Denver NACE Podcast
The Denver NACE Podcast is a show dedicated to the events industry in Denver, Colorado. Hosted by members of the Denver chapter of the National Association for Catering and Events (NACE), the podcast features interviews with a wide range of professionals in the industry, including bakery owners, wedding planners, venue owners, DJs, musicians, and photographers.
The aim of the show is to share the stories and lessons of these industry experts and help grow the Denver events industry by bringing the community together.
Whether you're in the wedding industry, corporate events industry, nonprofit events, or other social events, the Denver NACE Podcast is a valuable resource for anyone looking to learn more about the industry and the people behind it.
Denver NACE Podcast
8. Sarah Chianese's Culinary Journey: From New York Streets to Colorado Peaks and the Heart of Event Catering
Embark on a flavorful expedition with Sarah Chianese, the gastronomic virtuoso behind Mangia and Enjoy, as we traverse her journey from the vibrant streets of New York to the scenic charm of Colorado Springs. Sarah's devotion to creating dishes that are more than just sustenance but rather, embodiments of affection, takes center stage in our latest podcast episode. With a focus on sustainability, her team's zeal for locally-produced and organic ingredients shines through every artfully crafted plate. Whether it's an intimate wedding or a grandiose event, Sarah's narrative is peppered with insights on the importance of a Farm to Table philosophy and the joys of uniting people through the universal language of food.
As we wander through the memories of Brooklyn's diverse neighborhoods, the place where my culinary flames were first fanned, we unlock the secrets of honing one's craft through the senses—even without a taste. I share tales of formative experiences, from cooking in Woodstock to a flourishing production career and back to my catering roots, emphasizing the gritty perseverance that fuels passion. Our conversation also spotlights the dynamic events industry and the significance of mentorship within it, weaving in our shared commitment to the National Association for Catering and Events (NACE). We wrap up with an open-hearted invitation to join the Denver NACE community, a beacon for anyone eager to blend, share, and expand their expertise in the eventful catering world.
Find Sarah at https://mangiaandenjoy.com/
What's up? Denver Event Pros? It's Jared Judge, your friendly neighborhood electric violinist, back with another exciting and tasty episode of the Denver NACE podcast. I am joined by a special guest here who is going to talk all about food and her journey with food and Denver and Colorado Springs and New York. So I am so excited to be joined today by Sarah Chianese. Welcome, Sarah.
Sarah Chianese:I'm even better now because you pronounce my name so beautifully. So thank you so much, Jared. Yes, I am Chianese with Mangia, and Enjoy is the name of our company, and I'm thrilled to be here Awesome.
Jared Judge:I'm thrilled to have you. You mentioned that Mangia and Enjoy. You said it was boutique and unique catering, and my mouth is already watering. So why don't we just cut to the chase? Tell me what do you do? Tell me about Mangia and Enjoy.
Sarah Chianese:Well, Mangia and Enjoy is a company that started in New York, actually in the Hudson Valley, New York, and then we moved out to Colorado Springs a little over three years ago, but we still travel back and forth, which we're used to doing. We travel all around the country, out of the country, so it's not a stretch for us, but it is a company that focuses heavily on local farmers. So organic, local farmers, really beautiful, sustainable food, presented in an extremely artistic and loving way. So food to me is love and that is what we put on a plate into hearts and bellies of many.
Jared Judge:Oh, that's amazing. And you are the chef of Mangia and Enjoy, is that right?
Sarah Chianese:We have a beautiful chef team. People have been with us for nine or 10 years at this point, and some newcomers as well, but it's been a really beautiful journey with incredible, incredible people on our team that make true magic happen.
Jared Judge:That's fantastic. Can you give me a sense of the kind of events that you would cater?
