Culinary Designs

Culinary Designs Season and her team at Culinary Designs are absolutely fantastic and the best wedding catering team we could have dreamed of. They catered our 30 person wedding at Serenity Cottage in Owen Sound October 2019 and people are still talking about how amazing the food was. From the very beginning Season was super helpful and thoughtful about putting together our wedding menu. She included foods from my and my husband’s background, special options for kids, and for food sensitivities (dairy and gluten free). Season was always professional, quick to respond, and easy to talk to. The day of the wedding, Season, Kelly, and her team arrived early and took charge of the catering. I didn’t have to worry about a thing, which is priceless for a bride on the day of her wedding. The food was absolutely delicious, fresh and looked beautiful! The serving staff were very attentive and professional. The big ticket items were amazing (food, servers etc) but they took care of all the small details as well. Words cannot describe how grateful we were to wake up the next morning to find all the leftovers wrapped up with care in the fridge and all the rental dishes packed away for us. If you are having a wedding or event near Owen Sound/Thornbury area, please use Culinary Designs! You won’t regret it.

I visited Canada for the first time, in the Summer. I fell in love with the large City atmosphere in Toronto, and the smaller towns such a Collingwood and Thornbury. Whilst in Collingwood my boyfriend proposed to me. After the proposal drinks we went back to his parents house, where someone from the Culinary Delights team was there preparing an array of delicious appetisers for the family. The gentleman was extremely skilled, and knew his way around the kitchen. Whilst we were socialising outdoors, the chef was indoors making delicious dishes for us to enjoy. Perfect portion sizes, and beautifully presented - the food was thoroughly enjoyable, and matched the relaxed, intimate setting which we wanted. The chef presented the dishes and gave us a description of what the dish included. The entire family loved the food and the evening, and it was a wonderful way to celebrate our engagement, in the comfort of our own home, with such high quality food. I would highly recommend the Culinary Design Catering team.

We are so happy to have had Season and her AMAZING team cater our wedding this past fall at a cottage on Georgian Bay. For us, food was really important for our wedding (we love food!) so we wanted to have fresh, local and unique food for our guests and Culinary Designs did just that! We were blown away by the array of appetizers and the amount of food for our main dishes. Our family is still talking about all the delicious food from our wedding! Season went beyond just planning our menu for our wedding. She helped with questions we had about rentals (serving dishes, glassware, etc.), timelines and was able to accommodate dietary allergies some of our guests had. Season was always so friendly and quick when responding to questions. We both really respected Season and her confidence – in herself and in her team’s work and their ability to create a beautiful and delicious menu for us. This put us at total ease, knowing we were in such good hands. Kelly, who was the event coordinator for our big day was also amazing! Kelly helped create a day-of schedule for our wedding to help keep us organized (no detail was forgotten!). On our wedding day, Kelly arrived early and jumped right in and helped our families set-up. She was so lovely to be around and work with! Kelly regularly checked in with us throughout the night to make sure we were on schedule for dinner and dessert. We never once had to ask Kelly and the Culinary Designs team to do anything throughout the day or night. They just knew what needed to be done and proactively did it. It took the stress off of us and we were able to just enjoy the night, knowing everything was taken care of. We really cannot recommend Season and her Culinary Designs team enough to cater your next event or wedding! You will not be disappointed!

Came to Thorbury to stay for a week and was hungry but didn't want to eat in a restaurant. Stopped in here and got several salads and stuffed chicken to go. I was delighted at the quality and the flavor of the food. I will be stopping in many times this week to get more. I particularly found the cauliflower with grapes salad really good. And the stuffed chicken with cheese and spinach was excellent. I highly recommend their food. And it was very easy to take home and heat up and enjoy in my home.

We hired Season in late 2018 or 2019 for our wedding which was supposed to take place in 2020. Of course, COVID delayed our day, much like many other couples in a similar position. For a long time, things were fine! We loved her food and felt good about our decision to select her to cater our wedding. However, it seems that perhaps the pandemic had more of an affect than we thought. Like many others, we had to make adjustments and changes in terms of our guest list to accommodate restrictions and the fact that the border was closed and some of our guests were coming from outside Canada. This was a global pandemic though it felt like that fact escaped her when we had to tell her that our guest count was reduced. She changed her tone and attitude at this point and was defensive and unprofessional. She accused us of leaving her in the dark about the guest reduction even though our wedding planner advised her of this before. It seems her inbox is selective and she claimed she didn't receive it. Funny how she always got our emails prior and following that 🙄 Anyway, after that, she increased our price per plate significantly even though she had no right to, didn't include that in her contract, nor did she ever have a conversation with us about the possibility of this. In the end, she got what she wanted since our wedding was nearing the day and she knew she had us in a corner. To boot, we paid for the food in advance and on the day, she was nowhere to be seen and sent her staff, AND we were short one of the steaks. Had it not been for the fact that 2 of the guests couldn't make it, we would've been short a meal. Being that 2 people didn't come and we were originally short 1, we expected that there would be an extra one; there wasn't. So we paid for all of those meals and were shorted one, who knows what else. Additionally, we rented a convection oven for her to use, and of course she didn't tell us they wouldn't need it so that was more money down the drain. I realize I gave 2 stars and I want give fewer, zero even, but were it not for the good food and her amazing staff, it would've been much worse. She's extremely lucky she has such a wonderful and competent staff otherwise her business would certainly suffer. She went against her own contract, kept calculating things incorrectly and just made us regret hiring her at a point. This review is meant to give people all of the information so that they know what to do and how to deal with her going in. Just be careful. If you can avoid dealing with her personally, you may be better off.

This is the best made food by the best of the best people. We have trusted Season and her amazing crew of culinary geniuses to feed our family and guests for years. They have always gone way above and beyond and blown away our guests with tasty awesomeness. They have a true gift to design food and food experiences that everybody loves. Not likes. LOVES!! When the world gets back to normal, oh the parties there will be and when you need a partner to make you look like you truly care about your guests' taste buds, time and entertainment ... Culinary Designs is that partner. Oh and I literally have not taken cooking classes because I can't imagine being able to ever make something half as good as what we get from Culinary Designs. During the lockdowns and social distancing environment we have been getting food for just our family ... sometimes date night .. because in these crazy times, we may as well EAT AMAZING FOOD!!!

Only in Thornbury can there exist an unexpected gem like this. Reasonably priced, made to order and perfectly prepared, gourmet burgers are grilled behind the front desk in the kitchen. Truthfully the ultimate burger experience. Their simple menu is all about being the best burger and not how it got there. It is a small place but super efficient (and clean) so the line moves quickly.

I couldn't be more disappointed with Culinary Designs. Season and her crew catered our wedding. We had a positive initial experience with her, and she served us good food at our tasting that we were excited about sharing with our wedding guests, numbering 160. We were baffled by their failure to follow through on our wedding day. She and her team served undercooked or raw food, dairy and meat together after we noted it was a Jewish wedding and we explained the dietary laws and asked for no dairy, rude service, not enough food for guests, who had to fill up on dessert. The list goes on. It's possible that Season does a better job with smaller events. It's possible that we were the exception. However, Season refused to take responsibility for her service and has behaved completely unprofessionally after the event. Proceed with caution.