“Big presentation, 400+ people” - yeah, there’s not gonna be good food there.
My experience with those kinds of things is that they trot out food that is fairly trendy, but they do it as cheap as possible, and most of the time the caterers don’t really know what they’re doing. Add in “catering for 400 people” and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Don’t blame the food itself; cheeses, fancy meats, the other appetizers you mention SHOULD be good. But in that venue? No doubt McDonald’s would be better.
The caterer wasn’t necessarily bad, if they were doing a good job with the “familiar” foods. But maybe those dishes were exotic to them, too, and they just didn’t know how to do a good job with them.
Great point. I only saw maybe 3 or 4 people who were catering this event. There might have been a few more there in the background but there were significantly more attendees than caterers and my 400 guess for attendance might even be low.
As I said, it wasn’t horrible, just average and I might have had too high of expectations.
Food for 400 people is tough to do. I’ve never been to a party that big with food I would call “good.”
But I also have to decry the description of fried pickles as “Exotic.” That’s some seriously down home stuff right there.
"Fancy meats"usually refers to charcuterie (Cured meat) which is up there with stinky cheese on the “acquired taste” scale. I like good food and fine ingredients, but I don’t like eating raw fatty meat regardless of what “African Inland Sea” the curing salt came from.
Mousseline is usually not too bad, but I don’t happen to like liver, so also not my thing. And many people are caught up short thinking they’ve picked up a dessert, then they bite into something with whipped liver and horseradish. Once it happens to you though, you get giggling rights for the rest of the night, so that’s self-healing. 
“Fine” or “Aged” cheeses are generally universally beloved, unless you are just really turned off by the texture of the crunchy crystals.(Hey, more for me!) But “exotic” cheese can be a sinister expression. There are some nasty things in this world that people eat while calling them “exotic” or “Delicacy.”
“Delicacies” are generally not for those with a delicate stomach. LOL!
Oh I’ve been to plenty of parties with 500-1300 people that have served great food, but that comes at a steep price and depends on the caterers.
Somebody got the “pitch” wrong.
If you’re catering to an audience of sophisticated eaters, serving BBQ would be a failure. If your catering to an audience of McDonalds eaters who occasionally splurge at TGIF, serving chevre’ would be a failure.
The OP, net of legit allergy issues, is closer to the latter end of the spectrum. It appears from his/her description that lots of other audience members were too.
It’s always tough when organizaers try to do something “special” or memorable, which usually means moving up a notch or two. Some of the audience will inevitably be left behind.
For example …
Around here we have relatively a lot of French restaurants to cater to the large winter contingent of Quebecois. Their menus inevitably include a basic US style plain grilled steak and plain baked potato. For the folks doing a fancy dinner for a fancy occasion who can’t bring themselves to enjoy something more Frenchified.
Per the OP, if the food was an objectively bad example of what they were trying to do that makes it doubly bad. Good chevre’ on good bread is good; crappy chevre’ on Wonder bread not so much.
I’m still trying to figure out what foods are considered exotic.
Right. Around here, fried pickles are a staple at Hooters and sports bars.
Whichever foods the OP doesn’t regularly eat.
Whether that’s escargot or grits is an individual matter.
Yeah, I was gonna say. “Fried pickles” are hardly exotic. (Love 'em, too! I prefer the chip type in a light batter to the spear type which is also usually more heavily breaded.)
A year or two ago, I heard that people tend to like what their mothers ate while they were in her womb. Wait… Apparently it was five years ago.
I don’t know what my mom ate before I was born, but I suspect she ate the bland American food everyone ate back then. But I was exposed to ‘exotic’ foods early, living in Japan as a small child, and I’ve always been willing to try almost anything once. Perhaps the OP should approach food not in the ‘How does it compare to Olive Garden’ sense, but with a sense of wonder and adventure. Life is more fun when there’s wonder and adventure.
What I wonder is what were the ‘exotic’ cheeses and ‘fancy meats’ the OP mentions, and what kinds of cheese the OP likes? If you were raised on Kraft Singles (not actually cheese) or Kraft Deli Deluxe (actual cheese), even a medium cheddar may be hard to swallow. It’s all what you’re used to. Mrs. L.A. loves triple-cream Brie, but she still doesn’t quite like the fluffy white rind. She likes most of the cheeses I bring home, but she doesn’t care for ones made of goats’ milk. I’d suggest to the OP s/he approach ‘new’ foods with a positive attitude. (I’m getting a vibe s/he’s like ‘OK, I tried it. I knew McNuggets are better.’) That is, if s/he is really interested in trying new things. If not, de gustibus, and all that. For cheeses, and for a small, mainstream, variety of cured meats, try Trader Joe’s. They have a good variety of cheeses, and they’re inexpensive. (Some people report they go mouldy quickly, but we don’t have that problem. Maybe our fridge is colder.)
The important thing is to enjoy what you eat. I think it’s good to find new things to enjoy.
Johnny: If you enjoy a good goat cheese, get some of this and age it a bit Humboldt Fog® - Soft, Ripe Goat Cheese | Cypress Grove Cheese
Truly sublime. Not at all the usual soft smeary chevre. Neither is it the common runny goat brie. Best of all, you probably won’t have to share any with your wife. More for you! 
That’s not at all what charcuterie means to me, though different regions and caterers/eateries may have different ideas. Certainly the word is derived from “cured meat”, but at least in my experience it has come to mean a sort of informal tasting menu often offered by wineries, ideally on an outdoor patio on a beautiful summer day. And it includes a lot more than just meats, many of which are just good, upscale versions of ordinary cooked and smoked meats like ham or kielbassa, served with fresh-baked crusty bread and interesting mustards or other condiments. It can also include smoked fish like trout or tuna, smoked duck, a variety of smoked or cooked seasoned chicken and turkey, vegetables, and most of all, a wide variety of cheeses. Throw in an opportunity to sample the winery’s wares along with it, and it’s a great way to spend a summer afternoon.
Charcuterie is meats, and condiments directly for the meats. A cheese plate served in a similar way might go well with it, but the cheese itself is not charcuterie.
I tried grits once.
Once.
OTOH, Mrs. L.A. likes my escargots better than ones at any of the restaurants around here.
Plus it doesn’t have to be uncooked at all. Typical is something like a salami, a pate/terrine of some sort, a cooked sausage, some dry-cured ham like a serrano or prosciutto, bacon, etc. It’s a fairly wide umbrella. So, a mix of familiar and some less familiar things.
Escargot and grits sounds like it could be pretty good. Like shrimp and grits; just add way more garlic and butter.
Added benefit: You irritate both the snobs and the slobs at once!
Great idea! Thanks.
As someone who enjoys both foods and tweaking both groups I’ll give it a try and report back. 
It may be a few days.
Ooo, that reminds me of that practical joke I fell for more than once as a child: topping Jell-O with mayonnaise or Miracle Whip.
Dude, TMI! ! !