Sarah Chianese:Certainly Well, there's good old weddings, right, and weddings of any size. So we do everything from a micro, micro wedding where it's literally like a private dinner, all the way up to 400 people. My comfort zone, where I really, really love the pocket of around 150, I feel, is still intimate enough where you could see each other, and so we love that size. But we'll do any size because obviously it's their wedding and they want to invite whoever they would like to have. But we are luxury. So those who are planning for a 400 person wedding you know it's, it's you could buy a house.
Jared Judge:Yeah, for sure. And in addition to weddings, what other kind of events do you do?
Sarah Chianese:We really do any event that requires food. What we wouldn't be called for is probably like a baseball game where there's hot dogs and hamburgers, but there's nothing like going to one of those, of course, but I do not tend to cater to those kind of events. We do reunions, we do corporate retreats or wellness retreats. We do anniversary parties. We love anniversary parties. My favorite are 50th wedding anniversary parties, because you see the four generations that resulted from a wedding 50 years ago and that just warms my heart to know. And bachelorette dinners and bachelor dinners that's our private chef sector. A lot, a lot, a lot of those throughout the year.
Jared Judge:Wow, that's amazing, and it is amazing to see how food plays such a pivotal role in connecting generations and bringing people together. I'm curious you mentioned that one of your big company philosophies is Farm to Table. How did that philosophy come to be and how does that manifest itself in your catered?
Sarah Chianese:events. Great question. I love that question. Well, everything used to be Farm to Table. I want people to just let that sink in for a second, because it's not a unique thing.
Sarah Chianese:Farm to Table was the original way. So in Italy, grandma's growing fava beans in the backyard, in the front of her house. She's peeling them in the day and by nighttime it's on the dinner table. So to me, farm to Table is something that just seems to stem back from our ancestors and that warmth and that love that comes from the very direct sourcing. So that's why Farm to Table means so much to me. It just is. There's nobody in the middle, it's coming straight from the farm, it's going to your table. There's nothing processed. We definitely don't do processed food and I don't mean to put down anyone who does, because there are many caterers who do and bless their hearts for what they do. We just do things our way and it is a matter of respecting the farmers.
Sarah Chianese:New York has an incredible, incredible bounty of local farms that we are so, so fortunate to have in the Hudson Valley of New York, right above the city. It is amazing. Everything grows there throughout the year. Not in the wintertime, many things aren't growing, but throughout the year you have everything at your fingertips so we have so much fun with the color and the bounty. Colorado Springs I didn't expect when we moved out there I had never been to Colorado and I'm thinking, oh Colorado, like that's healthy. Everybody's out there biking and jogging and running and I didn't realize it's high desert. So the farming there is a little bit of a different ballgame than what we've been spoiled with in New York, but it is still available and I love many of the sources that we've been reaching out to in Colorado and in gating a relationship with. So we're very excited about seeing what happens there.
Jared Judge:Yeah, that's wonderful. That made me curious, reminded me of a question I had earlier, which is you mentioned that you not only cater in New York and in Colorado. You would travel anywhere. Anywhere that there's food you would be able to cater?
Sarah Chianese:Oh, absolutely, in fact it's. A goal of ours is to be able to pretty much travel almost everywhere. I'm interested in traveling, too, and cooking regionally. There are some. If it's tan and bland, if that's their food profile. I don't really want to visit any countries that deal with that. But if there's any flavor, if there's any spice, if there's garlic growing or anything in the Italian family, if there is an exotic, well we would call it exotic because we're here. But if we go somewhere and we see something that we've never cooked before, I want to get my hands on it. So we believe a lot in that little mini chef sabbatical. Go out, go travel, see what they cook, create it based on their local farms, regionally, wherever we go.
Jared Judge:Yeah, that makes sense and that kind of answers. The secondary question I had, which is how do you do that? Say that someone asks you to cater a wedding in Washington state, where you've never necessarily traveled or cooked before. What does that look like for you to source your material and get it on the place?
