About Chef Elisa's Catering

I fell in love with food and recognized my gift when I was 12 years old. My remarkable mother found and hired a private tutor for me when I was 14. Once a week I learned how to cook something wonderful. Roasting bones to make stocks & sauces. The sauces were always a favorite afternoon; they were all just delicious love and happiness in my mouth. I can still taste my first real and true Boeuf Bourguignon, mmmmm. I played with puff pasty and choux pastry. And there I learned many of my hors d’Oeuvres I sell to this day. Three years later at the tender age 16 my tutor, a CIA grad who dabbled in catering herself, referred me a “shot gun” wedding contract for 75 guests, all finger hors d’ oeuvres and I did it! I loved every minute, I have never stopped loving it since.

In my teens and early twenties, I catered small dinner party gigs, cooked at restaurants and catering operations. I learned a lot. I read every Cuisine and Gourmet Magazine hot off the press. I loved the food but I got disenchanted with the “corporate” culinary work. In the 80’s the most important tool to have was a box cutter. True story, so many menu items started coming in already prepared, so cooking quickly became, just open a box, bake and serve, or open box and fry and serve, or open box and grill and serve. Yuck.

So I changed my college major to communications because I watched the Mary Tyler Moore Show, another true story, and after graduating from FIU with my Bachelors in 1985 I went into broadcast news for a decade or so. I ended up in San Antonio Texas and I loved it even though the News Biz is nuts.

You see it’s pretty standard to get fired, a lot, since these decisions are based on ratings, not actual life experiences, but yet I digress. So anyway I got fired, and in 1994 I returned to my cooking roots and started my own Private Chef catering biz.Three Years later, I was the talent for a cooking segment on KMOL’s Noon Show with Tanji Patton. The News Director who fired me was still there and I thanked him. It was, and is to this day, one of the best things that ever happened to me.

San Antonio was a blast, the people are great, and the food is hot. I prepared what ever my clients wished: I catered dinner parties, brunches, holiday family feasts, and diet specific meals for my weekly clientele. My favorite gig was the Monte Vista Library Fundraiser in 1999. The event was held in this historic apt building built in 1924. The event covered 5 floors and served 450 guests. The challenges involved were mind-boggling. For starters the elevator was original, 1924 and the max weight capacity was a mere 750 lbs, so loading and setting up the event took over 5 hours.

In the mean time, weekly clients were still my bread and butter, so over the years, my clients hired me to quickly learn the “rules” and then create stunning meals based on Pritikin , Atkins, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, Sugar Busters, Eat for Life, Fit for Life, Susanne Summers, Eat your Body Blood Type; “yikes I needed a excel spread sheet to get that one straight”, Cooper Clinic – Dallas diet, South Beach Diet and the Zone.

In 2000, I moved back home to South Florida. I continued to grow my business, serving remarkable clients. Celebrity nutrition clients quickly became an important part of my clientele but at the same time the party catering grew and next thing I new I was taking on larger and larger events. And the next thing I knew I was also becoming larger and larger too. I decided to practice what I cooked and became a client of Emery behavioral Medicine. I started creating “Food For Fitness” in 2006, as my own personal journey for a healthier body and lifestyle began.. It launched me into an entirely new nutritious culinary direction. I’m a Chef that has found nutrition. And to my staff I refer to this food style as cooking by numbers, 40-40-20.

So now, I truly have the best of both worlds. I have the parties, the aromas, the cooking, the tasting, the beautifully designed platters and presentations all to celebrate the richness of food and life. And I have yummy healthy food for every day.

All of my dishes are inspired by the collective experiences of many clients over my career. Each dish is a story.