TreePeople's Harvest Moon Gala

At the end of September, Bite Catering helped TreePeople host their annual fundraising gala, “An Evening Under the Harvest Moon” on their Coldwater Canyon campus in Beverly Hills. 450 environmentally conscious individuals came together to celebrate TreePeople’s accomplishments and launch some new initiatives. . TreePeople is an environmental nonprofit that unites the power of trees, people and nature-based solutions to grow a sustainable future for Los Angeles. Their mission is to inspire, engage, and support people to take personal responsibility for the urban environment, making it safe, healthy, fun and sustainable and to share the process as a model for the world. Check out more about TreePeople here!

This was a wonderful and fun event that showed off the beautiful TreePeople campus, which boasts gorgeous views while fulfilling it’s mission to educate its visitors about water flow in California and the important role trees play.

The event started out with a casual cocktail hour with tray-passed hors d’oeurves and stationary “Grow your own Garden” Crudité displays with savory tortas, crackers, fruit, and various dipping sauces. Our display stations contained custom tree displays to match the client’s theme! The drink of the hour was the tray-passed signature cocktail called La Luna Verde containing cucumber foam, silver tequila, agave nectar and fresh lime juice. This drink paired perfectly with the three tray-passed hors d’oeurves: warm creamy tomato soup with fontina grilled cheese sandwiches, roasted butternut squash crostini with burrrata, crispy sage and toasted pepitas, and California artichoke beignets presented vertically with zesty remoulade.

In addition to the tray-passed cocktails, there were multiple bar stations that featured farmer's market products, fresh/organic mixers and local California wines to complement the menu. The bar also featured local microbrewery, MacLeod Ale Brewing Company who is known for their traditional fresh british ale brewed in Van Nuys.

In previous years, this annual fundraiser featured a plated menu. This year the goal we were charged with was to create an equally high end, “green” offering while encouraging guests to get up and roam the campus.

The solution - Bite incorporated an all organic, locally sourced and sustainable menu featuring a variety of small plates. After enjoying a plated salad of local beets with California goat cheese, greens and pecans, guests were invited to walk the campus and visit a variety of stations featuring California cuisine. Stations featured a vegetarian pasta station with vegan option, free-range/organic Jidori chicken station with local vegetable saute, and a line-caught opah station - a Pacific fish known for it’s healthy populations and yum factor! With limited space and such a large guest count, stations also ensure a high quality, quick service that was interactive for guests to take part in. We loved getting to interact with the guests!

Finally, we had three dessert stations that displayed our five mini bite desserts and dessert shots. To stick with the theme of green and sustainable foods, we created a custom dessert shot named the “Cup of Dirt,” which was actually a Chocolate Pot De Crème Dessert Shot with mini shovel spoons and edible flowers. In addition to this, we had Pumpkin Cheesecake Shots with gingersnap Crust, Chantilly cream and candied pepitas, Mini Pecan Pies with chocolate drizzle, Lemon California Olive Oil Cake Bites with Lemon Curd and of course, Assorted French Macarons.

We were thrilled that Treepeople had a successful turn out and received its largest donation to date. We were proud to be a part of this special event!

Take a look at the fabulous vendors who also worked this event!

TreePeople

MacLeod Ale Brewing Co.- Van Nuys Microbrewery

Maria McGinley - Photographer

Vahagn Karapetyan - Photographer

Pat Longo - Entertainment