one of her favorite memories. And so now, anytime my parents go to a wedding, they bring cake home for my kids and so they’re always like, we want to like leave a little treat for them and so I’m like, oh I love that.
Jim Hagy:
Oh, you know, I hadn’t thought about it. I was thought, well, they would have it later. But that’s right. You know, for the or family that didn’t go to the wedding, they get the sample. I guess a great, great thought on that, too. So there’s a, you know, and that would might mean the little desserts that we’re providing, you know, the smaller whoopie pies. Those could be put. Other food ideas, you know, I think we talked about the grazing tables…
Alyssa:
Yeah, that’s cool. A little take-home box. I think that’s so cool.
Jim Hagy:
..the desserts, I do think that through COVID, there was a period where it was pretty much all plated served meals. And so, and now we’ve seen that trend back a little bit. Buffets, which were maybe at one point, maybe a pass-a, food stations were preferable. Those are coming back and I think they can be done beautifully. And there’s plenty. And so we’re seeing that come back. But I would say that plated served dinners are still strong, but not as strong as they were during COVID.
Alyssa:
Yeah, I totally see that display trend. It’s like, I feel like they all started on like flat boards of like grazing tables. And now all of a sudden, it’s like these sculptural art installations in a way where it’s like, let’s see how creative we can display this food. And I think it’s so cool. And it adds like that, like gasp aspects like to your event where it’s like, wow, I’ve never seen food displayed like that. Like, can I eat it? It’s like, it’s just this cool experience for everybody involved. And I’m sure you have a lot of inventory of things that are not food that are displays and very creative.
Jim Hagy:
You know, we have, I’m glad you asked that. You know, I need to probably send you some photos so you can have them. This is, we have our gold shelf, you know, our white shelf, our, you know, silver shelf, the wood shelf, the black shelf. And so there’s all these trays or silver or platters that are used to whatever the style might be. And it might be, you know, both, it may be a wood look with gold or, you know, so.
Alyssa:
Yeah, I’d love to see.
Jim Hagy:
There’s a huge selection of those kind of things. I wouldn’t call them props, but more serving pieces that we would use. There’s this old shaving dish that I had made out of wrought iron that I absolutely love to use. It’s heavy, the staff makes for me to pull it out. But I’ve got like three of those and those fit a certain look, you know? And there’s more simple where it’s modern, maybe just black with simple running legs for chafers. But we have over the years, one of the things that was very helpful is for us, my wife and I, we would go down to the gift shop and she would do the buying for the gift shop. And there’s a place in Atlanta called the Market, which a lot of people have heard of that. And it’s like three multi-story buildings. And on each level of the building are all of these small wearers, decor.
Jim Hagy:
And these are designers from all over that have come to set up displays. So I would often take pictures of what is the latest style or whatever. And I would find some really creative things that weren’t necessarily so in restaurant supply houses, that they were a part of the core that were food safe, that were stunning. And we’ve been able to have a huge collection of those. So I would go off and do some research on that. And in a.
Alyssa:
Yeah, I think that’s a great idea to like take inspiration from home design and, you know, corporate design, things like that. Where you can incorporate that into your wedding too, and see what those trends are first, or like, you know, a lot of trends start in California, and you can kind of see, you know, it takes a little bit of time for them to get here to Nashville. And so, kind of doing that research and being ahead of the curve, and like also thinking outside the box, and finding some unique things that maybe Anthropologie carries, but like a rental company doesn’t, or something like that, get.
Jim Hagy:
I think, yeah, and you get inspiration everywhere. And, and I do think, you know, it used to be things would kind of roll a little slower to us from California or New York. Uh, but now with, um, social media and the internet, I think that time is people are, are getting ideas. And I think that’s one of the things I was trying to say earlier was that, you know, there are trends, but I think that, uh, people, because they’re seeing a lot, they’re developing their own unique style. They don’t want it to be a trend. They want it to, it’s what speaks to them and what they want for their wedding. And I love the fact that there’s so many ways to get that. Now, you know, it was Pinterest, now it’s of course, Instagram, I guess TikTok too. I haven’t done that as much, but we love, and I will say, you know, one of the things people say, well, where do you get your ideas? And yeah, where I get them a lot is from the bride and the groom, you know, or the couple. They come to us and they say, Hey, you know, we want, um, there was one that, uh, I thought a beautiful wedding cookie that, uh, was the, where the press flowers, the real press flowers are on top. I was gorgeous. I mean, it’s really, in fact, I saw where somebody’s opening sort of a floral bakery in, in town that kind of followed that trend, but that came from. A couple that had the vision for that’s what they wanted. So we did that multiple times and yeah. So what I’m saying is that a lot of our inspiration and new ideas comes from our clients. And we’ll say, yeah, we’ll do that. And then we’re like, wow, that’s really cool. You know.
Alyssa:
I love that idea. That’s very cool.
Yeah, I love that kind of playing off of each other like combining your ideas to just make it one really grand unique event. So was there anything else we can kind of wrap up here that you wanted to share about Chef’s Market or trends or anything in the catering world, things that like couples should know kind of going into their wedding catering?
Jim Hagy:
You know, I think one of the things is to say to a couple going in, I get, it’s really probably very intimidating, you know, that it’s the first time they’ve done that. First time they’ve planned a party and just know that, you know, on our end, our goal is to really make them feel comfortable. There’s no question that’s not the right question to ask. You know, all the questions help us through the process of getting to where it needs to be. One of the things that we didn’t touch on, which I think is an important part of the wedding planning is back to tastings. If I wanted to mention, people often say, well, who can come to tastings or to consults? Consults will be where in the restaurant we’re having a sample of it. But I think that they could have whoever’s a part of that. Of course, their wedding planner needs to come. But there, anybody that’s maybe financially helping with the process would be, you know, welcome to come and usually the mom and one of the, part of the couple. The thing I would say too is that in the process of, the thing I think that is one of the learning curves for people are beginning that is like thinking well, like if I go to a restaurant, I know that I’m going to a nice restaurant. This is what it would cost because I do this. I’m having a hundred guests, a hundred times, maybe the starter, the other. But the one thing I wanted to say was, and I think this is important to say sometimes difficult and caterers don’t say it, but there is a cost that’s additional to, to just the plate and you know, you’re buying the service and the servers and all of that. And remember we’re opening a restaurant
wherever we’re going. So the model of a restaurant is, and I know, because we have the restaurant, we may feed 700 people a day, but with that, I know that every day I’m gonna serve probably 55 Jerusalem chicken. It’ll be 700 different people, but there’s a model of that. But when you’re creating something as bespoke as a wedding and you’re going somewhere, the costs are gonna be more than just what the plate of the food. So I like them and I think most couples know that, but it would be one of the things that we can help them understand what those costs are. It’s very affordable, but I think that’s one of the things that in that first planning process that they’re not as used to seeing. You can usually count on anywhere from $60-$100 per person. And that’s a number I don’t necessarily often throw out, but I’ve watched my daughter and my son plan their weddings. And I know that’s one of those things that even growing up in this business, they didn’t quite understand. Yeah.
Alyssa:
Yeah, totally. That’s so true. So very true. Well, thank you so much for sharing everything. As far as Chef’s Market and wedding catering goes, I feel like I learned a lot. So hopefully those who are listening can learn a lot too. And check out Chef’s Market on Instagram and their website. If you’re getting married in the Nashville area, schedule something, a consultation with Jim and his team and they can take care of you. So thank you so much.
Jim Hagy:
That’s my pleasure.
Alyssa:
Thank you so much, Jim. Have a good one.
Jim Hagy:
Thank you. Appreciate it. You too. Thank you. Bye.
