Artfully Delicious

We came to Artfully Delicious looking for some to cater a vegetarian meal for about 20 people.  Immediately Chef Kriss had suggestions that sounded great.  And they were.  The execution was flawless and the flavor was amazing.  The food and serving materials were delivered to our event and BEFORE the time specified.  How often does THAT happen?  The food was delicious and devoured immediately.  And we were told we didn't even have to clean up.  We rinsed the serving materials off and Artfully Delicious took care of the rest.  And did I mention the price was below our meager budget?  So to recap, great food and service at amazingly reasonable prices.  Now we just need a reason to use them again!

I tried some of Artfully Delicious' catering at a vegan event in Chicago. Their pad thai had a nice flavor, but I wasn't a fan of the Upton mockmeats they used, which were just slightly too chewy. I liked how they cooked the dish in front of you, on a wok. Nice display.

The cinnabons were fantastic. Those were the real deal and took me back to my pre-vegan days.

On a whole, I'd be curious to see what else Artfully Delicious could make.

For my friend's bachelorette party this past weekend we thought it would be fun to take a cooking class. And we thought the groom would be extra happy with our attempt to domesticate his future wife.

I called around some of more popular cooking schools in the city: Chopping Block, Cooking Fools, The Wooden Spoon, etc.  All were ridiculously expensive. We were about to give up on domesticating the bride when I came across a review for Artfully Delicious.  I gave them a call and expected to hear that it would be out of our budget, but this time I was in luck...

I immediately liked Kriss, the man behind Artfully Delicious, on the phone. He seemed excited about cooking for me and my drunken friends...and had a few good ideas of what he'd want to make. But it was his prices that really sold me. He came to us (our very own personal chef) for $33/person. And we also took care of the $45 grocery bill needed to make an artfully delicious meal. Now THIS was in our budget...whoo hoo!

Kriss was constantly in touch leading up to the party and was very flexible when it came to the menu. He mostly cooks vegan and vegetarian meals, but did say he'd be up for cooking meat if it was organic.  Since the Maid of Honor is a vegetarian we were happy to go sans meat and came up with the following 3 course menu:

Course 1:
3 different types of bruschetta: tomatoes and basil, chick pea & white truffle oil (my favorite!), and artichoke and red onion.

Course 2:
esparagus risotto

Course 3:
stuffed and baked peaches

Kriss arrived ready to work his magic in the kitchen 30 minutes ahead of schedule. He worked hard to prepare some of it ahead of time so the class would be a bit speedier for us drunken gals.  Once we got started he did a really nice job of explaining all the steps...even a cookingtard like myself understand what he was doing.  

Everything turned out absolutely delicious! Too delicious because before I knew it I had eaten about 23 pieces of bruschetta (ok, 4, but still a lot), a bowl of risotto, and even managed to find some room for dessert.  I was in a major food coma, which is kind of a problem when you're about to go out drinking all night for bachelorette festivities...but fortunately I managed to rally with the help of my friend black cherry effen.

I would hire Kriss again in a heartbeat for a personal cooking class, to cater an event, and even asked if he could move into my spare guest bedroom.