Santa Maria Catering specializes in fine Italian cuisine that is not only enticing to look at but provides a tantalizing assault on the taste buds, leaving you wanting more. So what makes our Italian food so special?
Every dish is carefully prepared using only the finest quality, freshest ingredients to ensure the best flavors. Our world-class chef Renato has been creating outstanding Italian dishes from the time he was a young boy, standing alongside his Sicilian grandmother, learning how to prepare and cook mouthwatering dishes for his family. His love of cooking grew into a career that has spanned almost 25 years working in some of the finest Italian restaurants in Canada. Today, Santa Maria Catering is blessed to have Renato creating and overseeing the preparation and cooking of the wonderful dishes of his childhood, along with some that he learned since.
Each day Renato and his assistant attend the local fish, meat and produce markets to select only the finest quality, freshly harvested ingredients. Wherever possible organic produce and meats are used as we believe that not only do organic ingredients taste better but are better for the health of our clients. Though organic produce and meats do cost a little more we believe the additional cost is worth it to gain the superior flavors and nutrients organic provides.
Once the meat and produce reaches our kitchen it is quickly stored to preserve its natural goodness, and prepared just prior to cooking so that valuable nutrients are not lost. Our kitchen is immaculate and you could literally ‘eat off the floor’ though of course we prefer to serve our fine Italian cuisine on plates. The kitchen staff consists of skilled, experienced cooks and kitchen hands with extensive knowledge of hygiene and proper food preparation techniques.
Nothing says Italian more than a fantastic tomato-based sauce and once you have tasted Renato’s homemade recipe handed down to him from his grandmother, you will find all other tomato-based sauces to be sadly lacking. Though Renato supervises much of the other cooking his tomato sauce is something that only he undertakes the cooking of. We secretly believe that the ingredient that makes Renato’s sauce superior to others is the love and care he puts into it, as he remembers those days in his grandmother’s kitchen.
No Italian cuisine would be complete without pasta, which is why Santa Maria Catering provides an extensive range of pasta dishes to satisfy all tastes. All of the pasta used in our dishes is made fresh in our own kitchen from top quality ingredients, and then cooked to perfection within a short time of being made. Though this can be a time-consuming task we strongly believe that our clients can taste the freshly made difference. Topped with Renato’s special tomato sauce or a cheesy, creamy Alfredo sauce you have a dish that demands you come back for seconds.
In today’s world of fast food and chain restaurants discovering authentic Italian cuisine is a delight. We enjoy providing it as much as our clients enjoy eating it. We put a huge dose of care, pride and skill into preparing every dish, and we have been told over and over again that it shows. Santa Maria Catering has been dubbed Richmond’s best kept Italian secret. We have worked hard to earn that reputation and will continue to do so with every meal we prepare, cook and serve. It is our ultimate goal to have our clients not only call on our services again and again but to share their experience with family, friends and business colleagues.