Joy Wallace

How long have you been catering in South Florida?
We are proud to be celebrating our 24th year in business this December.

Was there a defining moment in your life when you knew you wanted to be in the catering business?
I had always enjoyed hosting parties. After my children left the nest, I began investigating what my next adventure would be and came across an FIU handbook. It was that day I realized I could make money doing the very thing I loved, celebrating life’s special occasions.

Your best piece of advice to a client trying to decide on a menu?
Take into consideration your audience. You may be vegan but ask yourself if vegan cuisine appeals to the majority of your guests as well. You can eat the foods you like any day of the week but on this special day you are feeding the people most important to you. You may not please everybody but you most certainly should try.

What was one of your most memorable events from the standpoint of guest enjoyment? One that enhanced your company’s reputation? Your most over-the-top catering job?
Guest Enjoyment: Our favorite client loves to host parties as much as we do. We have been working together on their family’s life celebrations for over a decade. Each year our challenge is to design an event, bigger and better than the last. Themes we have designed include, Old Hollywood, Wizard of Oz, Renaissance, Mardi Gras, New York New York, Midsummer’s Night Dream and many more. We joke that for our clients’ friends and family, it is like going to the prom. The anticipation from receipt of invitation to sitting down to the meal generates great excitement for all involved.
Company Reputation: Super Bowl XLI in 2007 was a very busy week for us. We hosted multiple events for major corporations surrounding Super Bowl Weekend, but the day of the big game was our very own championship. With the assistance of 350 staff, culinary teams from 3 top catering companies from around the company and 8 local chefs from popular Miami restaurants, we simultaneously hosted the NFL tailgate party for 5,000 guests and the Cadillac tailgate party for 1,500, including many Hollywood A-listers. It may have been a good day for the Indianapolis Colts but it was a VERY good day for the A Joy Wallace Catering Production and Design Team.
Most Over the Top: We were invited to cater Dan Marino’s induction to the Football Hall of Fame, in Canton, OH. It was indeed a production to take an all-star staff to the middle of the country

Your favorite type of cuisine to plan a menu around?
While we produce a lot of continental and Latin-influenced menus, I believe our event planners and chefs become most excited when they have the opportunity to work the theme from the event into the menu. We have done 60’s parties with menus based on the traditional TV Dinner; Cirque parties where we have balanced a shrimp on a scallion; and a Child’s Pinkalicious party with a menu consisting of nothing but pink.

If you could plan an event for anyone in the world, who would be your choice?
Tim Tebow. He is just sooooo cute!

How do you spend your down-time?
I love to travel. It gives me the opportunity to bring home to Miami the most wonderful ideas in food from around the world.

Joy Wallace
A Joy Wallace Catering Production and Design
8501 S.W. 129th Terrace, Miami 33156
305-252-0020
www.ajoywallace.com