THE MULTI-MEGAWATT star power cranking through Guy Oseary's fall 2002 30th birthday bash didn't faze Joann Roth Oseary. “If you're a caterer in L.A., this is your crowd,” says the president of Tarzana, Calif.-based Someone's in the Kitchen and stepmother of Oseary — president of Madonna's Maverick Records label. While luminaries including Britney Spears, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson attended the party, produced for Oseary and co-host Sony Playstation by local planner Jeffrey Best and held at a private estate in Beverly Hills, Calif., Roth Oseary says that it was catering logistics — not the fame factor — that challenged her crew.
The entire event menu was made up of tray-passed hors d'oeuvre. Without the impact of an entree, “Each food item had to be its own unique thing, so that you could get a little bang out of it,” she says. Butlered morsels included rice paper rolls stuffed with steamed salmon and Brazilian coconut chicken with Dijon orange marmalade. “Guy wanted pizza, so there was pizza,” she says, but adds that even the pizza — topped with such goodies as Gorgonzola and caramelized onion — was “a little different.” An on-the-move dessert of fresh-baked chocolate-chunk-and-macadamia-nut cookies served with “shots” of ice-cold milk provided late-night sustenance for the hard-partying celebrities. “They absolutely loved it,” she says.
Nailing down the right mix of portable treats was one thing, Roth Oseary says. Serving the '80s-theme event's 300 guests was another. To ensure adequate flow, she brought in 25 waiters, six bartenders, seven chefs and a supervisor — a hefty crew for an event that size, she notes.
Then there was the issue of catering to the expectations of the “glitterati,” she says. While she planned to stock her wait staff with “shadows” — servers assigned to stick to specific stars and meet their every need immediately — this party packed in such heavy hitters that “the request was that the shadows needed shadows, so that the shadow didn't need to leave the star's side for a minute.”
But, she says, the slate of difficult demands didn't deter her staff, who “were having such a blast” circulating among the superstars and taking in the live sounds of the Psychedelic Furs, Sugarhill Gang and Devo — all part of the evening's entertainment lineup. “It was just beyond the stratosphere,” Roth Oseary says.
Someone's in the Kitchen 5973 Reseda Blvd., Tarzana, CA 91356; 818/343-5151; www.sitk.com