Sarah Chianese:Well, thankfully, we are in the digital age, so without an internet, what would I do about that? I would probably cry and probably not travel that much and probably not cook in many, many places. But nowadays we research, we find the local farms. We speak to vendors in our community because we're already dealing with so many vendors throughout the country when we go to conferences and through NACE and we're meeting everybody. That's such a great source to be able to reach out to a NACE member in Washington and say, hey, what are the local farms near you? What's the reputation? Have you eaten any of their goods? What's going on with them? Are they reputable? Are they good people? Because we do care about the farmers that are good people. We actually like to make sure we know what farm we're working with.
Jared Judge:That makes sense and that also probably dictates what's available on the menu, because regionally crops are different, Seasonally crops are different. How do you go about curating a menu for an event?
Sarah Chianese:Well, because every one of our menus are customized. That makes it a lot easier on us, so we can let people know we're inquiring with us. This is going to be a seasonal availability menu and they're usually into that. If they've found us, if they've gone to whether our website or Instagram and they see that we already do this, they're already interested in that factor of ours. So they'll appreciate the fact that we're going to tell them I'm sorry, asparagus is not growing locally, because that's an early time of the year, even though I always would guess that it would be a hardy vegetable, but it doesn't grow in the fall locally.
Sarah Chianese:Can you get asparagus in the fall in New York? Sure, you can, but it's growing in the spring. So if they really want asparagus on the menu, we tell them don't worry, we'll get an organic asparagus, it's just going to be from elsewhere. I mean, we cook with lemons and pineapples and mangoes and they don't grow up here, so we're not 100% local farms. It's impossible for us to be cooking the way we like to, because we like to use those ingredients that don't grow here as well.
Jared Judge:Sure, that's awesome. You mentioned that people find you through Instagram. What are the ways that you typically market yourself?
Sarah Chianese:Mostly word of mouth, so we'll have a lot of repeat clients. We'll have people who have attended one of the events that we've cooked at and people will say who on earth made the food, and they find us. So that's one healthy way of receiving people who inquire with us Definitely Instagram and our website and, believe it or not, I'm finding out that good old Google has been a very dear friend of ours. So they just Google event catering, hudson Valley, colorado Springs, private chef services, bachelorette dinner or something. They'll just put in all these different keywords and they'll find us, which is fabulous.
Jared Judge:Yeah, I love SEO. I've just recently dived into the whole world of search engine optimization myself for my business. And boy, you could get a college degree on that.
Sarah Chianese:It's changing, so get ready to have another master's degree in it.
Jared Judge:For sure. So is that. One of the hats you wear for your company Is the marketer of it.
Sarah Chianese:I guess you could say that I wear quite a few hats. I would love to reconsider a hat. Not being 17 feet tall, my son warns me all the time to cut my hats down and pass it on and delegate it out to others. I'm listening, I'm abiding, bit by bit, but the yes, it's simple, as our marketing is off of our iPhone when we're at an event. If we have time to or remember to take a picture, that's what goes on Instagram or our website. There's no staged photography. There's no professional shots. Maybe one or two throughout the years of one of the professional photographers will like oh my gosh, I got a picture of your food. You want to post it? I'm like sure, but essentially it is an iPhone in me.
Jared Judge:Yeah, that's amazing. You're getting so much done just with one little six inch box.
Sarah Chianese:I can go with one of those Mambo Jumbo six and a half inches. That might help a little bit.
Jared Judge:For sure, but I imagine you didn't get into being a private chef because you wanted to be a marketer for it. How did you get into this whole culinary arts? I love that question.
Sarah Chianese:It started as a tiny, tiny, wee one. You've heard many people say oh, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I was born with a spatula in my mouth. For real, I passed by in a pan. I'm on a step stool. I used to cook for my older brothers and sisters home fries the first thing I ever made. I would cut very patiently cut a potato and very patiently fry them in a pan for my older brothers and sisters. By the time I was finished putting them all on the paper towel, there'd be like one left because they'd walk by and keep swiping them and that'd be like at the end of an hour of three year old Sarah cooking at the stove I would get a potato out of it.
