The Sacred Table
Catering + Culinary Experiences
Our Offerings
Sacred Table offers catering and culinary experiences for gatherings of many kinds, from intimate dinners and celebrations to organizational events, retreats, exhibitions, fundraisers, donor gatherings and community programs.
We begin with what you are creating. From there, we consider the people gathering, the place, the purpose, the food and the role you want the culinary experience to play.
The offering may be a beautifully prepared meal, or food may become part of the storytelling, programming or artistic experience. We can also build something together that has never existed before.
Experience Design
Sacred Table also works behind and beyond the meal. We help organizations, artists, cultural institutions, restaurants and communities think through what they want people to experience and build the creative and practical pieces that make it possible. Our experience design work can include:
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Concept + Experience Development: We help turn an idea, question, theme or organizational need into an experience people can actually enter and participate in, from the central concept through the flow of the gathering.
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Fundraising + Donor Experience Design: We work with nonprofits and cultural organizations on signature fundraisers, cultivation, stewardship and campaign experiences that connect giving to the organization's actual work, people and culture.
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Mandelian Dinners: Inspired by Nelson Mandela’s use of breaking bread to bridge difference, Mandelian Dinners are intimate, facilitated meals designed for honest conversation around difficult questions. Sacred Table works with nonprofits and community groups to shape the topic, meal and gathering around dialogue, accountability, justice and our shared humanity.
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Culinary + Artistic Direction: We develop the relationship among food, space, story, performance, visual art, installation and participation, bringing in collaborators where the work calls for them.
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Convenings + Participatory Design: We design retreats, workshops, community gatherings and other convenings with attention to how people enter, move through, contribute to and experience the space.
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Restaurant + Culinary Concept Development: We work with restaurants and culinary spaces on test kitchens, guest-chef residencies, menu concepts and experiences that connect culinary identity, guest experience, operations and market learning.
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Labs + Experimental Practice: We create and participate in labs, residencies and experimental environments as artists, facilitators, teachers, collaborators and learners. These spaces give us room to test ideas, exchange practices and make work with others.
See what this can look like.
Victory Overflowing: The Offering Table
Fundraising + Donor Experience Design
A ceremonial culinary experience developed for an Afro-Diasporic arts organization as an alternative to the conventional donor dinner. The concept brought food, storytelling, artistic direction, participation and giving into one experience, with a live Offering Table at its center.
LoFi Test Kitchen
Restaurant + Culinary Concept Development
A guest-chef residency and live market test connecting Afro-Diasporic menu development with guest experience, marketing, staffing, operational systems, revenue testing and future restaurant positioning.
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Catering
We offer catering for intimate gatherings, celebrations, meetings, retreats, community events, organizational gatherings and other occasions where people need to be fed well. Our menus draw from the cultures, places, ingredients and food traditions that inform our culinary practice. Service can include drop-off, buffet, family-style, plated meals and other formats depending on the gathering. Our existing catering menu can serve as a starting point, with room to make adjustments based on the people, place and occasion.
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Culinary Experiences
Our experiences are built around a theme, story, question, place, tradition or idea. You can come to us with one already in mind, choose from concepts we have previously developed, or work with us to create something specifically for your gathering. From there, we build the food and experience around it. Depending on what we create together, your experience may include a custom menu or multi-course meal, live plating, storytelling, participatory food moments, tablescape and presentation, music or other sensory elements, outdoor cooking, and connections to visual, literary, movement, performance or spiritual practices. The experience can remain intimate and centered around the meal or become part of a larger celebration, fundraiser, retreat, exhibition, installation or program.
A custom Sacred Table culinary experience generally includes:
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Initial design consultation
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Development of the theme or experience concept
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Menu development and culinary direction
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Experience flow and presentation
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Preparation and execution of the meal
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Selected experiential elements developed for the gathering
Additional artists, performers, extensive production, specialty rentals, travel, venue costs, staffing and larger-scale installations can be incorporated and are scoped separately.
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Fundraisers + Donor Experiences
Sacred Table works with nonprofits, artists and community organizations to create fundraising and donor experiences around the table. These can include signature annual fundraisers, donor cultivation and stewardship gatherings, campaign events and smaller experiences designed for particular groups of supporters. We are interested in creating fundraising experiences that actually feel connected to the work and culture of the organization. Food, art, conversation, performance and participation can give people a way to experience what they are being invited to invest in and meet the people making that work possible. This offers organizations an alternative to innovate traditional fund/friendraising models such as galas, luncheons, performance events that follow the same familiar script.
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Retreats + Convenings
We provide culinary support and programming for retreats, residencies, workshops, conferences, labs and community convenings. Food may support the gathering through meals throughout the day, or culinary practice can become part of the programming through shared preparation, storytelling, ritual, conversation, sensory exploration and participatory meals. We work with hosts and facilitators to understand what people have gathered to do and determine how food can support, accompany or become part of that work.
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Collaborations + Commissions
We create with artists, chefs, cultural workers, organizations, institutions and communities. We accept commissions and invitations to develop culinary experiences, installations, exhibitions, programs and other forms of collaborative work. We are equally interested in entering spaces where someone else is holding the question. Sacred Table participates in residencies, labs, fellowships, research and learning environments, cultural exchanges and other opportunities where our practice can contribute to a larger inquiry. We enter these spaces as artists, teachers, collaborators and learners, sharing what we know while remaining open to what the people and practices around us have to teach.
Have an opportunity you think we should know about? Invite us to the table.
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Planning + Pricing
Our catering menu provides per-person pricing and can serve as the starting point for catered events. Final costs are based on menu selections, guest count, service format, staffing, location and additional needs.
Custom Sacred Table culinary experiences begin at $1,500. The process begins with a $250 Experience Design consultation, where we learn about your gathering, explore the concept and begin shaping what the experience could become. The consultation fee can be applied toward a booked experience. From there, pricing reflects what we decide to build together, including the menu, number of guests, location, service, artists or collaborators, production, rentals, travel and other elements the experience requires.
We offer sliding-scale consideration for select grassroots, artist-led and community-based projects when resources and capacity allow. Funded residencies, fellowships, labs, commissions and invitations to participate in learning or artistic environments are considered separately.
Not sure where your idea fits? Talk to us. We can usually figure that out together.
