Red Maple Catering, where the party comes to you

No kitchen, no dining room, no walls? No problem. Chef Jason Harrison and Red Maple Catering provide it all — plus a sumptuous meal for four to 400, more or less. From mountaintop meetings to meadow weddings, romantic anniversaries to dinner with friends, Red Maple Catering offers creativity, attention to detail and some of the best food you’ll ever have.

Highly organized and leaving nothing to chance, Chef Harrison started his career in the kitchens of luxury hotels near and far, sometimes serving more than 4,000 people for a single event. He’s learned a few tricks along the way, and can seamlessly flit from classic to outlandish, whimsical to traditional, with his culinary creations. He and his Red Maple crew have earned a reputation for imaginative, delicious meals — even in the middle of a field without any electricity.

Summers are busy for the team.

“We still do a lot of private events — some really fun stuff at people’s residences,” Harrison said. “But instead of 100% private chef work, we layer in corporate events and weddings. It’s really fun. Now is the time of year when we get to go and spend time on ranches and up in the mountains — all of the places where people want to be, we get to go there.”

But one of the best parts of the summer is that people come and stay for longer periods of time.

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“So we end up doing more dinners for the same people —  more return clients,” he explained. “They come on vacation, with larger families, and we get to cook for them a couple of times.”

When they begin working with a client, they invite them to look through their established menus to get a baseline for what’s possible.

“That’s when the fun kicks in,” Harrison said enthusiastically. “We’re really lucky, we’ve had the same team for a really long time, and now we collaborate on a lot of stuff.”

One of his chefs worked at one of the best Mediterranean restaurants in the country, and is bringing his expertise to a vegetarian wedding this year. Another has a background in Asian cuisine, which serves his well with repeat clients who have a teppanyaki grill.

“We run our private events like we’re running a restaurant,” Harrison said. “We do all the prep at our kitchen, and then finish it at the client’s house. We serve it and clean up. I like to say we leave the house cleaner than we found it.”

Just like the menus, the style of service is customizable, too: plated, family-style and beyond. Lately, cocktail parties and tapas are popular.

They’ve also got “return client” weddings. The first big wedding Red Maple ever did was for a family that has a ranch in Eagle.

“It was 300 people, and they were all in from Manhattan,” Harrison said. “Their next child in line is getting married next summer and they want us to cater that one, too. They’re going with a different wedding planner, different everything else. But they want us to do the food again.”

It’s no surprise, as Red Maple is not just about what’s served on the plate, but rather based on a continually growing relationship between the team and the clients.

“After we do people’s weddings, they often invite us back to do a family dinner or an anniversary,” he said.

Which is perhaps the greatest compliment of all.