Sarah Chianese:I was happy that was good for me. So, yes, I started there, I would say. Growing up in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, is where I grew up and as a result of being in such an ethnic neighborhood with a thousand different smells around me at all times, I think that was the largest impetus for me falling in love with food. The smells we kind of make a joke in our company about it's all in the schnaz, Like it's my nose tells everything, because there's many things I don't eat but I cook them. So I don't eat meat or chicken, for example, and but I can cook them. Apparently, people say I make the best chicken they've ever had in their life, the best pork, the best beef all of these things that I've never even tasted, but it's because I can smell them. And that comes from growing up in my neighborhood where one corner they're cooking shish kebabs and then you walk down the street and there's an Italian you know pizzeria pumping out all those yummy smells, and then there's an Indian restaurant and then there's a Jamaican beef patty joint and it's just. The list goes on and on and I grew up smelling my way through a culinary experience that got me super interested.
Sarah Chianese:And then there was somebody else. Sorry, Jared, I need to drop you there, but there's somebody else who had a great influence on me. Her name was Jan Wagner loved her In my early twenties. I would cook with her in Woodstock, New York, and she was the caterer and I would work. I worked under her and then she moved. She was moving to Hawaii and she said and she was great, she was from Tennessee, she was awesome. She'd be like come on, Sarah, these guys are hungry or they're in cows on concrete and I'm like this Brooklyn girl who's like all right, let's go, you know so.
Sarah Chianese:But anyway, she was moving to Hawaii and she said you want to take this over? But this was in the 80s and there was no into that action and there wasn't an easy way to order catering supplies and have it delivered to your door by Amazon and I was a little intimidated by that. So I went into what I. What I also wanted to do was to be a producer. So I had a theater company and I was a producer for 20 years and I came back to catering. That was my first love as a child. I loved it when I worked with Jan, and then I came back to it and left my production company and said this is the production that makes everybody happy all the time.
Jared Judge:Yeah, that's awesome and I imagine, just like everyone in the events industry. It was a complete walk in the park, so easy, no challenges whatsoever.
Sarah Chianese:Absolutely, it still is. It's a breeze Come on in.
Sarah Chianese:Let's do this, everybody. Nothing's easy, nor should it be. You know what's the point of that. And give it. Give yourself a challenge. You know, beach, receive the challenge with gusto. You know, my band teacher used to say to me do it with chutzpah or don't do it at all. And he was this little Italian guy, but he spoke with Yiddish phrases because of where he was teaching, and he meant that and drilled that into us. And I agree with him. It's like, of course, why go the easy route? If it's something you love, do it. If it's something you're passionate about, do it Absolutely. Is it going to be easy? No, why should it be?
Jared Judge:Yeah, I love that, because there are so many people in life who give up what they say they were passionate about because it got hard. But, but truth be told, if it was truly their passion and they wanted to go all in on it, they would overcome those challenges.
Sarah Chianese:Yes, and we're here.
Jared Judge:We're here to help them do that.
Sarah Chianese:Be inspirational to anybody coming up in the game. Every one of our seasoned vendors in our industry must take under their wings somebody who needs some advice, somebody who needs some help. Love them up with some tips to save them. What took us 10 years to learn? If you could tell them tomorrow and save them a decade of the tribulations? Absolutely.
Jared Judge:Yeah, that's beautifully said. That's a great transition into asking how did you get involved in our NACE chapter?
Sarah Chianese:Oh, I love. Okay, I just got to say I love NACE. I love the fact that what it stands for, how they get our community together and the point of it is to be able to collaborate and meet. The word network, I believe, is overused. It is technically networking, but but that feels so kind of cold. It really is gaining friendships, relationships with people, people that you're going to call on, a call upon, and it may not be this year, it may be three years from now, but you met them at a conference three years ago and you're and you remember them because they had such an impact on you.
