In 1984, our parents found themselves out of work with little kids to feed and just $600 to their names. They decided to dream big and launch a catering company.
We grew up alongside that fledgling family business. From the time we were old enough to scrub a pot or mop a floor, we were there at our parents’ feet watching and working. We have vivid memories of pulling our little red wagon around the neighborhood, selling fresh-baked bread and cookies door to door.
In 1984, Ryan and Kaleb were toddlers, and Meagan hadn’t yet been born. Our parents, Mary and Ron Crafts, began catering out of the family home kitchen. They had practically nothing to start with but got enough catering orders to be encouraged, so they kept going. Culinary Crafts had begun.
In 1986, thanks to steady growth, they moved the business to a 3,000-square-foot home with four kitchens in Orem and hired our first employee, Marilyn Baldwin.
In 1990, Culinary Crafts moved to a building with an official kitchen (though we shared it with a photo lab and a radio station). Over the next five years, we slowly took over the remaining 2/3 of the space. We had four full-time and fifteen part-time employees.
In 1994, Mary's cooking show Culinary Creations aired its first program on KBYU TV, and we became known throughout Utah. They only filmed two seasons, but the show was so popular that re-runs aired for twenty years!
Mary and Ron Craft[2].jpg
In 1995, our catering sales topped one million dollars.
In 1996, we opened our first office in Salt Lake City and began discussions with the International Olympic Committee for catering the 2002 Olympics.
In 1999, we paid off the mortgage and hired our first executive chef . We also landed our “venue contract” at Red Butte Gardens.
In 2000, we premiered our first “Chef Action Station” and began honing our methods for cooking fresh on-site. Our expertise brought us prestigious contracts with Sports Illustrated, American Express, and the International Olympic Committee for the 2002 Winter Games.
In 2002, we catered for the International Olympic Committee and several Fortune 500 companies. This brought us national attention, and people across the country began to realize they could get great food and drinks in Utah! By 2008, Culinary Crafts’ revenue was nearly five million.
In 2008 - 2009, the Great Recession hit, and many hospitality companies folded. Culinary Crafts survived the downturn due to three key factors:
Existing clients gave us repeat business and enthusiastic endorsements due to our excellent food and service.
Strong relationships with our venues led to referrals, which are our biggest source of new clients.
We have always kept our debt load very low. For example, we purchase all our vehicles and large catering appliances with cash. Because we don’t buy things on credit, during the downturn we weren't burdened with creditors.
By 2011, revenue had rebounded to four million.
In 2013, Ryan and Kaleb bought 49% of Culinary Crafts and became partners.
In 2014, we moved into our brand new headquarters and commissary in Pleasant Grove. From our prior 3,000-square-foot space we stepped into a brand new 16,500-square-foot building we’d designed from the ground up, increasing our capacity and efficiency greatly. We were in heaven!
Our new catering facility had energy-saving features, extra room for more staff to assemble and train, a warehouse space that our trucks could drive through, and other key advantages. The new headquarters made a huge difference in our ability to take on more and larger catering contracts.
In 2015, thanks to steady growth and innovations of the the two new owners, revenue topped six million.
We launched our YouTube Channel, The Craft(s), to share our love for food and what we do with a much larger audience.
In 2018, revenue was rising, and Ryan and Kaleb became the sole partner/owners of Culinary Crafts. After thirty-five years in the business, in August of 2018 Mary retired from catering. Ryan & Kaleb immediately put their decades of on-the-job training to good use, seeing to it that Culinary Crafts continued to thrive and help grow the Utah hospitality industry.
In 2019, Ryan and Kaleb took Culinary Crafts to the next level with increased sales, more catered events than ever before, and improvements to processes throughout the company. They also maintained strong relationships with clients and venues.
In 2020, the world experienced Covid and one of the most devastating economic downturns in memory. While many companies in the hospitality industry closed their doors, Ryan and Kaleb scrambled to keep our team employed. With virtually no traditional business coming in, Culinary Crafts shifted our focus to providing community service and to diversifying the ways we generate business.
While Utah’s hospitality industry languished in the first half of 2021, Ryan and Kaleb seized on the opportunity to rethink our business structure, streamline operations, and recommit to supporting our employees, whom we consider family. June brought a sudden flood of new business, and the second half of 2021 saw Culinary Crafts scrambling to hire and train staff fast enough to keep up with demand. That trend continued into 2022. Despite the challenges of rebuilding our team, we managed to cater almost as many events as we were doing pre-pandemic, and yearly revenue nearly reached 8 million.
We successfully staged some large and high-profile events, including a retirement party gala where we worked side by side with renowned chef Wolfgang Puck and his team. Since then, Chef Puck has continued to call on Culinary Crafts, including two collaborations with his team in 2022: Super Bowl LVI and the PGA U.S. Open.
Forty years later, that tiny catering company has grown into Utah’s top caterer and a recognized industry leader in hospitality. Culinary Crafts has won twenty-seven Utah Best of State awards and collected dozens of national and international prizes. In 2023, Culinary Crafts was the only caterer in the world to win multiple Caties. (Caties are basically the equivalent of the Oscars for the catering industry.) For the first time, we also topped $10 million in revenue. We’ve come a long way from that little red wagon.
27x winner Utah’s Best of State
24x Best of State Caterer
3x Best of the Best / Hospitality
1x Entrepreneur of the Year