A Bustling Business Lunch at RGA Leatherworks (2024)

For Market Week, RGA Leatherworks came to us with a request for lunch. They hosted a series of meetings throughout the day and wanted exciting, but easy foods to serve in their office. While space was limited, we were able to curate Filipino-influenced snacking platters and sliders that were easily heated up in their Manhattan kitchenette. We truly love it when clients give us creative freedom, because it lets us try out new ideas and flavor combinations.

The Lunch Menu

We started the lunch off with a set of fun grazing platters (pictured above). Miso hummus is a staple on our catering menus because it's approachable, savory, and vegan. We also like to pair it with our slightly strained Greek yogurt and homemade za'atar. Za'atar is a Levantine spice mixture made primarily with sumac berries, thyme, and sesame seeds. To accompany the dips, we cut up fresh endive, radish, rainbow carrots, and sugar snap peas.

Sliders are so great for lunch because they're easy to pick up. We offered three choices. Burmese "chorizo" chickpea tofu is our house-made vegan protein. We flavored with pulverized sundried tomato, miso, and paprika. After it sets, we fry it off, and stack it on the bun with pico de gallo and fresh herbs.

Adobo is commonly understood as a stewed meat dish from The Philippines. We took the idea and marinated pork tenderloin with soy sauce, garlic, black pepper, bay leaves, and sugarcane vinegar. We cooked the pork sous vide and sliced it thinly. We dressed the slider with atchara, a young green papaya pickle.

Our chicken thigh inasal is marinated in calamansi juice, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, and lemon soda. We grilled the meat over high heat to caramelize the sauce. For some crunch, we made a lightly dressed bok choy salad with Allwell Greens, carrot, olive oil, and more calamansi juice.

For dessert (or at any point during the meal, actually), we offered an exploration of fun fruits. Sweet pink pineapple and yellow watermelon shingled around mounds of golden berries, strawberries, petit red plums, and black seedless grapes.

A Party Tip

When serving fruit, cut anything that is more than two bites. We like to cut pineapple and watermelon into wedges so guests can hold onto the rind. For smaller, pop-in-your mouth fruits, leave them whole or on the bunch for an attractive display. If any of the fruits have pits, have a ramekin or small bowl nearby for anyone to discard them (much like you would with olives!).

A leftover fruit platter can easily be turned into a fruit salad. Cut off any rinds, remove all pits, stems, and leaves. Cube the fruits to roughly the same size (1" is usually good). You can serve this the next morning as is or make is extra special with a drizzle of honey and nice olive oil. Mix them together in a serving bowl and make sure to provide a large spoon to scoop it up.

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