Category: Best Catered Event: Budget $10,000+
As one of 16 events to commemorate the expansion and re-branding of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the grand opening gave donors, dignitaries, visiting art world colleagues, and members of the museum a chance to celebrate. The evening included a VIP reception and plated meal for 900 guests, and an after party with desserts, beverages, and dancing for nearly 2,500 guests.
The reception began as guests passed through a new outdoor corridor connecting the existing museum with the new wing. The space evoked a timeless, dreamlike “art world” featuring wandering and fixed entertainers. Butler-passed hors d’oeuvres included melon and cucumber prepared to look like linguine pasta, petite Vietnamese duck egg rolls, and seared ahi tuna with ponzu, (a citrus-based sauce used in Japanese cuisine).
Guests made their way through the museum and outside to a tent for the plated meal and program. A king crab and avocado salad began the meal, and the main course was American Kobe beef tenderloin with morels, asparagus, and pinot noir sauce. The vegetarian option was a Napoleon of ratatouille with feta cheese and red bell pepper puree. Dessert was either a banana split, with a bittersweet chocolate, cherry-infused ganache, a milk chocolate soufflé and red wine and cherry syrup with a bruleed banana, or a strawberry shortcake featuring almond cake and vanilla bean semifreddo served with strawberry-pink peppercorn compote.
At the after party in the museum auditorium, guests enjoyed pistachio hemisphere on shortbread with raspberry glaze, chocolate truffle financier, bittersweet chocolate and almond cakelette embedded with a petite truffle, and a special cookie with the new logo of the museum.
