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| - We hired Sandra for a company dinner at my boss' home for a group of 9, 5 of which were out of state associates/executives. All communication with Sandra was via email, which was fine since I was at the office and I was able to respond on my schedule as well. We did have multiple changes with attendee numbers that Sandra readily accommodated.
The night of the event, Sandra and her assistant showed up a little bit late, which turned out to be ok since my attendees' meeting had run late and there were traffic delays for them coming from downtown Phoenix. Her and her assistant set up outside on the patio and everything looked great. My first impression of Sandra was that she was a bit aloof or stand offish, but I figured she was just in 'business' mode. Unfortunately, that never changed throughout the evening with the guests.
Bottom line, the food was amazing and the dessert was to die for! I feel the experience would have been so much better if Sandra was more personable, so that took my rating down 1 star. As far as the other star I deducted, when it came time for payment, Sandra was unable to run the credit card so she took a picture of it and sent me an invoice the next day...absolutely fine. The problem is in her processing fee that the client is charged because she uses the iPhone square. When I mentioned that other vendors I've worked with previously do not pass that along to their clients and it does make business expense reports difficult, she let me know that's why she only 'charges' a 15% gratuity. So SHE decides how much of a tip YOU will pay her....hmmm. But she did say she is looking into other options, so I do hope that happens in the future.
Unfortunately, I had hired a different caterer/chef the night before for another dinner party in this same home for a separate group of out of town associates (a much bigger group), so I had something to compare this experience to. Because the night before with the other chef was SO incredible, it would have been hard for anyone else to live up to. Hopefully this review doesn't deter anyone from hiring Sandra and enjoying her incredible culinary skills, but I did want others to know about the fees and the personality issues that we experienced.
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