Culinary Crafts Turns 40

This year is a big one for Culinary Crafts.

2024 is the 40th anniversary for Utah’s top high-end caterer. It also happens to mark ten years in our Pleasant Grove facility as well as six years since Ryan and Kaleb took over as owners. So this seems like a great time to look back at the wild adventure that has brought Culinary Crafts to where we are today.

(Very) Humble Beginnings

What would you do if you found yourself with two little boys to feed, your house in foreclosure, and a total of $600 to your name? Back in 1984, our parents’ answer to that question was, “Dream big and launch a catering company!”

Culinary Crafts started out as a literal dream that our mother had one night. “In that dream I saw all these catering vans lined up and how beautiful they looked with our logo,” Mary later explained. “I woke up the next morning and I knew just what to do, and I proceeded to do it and stuck to it.”

When she says it like that, it sounds easy. But it wasn’t.

In the beginning, not only were the Crafts losing their condo, but their car had been repossessed and they were out of work. Mary started selling bread and cookies door to door in her Spanish Fork neighborhood, dragging the fresh baked goods and her two little boys behind her in a little red wagon. From there, it was a long, hard, bumpy road to build that mom-and-pop business into the dominant catering legend it is today.

The Growing Years

Those two little boys in the wagon, Ryan and Kaleb, grew up alongside the fledgling family business. They (and later their little sister, Meagan) helped out at the company from the time they were old enough to scrub a pot or cut out 100 sugar cookies.

But it wasn’t just the Crafts family and their business that had a lot of growing to do. So did the whole culinary scene in Utah. Back then, in the 80s, “catering” in Utah typically meant a little paper plate with a butter mint, a nut cup, and maybe a little chicken salad sandwich. The Crafts were convinced they could do much, much better. They set out to change the way their neighbors thought about food.

Culinary Crafts quickly became a major trendsetter, introducing gorgeous buffets, gourmet cupcakes, chef action stations, and even chocolate fountains. (They still apologize for the mess and questionable hygiene of that last one.) “We were discovering all sorts of different things” Mary recalls. “Unique serving pieces, different ways to do stations, ways to not have chafing dishes all lined up on the buffet.” Slowly, the standard for catering in Utah began to change.

But the Crafts had their eye on something much bigger. For years they travelled all over the world studying with top chefs, researching different cuisines, and perfecting their culinary skills. Year after year, their reputation for excellent food and exquisite service grew.

But a rude awakening lay ahead.

We Were Doing It All Wrong

By the late ‘90s, when the Winter Olympics were preparing to come to Utah, there was a clear choice for who would cater the games. Culinary Crafts was awarded the contracts for all the major events, including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and parties for the Governor’s Mansion, the President’s Suite, Sports Illustrated, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“Our chefs put a ton of work into preparing for each tasting,” Ryan remembers. “For the IOC in particular, we prepared what we thought was a perfect menu to showcase our ability to do all kinds of cuisine. At the end of the tasting, the president of the IOC said, “This is the best tasting we’ve ever had. Your food is excellent…but you’re doing it all wrong!”

We didn’t know whether to feel flattered or flattened.

The president explained, “You’ve served us all this wonderful food—Greek, French, Italian, Japanese—but the thing is, we’ve had all this before. We’ve been to Greece and France and all these places. But we’ve never been to Utah. We’re coming here to see what Utah has to offer. We want to be served Utah cuisine.”

A stab of panic went through us! What on earth was “Utah cuisine”? Funeral potatoes and green Jell-O? Fry sauce? Food storage?

But our panic soon turned to excitement as we realized what an opportunity we were being handed. It was the perfect time to change the face of Utah cuisine forever!

Redefining Utah Cuisine

The Crafts began traveling all over the state, telling different food producers and hospitality vendors, “Look, we have all this money coming in soon from the Olympics, but we have to raise the quality of food and service here…fast! We need to hit a level that’s world-class. Can you help us do that?”

The response was phenomenal. We found food professionals who had always wanted to expand and improve their offerings but were afraid that there wasn’t enough of a market for it in Utah. Suddenly, with the new influx of Olympics money, they were free to experiment and grow. That was the beginning of a food renaissance in Utah that is still going strong.

Today, Utah is known for food that is fresh, filling, flavorful, and distinctly Western. Visitors from all over the world come to Utah expecting grilled trout, sizzling ribeye steaks, heaping fresh salads, grilled peaches, High West whiskeys, aged cheeses, artisan chocolates, and more, all locally sourced and expertly prepared. This change in our culinary landscape is part of the reason Utah is now talked about in the top tier of places to hold a conference or stage a destination wedding. (And the fry sauce is still grand!)

Culinary Crafts is proud of our small part in redefining “Utah cuisine” and bringing our state the respect it deserves. We’ve come a long way together.

Highlights

Forty years later, that tiny catering company from Mary’s dream has grown into Utah’s top caterer and a recognized hospitality leader. Here are a few highlights:

• In 2024, Culinary Crafts was the only caterer in the world to win multiple Caties. (The Caties, awarded by the International Caterers Association, are basically the equivalent of the Oscars for the catering industry.) Not only did Culinary Crafts win “Best Catered Wedding of the Year” but also “Best Catered Event of the Year.”
• Over the years, Culinary Crafts has collected twelve Catie awards, including “Best Dessert,” “Best Main Course Plate Presentation,” “Best Food Trend Incorporation,” “Innovative Mixology,” “Best Hors d’oeuvres,” “Best Barbeque,” and “Best Multi-Day Event.”
• Culinary Crafts is the only Utah caterer to ever win the International Caterers Association’s “Caterer of the Year.”
• The New York Times awarded us their “Unquestioned Favorite Dessert” in a nationwide dessert sampling.
• Culinary Crafts has won twenty-seven Utah Best of State awards.
• Additionally, Culinary Crafts has won three trophies for Utah’s Best of the Best, a competition that covers Utah’s entire hospitality industry.

Not bad for a company that started with just $600 and a dream.

All our love and appreciation to our amazing team and to our Utah neighbors and fellow vendors who have grown with us over the last 40 years.

Here’s to 40 more!