Santa Maria Catering specializes in fine Italian cuisine that is not only enticing to look at but provides a tantalizing assault on the taste buds, leaving you wanting more. So what makes the Italian food so special?
Every dish is carefully prepared using only the finest quality, freshest ingredients to ensure the best flavors. The world-class chef Renato has been creating outstanding Italian dishes from the time he was a young boy, standing alongside his Sicilian grandmother, learning how to prepare and cook mouthwatering dishes for his family. His love of cooking grew into a career that has spanned almost 25 years working in some of the finest Italian restaurants in Canada. Santa Maria Catering is blessed to have Renato creating and overseeing the preparation and cooking of the wonderful dishes of his childhood, along with some that he learned since.
Each day Renato and his assistant attend the local fish, meat and produce markets to select only the finest quality, freshly harvested ingredients. Wherever possible organic produce and meats are used as not only do organic ingredients taste better but are better for the clients health. Though organic produce and meats do cost a little more, the additional cost is worth it to gain the superior flavors and nutrients organic provides.
Once the meat and produce reaches the kitchen it is quickly stored to preserve its natural goodness, and prepared just prior to cooking so that valuable nutrients are not lost. The kitchen is immaculate and you could literally ‘eat off the floor’. The kitchen staff consists of skilled, experienced cooks and kitchen hands with extensive knowledge of hygiene and proper food preparation techniques.
Nothing says Italian more than a fantastic tomato-based sauce and once you have tasted Renato’s homemade recipe handed down to him from his grandmother, you will find all other tomato-based sauces to be sadly lacking. Though Renato supervises much of the other cooking his tomato sauce is something that only he undertakes the cooking of. It is said that the ingredient that makes Renato’s sauce superior to others is the love and care he puts into it, as he remembers those days in his grandmother’s kitchen.
No Italian cuisine would be complete without pasta, which is why Santa Maria Catering provides an extensive range of pasta dishes to satisfy all tastes. All of the pasta used in the dishes is made fresh in the kitchen from top quality ingredients, and then cooked to perfection within a short time of being made. Though this can be a time-consuming task it is strongly believed that the clients can taste the freshly made difference. Topped with Renato’s special tomato sauce or a cheesy, creamy Alfredo sauce you have a dish that demands you come back for seconds.
In today’s world of fast food and chain restaurants discovering authentic Italian cuisine is a delight. A huge dose of care, pride and skill goes into preparing every dish, and it has been told over and over again that it shows. Santa Maria Catering has been dubbed Richmond’s best kept Italian secret. Hard work has earned that reputation and will continue to do so with every meal prepared, cooked and served.