Everything you need to know about elle cuisine’s upcoming Mother’s Day High Tea event at The Symes
Plus, what the top catering company in the city has planned for 2024
elle cuisine’s long standing reputation as a top catering company speaks for itself. Executive Chef & CEO, Lauren Mozer, founded her company as a boutique private chef service that has since evolved, over the past 12 years, into one of the city’s most trusted and sought after full service catering and events business. Toronto Life is proud to boast elle cuisine as a preferred catering partner for 2024.
As we roll into the second quarter of 2024, we caught up with Mozer to chat about a special charitable event they’re hosting on May 12 for Mother’s Day at The Symes, in support of Shelter Movers, a Canadian organization that provides moving and storage services to individuals and families fleeing gender based violence.
Could you tell us more about your upcoming Mother’s Day High Tea event at The Symes?
In partnership with The Symes, who are also female-led and operated, we are hosting a one of a kind Mother’s Day event in support of Shelter Movers. They’re a charity that helps survivors of gender-based violence transition to a better and safer life. They do really great work and the majority of the victims and survivors that they support are mothers. We’re excited to make that link with Mother’s Day and donate 50 per cent of all the proceeds to the charity.
What a lovely idea. Can you give us a sneak peek into the menu and decor for the day?
We’re leaning into the traditional high tea theme. Think tableside tea service, three-tiered stands lush with tea sandwiches, scones, petits fours (mini cakes and desserts), and mini quiches, tarts and galettes. With the help of our sponsoring rental partner, Chair-man Mills, we’re also going all out with our decor and aesthetic. It’s going to look gorgeous and feel like a traditional English High Tea, as if you’re at a high-end hotel in London, England. For drinks, The Symes is serving mimosas and spritzes. With the support of Sole Power, our production and entertainment company, we’re planning a unique photo booth for guests to get some family photos of the day. It’ll be a nice keepsake to take home. We’ve tried to be as thoughtful as possible and that’s important to both of our brands and a way that we differentiate ourselves in such a saturated market of events in Toronto.
Could you give us an update on how elle cuisine’s 2024 is shaping up and what new offerings we can expect?
Looking back at 2023, we started to notice significant shifts in how our audience was responding to the planning process and the nature of event needs in general. In response to an ever-changing market, we chose to invest in three main categories: our newly launched online delivery platform, elle cuisine events with a philanthropic element and investing in venue partnerships.
A higher volume of delivery-based event inquiries created an opportunity for us to invest in and launch our e-commerce and delivery platform online. With the launch of this category of business, we’re able to focus on approachability and fitting the needs of both our current clients and a new audience. While still in the early phase of discovery (tons of fine-tuning, feedback collecting, and challenge solving) we are proud to boast about our delivery program online. The delivery platform offers customers a more affordable offering with a focus on ease of use. The world has changed and with it expectations on how one can secure products and services. Online ordering with less face to face/phone contact is the trend we’re seeing and we want to be able to shift with the current climate.
We’re also leaning more into hosting elle cuisine events with a philanthropic element. In challenging times it’s important to us that we support local and Canadian causes that are close to our hearts. In March, we sponsored Night 1 in partnership with Day 1 and Fertility Friends at The Great Hall and of course we have our upcoming Mother’s Day event. Through this resurge, we’re also investing more in venue relationships. Having the opportunity to offer our clientele a variety of venue options across the city is certainly a strength and one that we’re leaning into. We have long-standing relationships, like the one with The Symes and we’re also excited to introduce new collaborations this year—hang tight for signature collab events all throughout 2024.
What do you believe sets elle cuisine apart from other catering companies in Toronto?
Quality first. We really focus on high-end, luxury premium offerings. That’s from the quality of food to the quality of service. We want to stay true to that, while also being approachable, flexible, and transparent in our communication with our clients and new service offerings. We are reevaluating what’s important to them and how we can best suit their needs. But we never want to lose that high-quality approach. We pride ourselves on long lasting relationships with our clients, built on trust and reliability. We are proud to boast high retention rates as a result.
We’re proud to be female-owned and operated and really lean into the fact that we’re “small, but mighty.” We keep our team lean, which means we can act quickly and respond promptly. We pride ourselves on our ability to create customized menus inspired by clients. Our team moves quickly to solve challenges and can implement innovative changes & updates rapidly and nimbly.
