Rolling with the punches! Cooking for celebrities can be tricky, but chefs Wayne Elias and Joe Flamm, who are handling two separate post-Grammy Awards bashes, don’t let any atypical food requests make them sweat.
Elias and Crumble Catering will be working Steven Tyler‘s Grammy Awards viewing party to benefit Janie’s Fund on Sunday, January 26. The veteran chef plans to prepare four courses for the shindig and each course will have a vegan option. Dishes on the menu include porcini-dusted cod with asparagus and milk chocolate mousse.
When it comes to outlandish asks, Elias, who is also slated to cater the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award viewing party next month, told Us Weekly exclusively on Wednesday, January 22, that he’s seen his fair share. “Last year Diana Ross was at the Elton John [viewing party]. She sat at Elton John‘s table and she loved everything so much that she hired me to cater her 75th birthday party,” he dished. “Believe it or not, she wanted the same exact menu that I served at the Oscars viewing party and so we did that menu.”
Elias noted that Ross was so pleased with the results that she called him the day after the event to personally thank him. “It was very cool,” he said, noting that partygoer Beyoncé “came through the kitchen” when she arrived at the birthday bash.
He also recalled a particularly hungry guest at one A-list function who kept asking for “triple portions” of food.
For Flamm, 32, who will be the chef for the Official Grammy Awards Afterparty on Sunday, crazy requests are nothing out of the ordinary. As he told Us exclusively, he’s been asked to prepare everything from white truffles with hot sauce to table side pasta made from scratch.
However, there’s one holiday-related experience that takes the cake for the Top Chef winner. “One time, in the middle of an extremely busy dinner service the day before Thanksgiving, we had to make a full Thanksgiving dinner for a guest to-go so she could enjoy it on her plane the next day,” he recalled.
Hopefully for Flamm, the unusual asks at Sunday’s Moroccan-themed party, which has a guest list of more than 5,000 people, will be kept to a minimum. He has curated a menu that will feature four North African-inspired food stations, inclusive of appetizers, entrees and desserts, all with a modern twist.
“We let the theme completely inspire the menu,” he told Us. [“There are] tons of North African flavors, roasted meats and beautiful flat breads.
Added the reality TV star: “We are doing live-carving shawarma stations that we are super excited about and [they] should be really fun.”
With Reporting by Kayley Stumpe and Carly Sloane
