Boyertown PA
4-28-2023 4:10am

Hungry? No Problem--Bause Catered Events Offers Meals to Go

by Jane Stahl

My husband will tell you: I’m no chef. I cook OK; I make meals we enjoy, but I don’t really enjoy making them. And so, when Facebook questionnaires show up on my news feed, asking what lifetime service I’d prefer, my answer is always having someone cook for me. Fortunately for me, my husband likes to cook and is really good at it.

Given my preference to letting the cooking up to others, meeting with culinary artists Erin Bause and Amy Bause-Bartra was a special Celebrity Chef event! I’d heard about their meals and catering services for years from satisfied customers.

I was eager to learn if, unlike me, preparing food was something they’d always dreamed of doing and how they were able to manage offering different menus each week along with managing catering events. And I’m always interested in hearing the journeys that people’s lives take.

Walking in the door of Bause Catering Events made my mouth water; the aroma of fresh-baked cookies welcomed me along with the warm smiles of sisters Erin and Amy who were eager to show me around their facility.

The sisters obviously love what they do and have been creating meals and feeding hungry people for 34 years—beginning with operating a deli case at the Pottstown Farmers’ Market where they sold breads and desserts. After a time, they began catering weddings, graduation parties, and special events. Loyal customers encouraged them to add Meals-to-Go to their services.

Having children forced changes. “We wanted to be good at what we did, and something had to go, so catering became our primary service,” Erin offers. Leaving the Farmers’ Market meant finding a commercial kitchen to cook and prepare meals. And, for a time, they found a commercial restaurant kitchen in Kimberton available from 12 a.m.-6 a.m.

Another opportunity allowed use of the kitchen in the former Rosenberry’s Market building across Farmington Avenue (Pottstown) from where they are located today. But when they purchased their current location, which had once housed the original Rosenberry’s Market, they gutted the building and readied it to meet their specific needs. The process allowed them to play construction workers for a time and to utilize fixtures of the original building and their own ingenuity.

“Every day is different,” Amy offers; “that’s what’s fun about this business.” Having to switch from mostly catering events after the COVID pandemic hit allowed them to focus on their Meals-to-Go service.

And today, each week they create a different menu and take between 100-300 orders for meals beginning Thursdays through noon on Mondays. Their menus offer a wide-range of appetizers, entrees, desserts, and drinks.

On Thursdays and Fridays, individual, plated meals can be picked up in insulated bags, complete with an ice block—on Thursdays from 1-2 p.m. or Fridays 2-3 p.m.—or delivered to an ever-widening area by long-time employee Charley—always with a smile—according to the sisters.

“We’re always experimenting,” notes Erin whose definition of a good time is researching and finding new recipes. Some weeks, the focus is comfort food; other weeks, it’s barbeque or French cuisine. The change in seasons inspires the use of different ingredients and offering seasonal favorites.

They’re proud to offer more and more meals that are dairy-free and gluten-free, even vegan. “Our clients want to eat healthy meals from local, available, fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables, and we’re eager to serve them,” Erin notes.

“And, in catering, especially, since menus are created specific to the event’s theme or group preferences, it’s best to offer a buffet that addresses people’s needs, sensitivities, and allergies—avoiding dairy or gluten, for example,” she continues.

Both were inspired by family recipes and by growing up as part of a small business family. “Our mother inspired our interest in cooking; she was always experimenting with different recipes. Aunt Mary made the best chocolate cake with caramel icing,” Amy offers. “And we call it Aunt Mary’s Chocolate Cake.”

“And today, Amy makes the best vegan chocolate cake,” Erin insists, laughing. “I always figured I’d end up doing something with food since joining my dad’s print business was never an option. I’m absolutely not mechanical! Food was what I knew. But I never thought about catering,” she admits. “I thought I’d end up cooking in a restaurant.

“But our family always frequented The Farmers’ Market, so it seemed a natural place for us to start building our business. We were also lucky in the support we received from our families. Dad made sure we paid our quarterly taxes, for example, along with his valuable experience in running a small business.”

Erin and Amy are both graduates of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Erin worked as a chef for the executive dining room of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and served as the chef de cuisine at Coventry Forge Inn specializing in French cuisine.

Amy shares that in high school she was unsure what she wanted to do with her life until she visited Erin at the Culinary Institute. “That visit changed my life; it was such a supportive, creative environment; I knew then I wanted to be part of that culture.”

Following graduation, Amy practiced pastry arts at Aux Petits Delices in Radnor Township, Delaware County, and Symphony Pastries, located in Moorestown Township, N.J. before joining her sister in building Bause Catering Events. Today, Amy is the pastry chef and takes charge of the cake-making and the cookies that made my mouth water!

Adding to the twin businesses of catering and preparing meals-to-go, the sisters offer education to local schools, taking individual packages consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables into individual classrooms to encourage young people to broaden their palates by trying different foods.

“It’s really fun to introduce lesser-known fruits and vegetables—raw green beans, broccoli, or pea pods, for example—and explain why they should eat them,” Erin explains. “Using peer pressure, we will get one student to try and just watch when the others follow. The kids will sometimes make requests, and we enjoy seeing them on the street, proud to share what they’ve tried on their own after our visit. Recently, we cut up a head of broccoli and created a pesto dip without the nuts to introduce them to some other way to enjoy the vegetable—besides just raw.”

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with Erin and Amy for days; they sent me home with one of their insulated bags that included a meal of vegan chili with rice; and a chicken, rice and broccoli meal; beef vegetable soup; cherry/raspberry dessert squares; a banana/coconut loaf cake; and several of those amazing cookies that made my mouth water while I was there. Like a good wife, I resisted eating the cookies on my ride home; I wanted my personal chef to enjoy them too!

Everything they sent with me was beyond delicious. Chefs Erin and Amy have become the lifetime food service I will wish for now whenever Facebook asks!

Final thoughts: Both sisters want their “amazing customers” to know how grateful they are for their support over the years. They look to expand the reach of their delivery service and encourage Entertain-at-Home events to bring fresh, meal service and weekly changing menus to more folks, more often. And they encourage gifting: each week they deliver meals to hospitals that have been donated by their clients. Good food is a gift. No question.

Just a suggestion: Mother’s Day is coming up. As a former waitress, I remember it to be the busiest day of the year for restaurants—and the craziest for the waitstaff. Gift the Moms in your life by ordering an Entertain-at-Home fresh meal service for a family gathering or individual Meals-to-Go! from Bause Catering. BauseMealsToGo.com, 610-327-4555.

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