Catering by Chef Alec Bruno

We hired Chef Alec for our Colorado wedding in June 2018. I based my decision to use Chef Alec based off reviews as we live in California. So when our big day came around, I was over the moon excited to marry my best friend but also very let down by Chef Alec Bruno and his team and this is why:

1 Star For Presentation: I will say, the presentation of the food was amazing, the people he hired to cater our event on his behalf were very good at plating food and making it look appetizing.

1 Star For Service: The service staff he hired was on top of the whole evening. They brought my husband and I a sampler of the passed appetizers, were very kind and professional, and did a fantastic job cleaning up and listening to our needs. (We tipped the staff additional $$ after our event because they were very attentive)

The -3 stars comes from the food preparation and how Chef Alec handled our disappointment. After consulting on the phone with Chef Alec numerous times, we decided on the salmon paired with pesto gnocchi and the beef shoulder paired with seasonal veggies.

The salmon was disgustingly undercooked; my mom told me she thought it was meant to be sashimi/sushi and various other guests, including myself (the bride), ate around the center of the salmon because it was inedible. I was so hungry and debated if I would get sick or not if I ate it. Speaking of getting sick, a few of our guests actually got sick from eating the salmon. When you have professional chefs cooking your meal, there is a level of trust that they wouldn't serve undercooked fish to their guests.

Next on the list, the beef shoulder was extremely overcooked to the point of it being dry and hard. Beef shoulder is meant to be tender enough to pull apart with a fork. Chef Alec Bruno assured us that the beef shoulder was a guest favorite and very tender.

When we spoke to Chef Alec about our catering disaster, he was slow to resolve the issue. Alec reached out to see how the wedding went, since he was not present. We told him about the undercooked salmon and overcooked beef and that we were not happy that his catering service made inedible food that made our guests sick. He assured us he would make it up to us and apologized.

Fast forward 2 weeks later, I have to remind him of his "resolution" to us. He had completely forgotten about us as clients and tried to let this one slip by without any sort of resolution. That same day, he had rush-delivered us a bottle of champagne with a "Congratulations" message. Zero apology and zero responsibility taken on his behalf. The food was so terrible we wanted the cost of the proteins refunded. If I had been at a restaurant, I would have sent the food back and asked for something different.

Chef Bruno is a young kid who really needs better business skills. He lacked to train his staff to properly cook fish and red meat, he lacked in conflict resolution, and ruined the meal on our special day. I would recommend finding a different caterer for your event.