Accessible, healthy, creative food and the people who order F&B for events took center stage at Smart Meetings Culinary Experience at Paris Las Vegas this week. Partnering with Caesars Entertainment, Smart Meetings brought to life the innovative ideas, tasty solutions and business-friendly strategies that leave attendees feeling nourished and KPIs crushed.
The Power of Catering
Meeting professional choices about food and beverage orders impact everything from sustainability, engagement and inclusivity to budget. Thrive! Meetings & Events founder Tracy Stuckrath kicked off the insights with a primer on not killing or offending your attendees. She shared tips for partnering with the venue, sourcing locally, accommodating dietary medical, cultural and religious needs and labeling appropriately so everyone feels comfortable stepping up to the table. An estimated 33 million people in the United States (11% of adults) have at least one food allergy, making these measures vital for one-in-ten of your attendees.
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Smart food and beverage programs start at the RFP process where you ask about their sourcing and waste management. A chat with the chef in the kitchen should be a part of every site visit. Food handling and requirements belong in the contract. Asking about special needs starts with the registration process and flows directly into communication pre-conference to let them know what is available (sharing menus in advance with proper labeling is ideal) and a graceful way of identifying and delivering the appropriate meal once onsite. “Every meal matters to the attendees and the planet,” Stuckrath said.
Fun Food
Because meals set the tone, choosing creative menus can serve as an icebreaker to get people talking as well. At a team-building competition arranged by CSI DMC, attendees learned how to balance flavors and textures to create tasty, healthy, elegant non-alcoholic cocktails using Zero Proofed spirits and inventive glassware and garnishes. Look for the winning beverage to be served in the Caesars Entertainment booth at IMEX America in October.
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Themes bring a meal to life as well. A reception at Area 15 and Meow Wolf celebrated the influences of land, sea and sky in the hanging salads, fresh oyster shucking, espresso martinis with cookie crumble and cotton candy-wrapped pork belly. Projection walls made the progressive experience immersive with branding and a DJ.
The celebration of all things culinary even made it up to the night sky as Skyworx Drone Shows lightfest included nods to toasting martinis and a friendly cooking competition. That is wowing all the senses.
The Morning Chew
Wonder what chefs really wish you would ask them about the menu? The Morning Chew, talk-show themed panel featured Caesars Entertainment Director of Catering Sales Las Vegas Michele Polci, CPCE, CMP (and a Smart Women in Meetings Award winner); Caesars Entertainment Assistant Executive Pastry Chef Dorthy Pace; and Caesars Palace Banquet Chef Jose Garcia. The three offered the Smart Meetings community key insights into industry trends, sustainable strategies and accommodating dietary restrictions—and we’re here to make sure you are caught up on the latest news from these experts.
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A top focus of many of Caesars’ partners and clients is wellness-oriented F&B, particularly options that are vegan, vegetarian and/or gluten-free. As a result, Caesars Entertainment launched a Wellness Menu in 2023 that includes speakers and activations and Chefs Pace and Garcia have pioneered an impressive level of innovation in their kitchens. In the past, many alternative versions of carbs and dairy products were noticeably different from their traditional counterparts; now, ingredients such as pea protein allow culinary teams to create delicacies so similar that taste tests yield difficulty differentiating between the two.
Meeting profs now enjoy a wide range of options for wellness-based F&B, including creative dishes that incorporate natural ingredients and seamless substitutes for common allergens, including gluten.
Polci sees chefs as similar to mathematicians, as they are constantly adapting their recipes to the evolving needs of partners and clientele. Caesars has streamlined its culinary sourcing and receives shipments from California and Mexico six days a week (with products from the former arriving in as little as three hours from harvest).
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Other trends include the return of breakfast, once a small and simple spread, to a full sit-down affair complete with a sweet and savory menu for attendees to enjoy. Chef Pace encourages her team to “be adventurous. We want our food to be memorable.”
When it comes to a mealtime’s end, Caesars uses several strategies to minimize food waste, such as keeping employee dining halls stocked with top-tier dishes, partnering with several charities to donate excess, composting food and employing trash teams to properly sort recyclables. The panel’s respective teams work together to ensure that each meal, from start to finish, is engineered to suit the needs of meeting profs, attendees and sustainability goals.
