A MANALAPAN CATERER CHURNS OUT EXCITING, EYE CATCHING FARE FOR ALL OCCASIONS
BY ERIK SCHONING PHOTOS BY ALEX BARRETO
All of life’s greatest gatherings revolve around breaking bread. Whether it’s a wedding, a bar mitzvah, or a poolside celebration on the Fourth of July, food and drinks are an indispensable part of life’s best recipes. Chef Steven Miller, co-owner of Trust Catered Events, has built a career on putting the special in special occasion.
Miller’s career has taken him many directions he has worked as an actor, a realtor, a banquet chef, and a restaurateur but through every turn he always harbored a love for entertaining and putting on a show. It’s a passion that he traces back to his upbringing in a lively, social house.
“My parents used to love to entertain,” Miller said. “We had people coming over to the house on the weekends, and my mom would let me help out by rolling up hot dogs into crescent rolls. I always loved that, the laughter and the good times.”
Every step along Miller’s career path carried him back to his roots as an entertainer. While working as an actor, he would do freelance work for catering companies, a valuable experience that helped him understand how the business worked. Later, after opening Mixed Greens & Grill in Manalapan with a childhood friend (Miller operated the restaurant for 15 years), he decided to recommit to the catering business, launching Trust Catered Events with his wife, Donna Miller.
The Millers work as partners, handling every stage of the process, from booking new or returning clients, planning menus and table layouts, and prepping ingredients in a professional kitchen to, of course, cooking and finishing all the food on site. Unlike in a traditional restaurant format, catering requires an incredible amount of flexibility. Ingredients have to be able to travel, and they are prepared every time in a new setting, be it a private home or a rented space. Events might unexpectedly double or triple in attendance, or the weather might flip on a moment’s notice. With so many variables and moving parts, immaculate planning at every stage of the process is vital.
“Donna is organized and helps see everything through,” Miller said. “She’s great with the clients. She’s very endearing and people like her. People are amazed at our dynamic, that as husband and wife we can work together. But she’s been a great part of the last few years and has helped grow this business.”
Just as no two parties are the same, no two jobs are alike for Trust Catered Events. Over the years, Miller has refined an ever-changing rotation of tables, spreads, and dishes that can be tailored to each event. He often likes to emphasize the fun and whimsical side of food: popcorn chicken served in popcorn boxes, Turkish cigar pastries served in cigar boxes, a brats, pretzels, and beer display arranged in kaleidoscopic pinwheels. The priority is, of course, tasty food, but when hosting an event, all the rest of it matters, too: presentation, simplicity, portioning. Miller likes to do a “Wing and a Beer” combo where he serves a lollipop chicken wing with little steins of beer to create a fun, interactive element for his guests.
Miller and his wife also invest a great amount of time in designing themed tables, like the delicatessen table, on which Miller will serve homemade pastrami, salt-and-pepper brisket, knishes, or kugel. He also does an Italian mangia grazing table, Mediterranean displays, and veggie and salad displays. There is a stunning breadth of cuisines and dishes on offer, from street tacos to crispy rice balls made with paella. But across events, no dish ever appears the same way twice.
“What I don’t want to be is cookie cutter,” Miller said. “We see people at parties, and we know they were at a different party a few months ago and had the bao buns or a version of our empanadas. So I make sure to plate it differently and come up with a unique way of serving it to keep things fresh.
We’re always trying to raise our game.”
Trust Catered Events has been built precisely on that balance of novelty and consistency; repeat clients know to expect a certain quality of cooking and presentation, even if they might not know what form their dishes will take. Miller likens the experience of a party to a story, with a beginning, middle, and end. His job is to make sure that at every turn, his guests are engaged, surprised, and, of course, well fed. He plans out precisely when his dishes will go out. (As a former actor, he has a flair for the dramatic, the storyteller’s gift to match the energy of the moment.) If he’s done his job right, the experience is unforgettable.
“We want to send our guests off thinking, ‘That was incredible!’” Miller said. “We want them to feel that they were part of something awesome and memorable. One of the biggest satisfactions I can get is hearing from people after the fact. To me, that means I’ve done my job right.”
Trust Catered Events