Sarah Chianese:So, nace I believe it was Megan Ely who originally told me to join NACE and that was that was a while ago and I and I did finally do so. I love it. We were actually awarded. I'm not awarded. I'm so sorry we were not awarded. We were a finalist for an award, the best catered event of the year this year, which was really fun through NACE and I'm super grateful to be a part of it. There's a wealth of information, a wealth of people, a wealth of camaraderie and and collaborative efforts at all times. And not only that, nace. They just set trends, period. Go to one of their conferences see what's about to happen, because it's there.
Jared Judge:Yeah, that's amazing. So it sounds to me like you get. You get a lot of collaboration and just being a part of this great network of people all in the same boat together and all of the educational opportunities afforded to you.
Sarah Chianese:It's incredibly important to me. I don't think you could ever stop learning, and that's something both of my parents have taught me throughout life. You never stop learning, ever, ever. And the fact that the NACE mission the premier resourcing community for catering event professionals sure, but their vision is to be the catalyst for exceptionalism and evolution for catering event professionals. Listen to those words Exceptionalism and evolution. How do you do that? You do that through education and we, and there's so many different ways of doing it. There's webinars, there's conferences, there's there's all the chapter events. We have such a fun, fun chapter in Denver oh, my goodness gracious, and we have the cutest mascot in the whole entire world little Frank Amos.
Jared Judge:Oh, I don't think I've met Frank. I think I'm so new to our chapter Frank he is in many, many pictures.
Sarah Chianese:Just you could follow him. He's a wonderful, wonderful mascot. But but that's what I mean, it's fun. It is really really a fun, fun group in Denver. We had a wonderful time when we all went down to Dallas last month for the, for the experience conference, and that was really great. But they also just have fantastic events in Denver.
Jared Judge:Yeah, for sure Curious. What were some of your favorite local events that NACE's hosts I love?
Sarah Chianese:every NACE event I've been to, NACE Denver happened to be the warmest community I can even imagine. The Rio de NACE that was in July of 2023, was my first actual NACE Denver event and it blew me away A from the moment I walked in the door how incredibly warm and welcoming and inviting and just loving everybody was. They were like, yeah, you know a new member? Fantastic, come on in and just embraced me with this love and just a joyful spirit. Now, if you can say that about any organization, join that organization. But I cannot say that enough. NACE Denver, specifically, is the most warm, warming, welcoming and inviting. Fun, always about the fun, gotta say the funnest. So the Rio de NACE was my first experience with the NACE Denver event and that was so fun. It was a legend's awards, it's where they and that was wonderful to me because I got a chance to really see everybody and what they did. So I love, love, love that event. Gorgeous space that they decked out. They went both through the walls, if you don't mind me saying that, and just decked out the whole place with so much color and vibrancy and all these little station activities to do and great food it was. It was just really, really wonderful. So that was one of my favorite, not only NACE events, but events period of all the different organizations that I belong to.
Sarah Chianese:The Naughty or NACE was what we had in December, which was absolutely incredible. It was a speakeasy. Everybody was in a flat for a year and Gosh I'm stumbling on my words because I'm so overwhelmed with how fun that was. It was great. The music was awesome, we were all dancing on this really cool dance floor Again, decked out all these different stations, amazing desserts by the maker right, the maker is the best and the food was awesome. I like the sense, I believe, when we put that together for the main part. But that was super, super. Again, everybody warm, everybody, fun. Everybody was on the dance floor. It was a really fun thing.
Sarah Chianese:And then I would say another, really on the educational side For an extender, we just had Dawn Abbott in with a fantastic presentation of your life. That's not to be missed and it wasn't your average presentation. It was super interactive, which is something I'm very much into. Loved her message. It was actually a kind of shock maker that wasn't expecting to hear what I heard. It was moving and incredibly insightful and very inspirational and also very actionable. So that was super.
