Houston Catering

Houston catering services are nearly as plentiful as restaurants but, how will the Houston catering and banquet industries fare this holiday season considering the economy. Houston restaurants continue to thrive even with the bad economy. Houstonians dine out about 30% more than the national average per the Houston Chronicle but, catering and banquets clientele feed much more off the business community than the consumer market. News reports state that many companies are doing well but, just not spending money at this time. The banquet industry is much more competitive considering the hotels in Houston, so will enough event business be available this holiday season to sustain the hotel banquet staffs? How can the smaller catering companies and personal chefs compete with the big league catering companies? That is what Star Banquets and Travel researched for two years; and worked at putting together one of the most efficient, resourceful catering and banquet companies in Houston.

The Founder of Star Banquets and Travel has worked on building up a new reputation in Houston after selling The Green Onion restaurant in 2006. A five year plan entailed completing a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from the University of Phoenix, becoming a licensed travel agent, gaining travel certifications, studying cuisines and developing new recipes. To gain more experience, founder Mike Rizzo also worked in the banquet department of a 4-star hotel for 18 months and wrote an additional 140 dining and travel articles including publishing two electronic magazines. The last step of the five year plan was putting together the best of resources from five years of research that include restaurants, chefs, wedding planners, musicians and bands and last, gain travel certification related to honeymoons and anniversary vacations. Now with over 25 dining and travel websites and a Houston restaurants magazine covering the area from Galveston to Austin that included research on restaurants, cuisines, vineyards and venues our resources are some of the best in Houston. The concept of the new hospitality companies, Bayou City Hospitality and the Texas Alaskan Catering Company is to ensure available resources for every aspect of any type of event and of the highest quality.

The goal of Star Banquets and Travel was to become a full service wedding planner. Founder Mike Rizzo knew he could not become experienced in every aspect of event and wedding planning over night. That is why all the research was done so to find the best of the best restaurants, chefs, venues, and wedding planners to form an event and wedding planning business, which is Bayou City Hospitality. The relationships differ from each professional and company involved. Two of the main restaurants and chef featured by Bayou City Hospitality is Raoul’s Italian Grill, World Master Chef Bernard Cullier and Houston restaurateur, Matt Brice of Bistro Des Amis. Raoul Garcia, the owner of Raoul’s Italian Grill gained much fame in the 90’s in the Champions/ FM 1960 area and relocated to the Klein area in 2006. Reservations are suggested for Friday and Saturday at Raoul’s for the popularity of the restaurant. World Master Chef Bernard Cullier wrote the menus and trained the staff for nearly every major cruise line in the world. He travels the world cooking and this year cooked for dignitaries in Norway and the President of Mexico. He has serviced such prestigious clients at Donald Trump. Matt Brice was the general manager of Ruth Chris Steakhouse in New York and an operating partner of Mo’s restaurant here in Houston. The list of professionals does not stop there for we offer a violinist that plays for the Houston Symphonic Band, an event band who has played for the Texas governor four times and a professional wedding planner with more than 15 years of experience. Many of the videos of our sources are available at AllHouston.net. Other relationships include networking with such venues as the Houston Hilton North, formally the Greenspoint Wyndham where Mike Rizzo worked for 18 months in the banquet department. Services include online hotel reservations and travel agent assistance for honeymoons. Mike Rizzo is a certified St. Lucia specialist and Star Banquets and Travel is experienced in planning the most romantic of honeymoons. Now Star Banquets and Travel has achieved their goal of having a full service wedding and event planning business and the reputation of Bayou City Hospitality is expected to grow quickly.

The Texas Alaskan Catering Company is a joint venture company between Star Banquets and Travel and Carey Earks, who has worked with barbeque since 1973. Carey, who owns equipment and a mobile kitchen large enough to cook for over 1000 guest has promoted his motto for many years of, “Earks takes the hurts out of barbeque” due to how tender his brisket is. Associated with the Texas Alaskan Catering Company is seafood specialist and executive chef Daniel Figueroa who has worked at Woodlands Seafood for many years and made the seafood bisque sold by Champions Seafood Market. The Green Onion restaurant, managed by Mike Rizzo and his wife Carla had some of the best steak reviews in Texas including climbing to the 12th most requested menu, February 2006 on B4-U-Eat.com. The goal of the Texas Alaskan Catering Company is to provide the best steaks and barbeque, Texas style, along with the best seafood available, which we felt was from Alaska. The new Houston catering company has also combined the services of catering and personal chefs to a new concept where much of the food for a personal chef event is prepared in a commercial kitchen, thus the preparation at the clients home or business is much quicker. The catering menu offers many cuisines due to our relationship with other Bistro Des Amis and Raoul’s Italian Grill but, in-house, the focus will be on barbeque, steaks and Alaskan seafood with a heavy Cajun presence.

Although we are in times of a bad economy, Star Banquets and Travel has attempted to create hospitality services that will fit all budgets. The research by Star Banquets and Travel has resulted in an intense event and wedding planning business, Bayou City Hospitality (bayoucityhospitality.com), which included the areas of banquets and travel, fine dining, multiple cuisines and the entertainment industry. The five year plan entailed Mike Rizzo educating himself in marketing, so to know how to promote a business, become a licensed travel agent, gain travel certifications plus study cuisines and develop new recipes. The two electronic magazines hosted at HoustonRestaurants.ws and VacationsNationalPark.com demonstrates the extensive research implemented by Star Banquets and Travel. The Texas Alaskan Catering company was created to offer the most sought after fine dining, steaks and seafood while also offering the ever so popular food in Texas, barbeque for outside events and company picnics. Completing the hospitality services, the Texas Alaskan Catering Company also offers personal chefs. The concept of the new joint venture hospitality companies, Bayou City Hospitality and the Texas Alaskan Catering Company is to ensure available resources for every aspect of any type of event and of the highest quality.


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