Chef Works Catering

My daughter was married on Martha's Vineyard last week, and we had the privilege and pleasure of working with Jim and Kim O'Connor of Chefworks Catering. They spent a great deal of time with us in pre-planning to assure a balanced menu and smooth logistics for cocktail hour, reception and brunch the following morning. Their food was divine, their staff polite and professional, their service flawless. Guests are still raving about the exceptional dishes served, and their experience, culinary skills and pleasant manner did a great deal to alleviate stresses that come with planning one of the most important days in the life of a family. I am grateful for all they did, would use them again in a minute, and would recommend them highly for any event where good food and service delivered at fair rates with professionalism and courtesy are required. Simply the best! Pros: ...and the appetizers just kept coming and coming! Cons: They won't be cooking for me everyday! more

Things were fairly professionally done, but 2 of the guests at our event came down with a severe food related illness. When we contacted the caterers just to inform them of what had happened,we were told that it wasn't their problem and we were promptly hung-up on. more

A few years ago we hired these folks to cater our wedding on Martha's Vineyard. They were very personable and easy to work with. Their food was tasty and everyone was happy with the meal at our wedding. However, the evening of the wedding, my mother-in-law, who was paying for the catering, tried to settle be bill. Being wedding day, they turned her down saying it could all be handled in due time. It was a day to celebrate, the final payment (only 15% at this point) could be taken care of at a later date. Apparently that later date was 2 days later, when the owners decided to come to where we were staying and demand final payment from myself and my wife or they were not going to leave. My in-laws had left the island early because my new mom was feeling under the weather and Chefworks felt that we were going to stick them with remainder of the bill. They cited no reason for feeling this way other than ""we have catered events for many years and we 'feel' you are the worst people we have ever met"". That's right, after working with us for what probably amounted to a couple of days, they knew enough about us to call us the worst people they ever met, on our honeymoon no less. Since we had no money on us, everything for the wedding had already been paid for essentially, I had to write a post-dated check to make them leave. Of course my in-laws sent them final payment just a couple days later, just like everyone had planned, but that didn't matter. We never got a thank you for the enormous amount of money we spent on their food. We never got an apology for the terrible things they said, essentially adding the only black mark what should have been a perfect week. Let's not even mention that all the other services we worked with loved us and thought we were the most laid-back, easy to work with couple they had ever dealt with. Avoid Chefworks like the plague. They may suit your needs, but they will manage to ruin your occassion and stab you in the back. Pros: Food was reasonable Cons: The management is TERRIBLE to work with. WORST EXPERIENCE EVER. more