What Happens at a Tasting?

You wouldn’t buy your wedding outfit without trying it on and getting alternations done, right? Or book with a makeup artist without seeing reference photos? Why should your wedding meal be any different? An important part of your wedding planning process will be to attend various tastings with different caterers and bakers, which can get a little overwhelming. Since we know every vendor runs things a little differently, we thought we’d walk you through what you can expect when you arrive for your tasting at Fork and Flair.

To begin with, you’ll need to find our kitchen. We are based about 20 minutes northwest of Minneapolis in the city of New Hope, conveniently located in between US highways 100 and 169. We’re housed in a large industrial lot with other businesses, and also share a commissary kitchen with other food-industry renters.

To find our suite, come through both the front glass doors as well as the wooden door immediately ahead. From there, you’ll see some decor featuring our titular forks – that’s us!

When you enter, the wedding coordinator that you’ve been working with will welcome you in, offer you a seat, and let you know where the bathrooms are. From there, they’ll head back to the kitchen to help the chef put together your first course – hors d'oeuvres. While that’s happening, you’re welcome to sit back and relax. We keep a rotating slideshow of pictures playing that showcases different service styles, menu options, and cocktail hour set ups, among other things.

The hors d'oeuvres that you try will always be selected by our chef, but you have two options for the dinner course. We offer a complimentary “Chef’s Choice” dinner option as well as a customizable “Flair!” option. The differences are highlighted below.

	Chef’s Choice	Flair!
Price	Complimentary	$25 per person
Entrees	Two entrees in price point $ or $$	Two entrees in any price point
Vegetarian Option	One vegetarian option	One vegetarian option
Starches	Two starches in price point $	Two starches in any price point
Veggies	One to two veggies in price point $	Two veggies in any price point

Your hors d’oeuvres course will be followed by the dinner course, served family style. As you are taking pictures and trying bites, your coordinator will be going over various details, asking follow up questions, and marking down which dishes are your favorites.

As the tasting comes to a close, your coordinator will walk you through the booking process and our general wedding timeline, including important due dates for things like your guest count and table layout. Everything that they go over verbally will also be included in a tasting follow up email, typically sent that same week. You’ll then be free to go since that email will contain everything you would need to book with us – and we are happy to get started on that process as soon as you’re ready to make that decision.

Hopefully this has demystified some aspects of how we run our tastings. I look forward to seeing you at our tasting table soon!