He's planned something special this evening. She thinks they're
just going out for a drive. She doesn't know a thing.
The young couple drives out into the middle of the Arizona desert. He asks
her to get out and follow him. She's confused. Are those candles over
there?
Imagine her surprise when she finds a romantic dinner table, complete with
china and silver. There's even a waiter in a tux awaiting their arrival.
He pours some champagne and the date is started.
An evening like this was easy to pull off for the young man who planned
it. All he had to do was call on Mitchell Mock.
This may be an unusual order for Mock, but he's had his share of them.
This one gave him a kick, though.
"It's a great feeling to make people happy," says Mock. "It's
especially fun being part of occasions like that."
Since getting started in the restaurant business, Mock, who originally
was studying for a career in civil engineering, has gone from being a dishwasher
to partner in his own restaurant and catering outfit. He shares ownership
with his wife, Donna DiFiore.
A lot of the work Mock does finds its way to the executive terminal at
Tucson airport. He gets orders for people flying in private jets once in a
while. Sometimes it allows for the odd brush with celebrity.
"My wife got this call where they wanted a really special order -- four
or five entrees, I think -- and they stressed that there was to be no broccoli."
While his wife thought nothing of it, Mock thought to himself: "Hmm, where
have I heard that before?"
"Donna went out there to drop it off. There were a few tough-looking security
types, but she didn't really catch on. About a day later, she got a call
back from the same person wanting some more food -- they were coming through
again -- and Donna asked who it was.
"Well, of course, it turned out to be ex-President Bush who had come through!
The steward who was calling told my wife it was some of the best catered jet
food that they'd ever had and they wanted to use us again."
Needless to say, Mock and DiFiore were quite proud of their little business!
After all, the president of the United States is probably used to some pretty
good eats.
It's not serving celebrities that Mock enjoys best, though. It's
the events and the celebrations he gets to participate in that he likes the
most.
"It's all a lot of fun. Another order we had was out in the middle
of the desert. It was a convention of some sort, but they had hay rides, full
china, tuxedo service, a live symphony and about 80 people under a giant tent.
It was a great opportunity to enjoy an event you normally wouldn't be
at if you weren't a caterer."
While Mock and DiFiore are serving up the right occasions in Tucson, Pat
Rattray does catering of a different sort. She operates a business that specializes
in corporate catering. That means she serves up lunches for boardroom meetings
and company luncheons.
"I'm sure there's more satisfaction for caterers who do weddings
or parties in that they get much more social interaction. For me, I walk into
the office, the secretary tells me where to put it, I drop it off in the boardroom
and I'm off to the next place."
OK, so it's not all hay rides and candlelight dinners. But Rattray
enjoys the consistency and regular hours.
"There's no weekend work for me because offices are closed then. Since
office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., I end up working an average 8 a.m. to 5
p.m. workday. There are a lot of partner meetings, and accountants are very
busy around February and March, so it's a very reliable clientele."
Another nice aspect of corporate catering is that the food doesn't
usually have to be kept hot. "It's mostly cold food because, at a lot
of these meetings, they want to hold a pen in one hand and a sandwich in the
other and work right through lunch. We do a lot of fresh fruit, croissants,
cheese, veggies, tarts and squares and canned pop. It's really quite
simple."
While Rattray's work is fairly consistent and steady, she does get
the occasional emergency order on short notice. That can be a panic.
"[One company] phoned in at 10 a.m. They needed lunch for 97 people by
noon. We scrambled to get it together. Other times, we've had a big fire
in the area in the middle of winter and the fire department phones to say,
'Our crews are working really hard. Can you get them lunch and hot coffee
over there as fast as you can?'"
But Rattray says they're always racing against the clock to get orders
out on time. This is because a late lunch can cost people a lot more than
a few growling stomachs.
"When 10 lawyers are having a partners' meeting over lunch and every
one of those guys bills their clients $150 an hour, you can't be late.
They've set aside an hour and a half for their meeting and they can't
afford to just stretch it out for another half an hour."