Sarah Chianese:And it also got people working in little groups together, which I love, because it means that you're again communing. And that's what I think Nace Denver is embraces, it's getting together, it's getting to know one another on a deeper level too, not just oh hi, here's my business card. That's not networking. To me, the networking comes from building like a family and a community and a referral base that you can say I know this great, so and so. So another professional in the industry and we share the information. And whenever I see a Nace Denver participant, wherever I am, my heart just goes ooh, I get to blossoms with this work. So that's what Nace Denver, to me, is all about, and I cannot say how proud I am to be a member of it.
Jared Judge:Yeah, they definitely do it up. It's awesome, very cool. So we're getting close to the end of our episode here. I'm curious if you had one piece of advice to give to somebody newer in our industry trying to get their feet wet, what piece of advice would you give them?
Sarah Chianese:Ask questions, Don't be shy. Attend the webinars, attend conferences, join local chapters, Get on the phone. And get on the phone and call somebody and say hi, I'm new, Please help me in any way that you're willing to, and they will. But if they don't, they will. Don't put them on your list of friendly vendors. But I'm pretty sure 99% of the people will say sure, what do you need to know? What stage are you at? So I think that would be the biggest piece of advice is to get educated and don't be shy.
Sarah Chianese:If you are naturally shy which I'm very not shy and I have zero fear of humiliation I'll walk up to anybody and ask them a question. Try to just muster up the ability to say I'm going to walk up to that person and introduce myself and ask them a question. Exchange a card, Don't throw away the card, Do something with it when you get it. And if you join NACE, there's a directory right there that you can reach out to people. You can ask a question on the NACE format. Ask any question and you're going to get replies. People are going to have the answer for you.
Jared Judge:Yeah, that's an amazing piece of advice, and I think not a lot of people are willing to just go up and ask somebody for something. But, like you said, this NACE community is so supportive that everybody is willing to help, and the ones who aren't which they are rare, like you said, there's plenty of them who are out there willing to help that you can just go and ask them. So this was awesome. I'm curious if somebody was interested in learning more about your services or connecting with you, where should we send them?
Sarah Chianese:Well, you can come on over to mangiaandenjoy. com. Now I'm going to spell that, if that's okay with you, Jared, just because everything related to my names are confusing for people. But it is M-A-N-G-I-A, the word and enjoy. com, and mangia means what does it mean in Italian, Jared? It means eat, exactly so Mangia and Enjoy. And it was actually named to that because a writer who had been to many of my dinner parties finally said why don't you just name your company Mangia and Enjoy? You say it every time you feed somebody. And she was right. So mangiaandenjoy. com is our website. There's a lot of information on there. There are forms on there if you just want to ask a question, if you're inquiring, because you'd like our services. But there's also a form on there for wedding pros or industry pros, I should say, because it's not just weddings. If you have a question for me, you can go ahead and send me a question there and then in Instagram, Mangia and Enjoy, we kind of keep it consistent.
Jared Judge:That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for your contributions to our chapter and your delicious food, which I hope to enjoy at some point. This was a really insightful episode. I appreciate you taking the time to dive into what that looks like of putting these beautiful catered events together.
Sarah Chianese:Oh, my pleasure. I can't wait to feed you someday, Jared, oh.
Jared Judge:I'm excited.
Sarah Chianese:It's going to come to you soon.
Jared Judge:Excellent and to our listener. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the Denver NACE podcast. I hope you got some inspiration and please feel free to reach out to Sarah, myself or anyone in our Denver NACE chapter. We are all eager to help you and just become friends. So if you're interested in learning more about our chapter or upcoming events which our next one NACE Fest in September this episode might already be out by the time that event rolls around, but if you want to learn more about them and our other upcoming events, go to nasedenvercom that's N-A-C-E stands for National Association for Kating and Events, nasedenvercom and we hope to see you at one of our next events. All right, thanks for tuning in. Go crush your next event and hopefully see you at our next NACE meeting. Bye, everybody.