Your wedding venue is on the water, gauzy dresses are flowing, alive with the wind. You walk in and are handed a drink. Maybe it’s Cristal in exquisite glassware. Or perhaps it’s a refreshing vodka and elderflower cocktail, with freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice and a little floating purple flower. Whichever one it is, it was no accident.  Your beverage was carefully thought out to set the tone for the evening to come.

This level of curation is just the beginning of the Olivier Cheng experience. The luxury caterer subscribes to a 360-degree approach to event and food design, beginning with a guest’s entrance. “We are a catering company, first and foremost. And we create experiences for people,” explains Cheng. “Beverages to me are just another form of feeding. They add a real sensory component to an event.”  At the Glasshouses Cheng’s exquisite vision will be executed alongside Beverage Director Clayton Mannix, for an elevated experience in line with what his clients are accustomed to.

And what impressive clients they are. From small social events to blowout weddings to being  the go-to caterer for the high-end fashion crowd with clients like Chanel and Hermes– not to mention multiple Met Galas and that one time he catered a royal wedding at a wedding venue in Quatar– the bar is high.

Cheng’s food skews modern American cuisine, with European and Asian flavors. A background in architecture informs his artistic visual approach, and a love of elements fitting together just so. Food becomes part of a full event design ecosystem, with Cheng working closely with clients to exceed their expectations.

For example at an Hermes stenography affair where there was a waiter paired with every guest, changing outfits to reflect each custom course, for an experiential dimension.

And though he’s been doing this for fifteen years, he still surprises himself. Like with a recent small birthday party. “It was a new client, and he came to me and said to me ‘This guest of honor is a complete foodie. I want you to blow her away.’” Rather than go back to the archives Cheng and his chef collaborated on a new dreamy main course they called “A Taste of the Sea,” with scallops, oysters, lobster, foam and seaweed all contributing to an ocean tableau. “Everything on the plate was edible, but it literally looked like I was looking at the sea,” he says. “Honestly, I was blown away by it.”

They fulfilled his philosophy of using food to bring people together, and essentially created a product category that never existed before.  Experiential boxes were constructed for luxury clients. “They generally incorporate the client’s products mixed with a food product, so if they were celebrating some kind of event like the Oscars we would help them create a box around that,” says Cheng. And partnered with event planner Jennifer Zabinski he launched  Celebration Home , a self-contained immersive dinner experience providing everything from snacks to dessert, complete with a “Sips and Scents” component – cocktails to set the tone at home and scents to transport.

Without the physical limitations of a wedding venue, guests could be escorted to Paris in the spring , with a menu including asparagus tarts, warm sea scallops and of course cheese, edible flowers and Champagne included. Or to Tulum with lobster tostadas, short rib taquitos and an elevated taco feast. Menus are priced by the number of attendees, for an easy turnkey celebration with family and friends.

Purchase a Celebration Home experience and you can say that you’ve eaten the same DNA as Quatar royalty.  Though you might not have the same menu — Cheng’s 2009 wedding at the Royal Palace was an over-the-top nine-course affair, including black truffle cauliflower soup served in an ostrich egg— you can pretend by eating dessert first, one cultural difference he delighted in learning when planning out the menu. “They eat chocolates before their hors dourves,” he says.  “That was an amazing experience from a cultural side.” It makes sense, starting a celebration with sweetness. Maybe when he caters your event at a Glasshouses venue, you can request to have the cake first.

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