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To all my valued friends
and clients::
All too often I get caught up in
having a great time working with some of the best food
you could imagine and bringing magic and great food to
the masses. I had a revelation last night at 11:00 pm
in a dream. I know it was a dream at 11:00 pm because I
woke up after seeing this and looked at my clock and it
was 11pm. I need to say hi to all my friends and
clients I have made over the last 2 years in business
and let you know how we are doing here at small potatoes
catering.
WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO
We have seen a boom of business
this year and particularly this summer. As a contrast
to no sales in July, August and September of 2006, (it’s
hard when you’re the new kid on the block and no money
for advertising) this summer has been spectacular. We
welcome new corporate clients ING based in Irvine, as
well as O’Donnell South, Inc. Welcome to the Small
Potatoes corporate list. Just as a side note: I was so
impressed with ING, I opened a new savings account.
While we are still Small Potatoes
Catering, we have certainly outgrown the name, but don’t
worry we won’t change the name. November 11, 2006 Small
Potatoes donated complete catering services and food to
over 1000 people at the first annual Valley Wine
Festival held in Van Nuys, CA at the City Art Gallery.
We did penne pasta, Jambalaya skewers, salmon pate,
Bruschetta and much more. We provided chocolate
fountain service with Pineapple and Strawberry Skewers
for dessert. Now keeping in mind we were only told
there would be about 350 people in attendance, we
overcame obstacles and provided in the end, food for
over 1000 attendees on an hours notice. Just shows our
commitment to community and customer. A great time was
had by all and The Children’s Miracle Network as well as
the Trailblazer house for kids benefited greatly. We
will be doing another wine festival and more fundraising
as time goes by. Further to our commitment to give to
the community, Small Potatoes has officially chosen El
Segundo Middle Schools R.O.A.D. program as our official
community outreach. During the 2007-2008 school years,
Small potatoes will provide catering services, food,
lessons and mentors to the after school programs at El
Segundo Middle School. Our last event we catered “SALSA
FIESTA” was so much fun and I really met a great school
staff with awesome students. Remember clients, I donate
5% of your net proceeds and then match it dollar for
dollar and we give it back in free food and services for
worthy charities. Last year alone over $800.00 was
donated to R.O.A.D. programs and we have already
earmarked $1000.00 for this coming school year. Have a
charity in mind? Just let your chef Don know and he will
see what he can do.
WHERE WE ARE AT
We have been able to grow the
business to accommodate parties up to 300 and have a
staff of close to 20. We welcome new employees Raquel
Roa, Cladia Mariscano and Sylvia (last name escapes
me). Welcome to our newest employees. A great shout
out goes to my base team, Keith Sellons and Sue Sellons,
a brother and sister team that really keeps our company
afloat and our my key players behind the scenes. I
could not and would not be where I am today without the
unselfish sacrifices these two have made to make sure
our parties are nothing less than FABULOUS. We are
pleased to announce we have equipment and event rental
suppliers to suit all our needs at Small Potatoes
without having to buy new digs to house more equipment.
Del Rey Party rentals
www.delreyparty.com and PDQ rentals
www.pdqrentals.com have really made my business run
so much smoother and they have kept my costs down to
minimum, so I don’t have to increase my prices to you.
Our website is being rebuilt little
by little (due to time constraints) Small Potatoes
thanks Barcelona LA
www.barcelona.la marketing firm extraordinaire and
Alan Semsar, CEO for making our new home on the net the
best in the business. You can find Alan and his company
Barcelona at
www.barcelona.la
We are proud to say we have close
to 20 weddings completed with exceeding expectation
ratings from our clients. May seem like a small amount
but, we are small potatoes.
In the next couple of months, our
website will take on more fun things. Including Live
feed lessons with yours truly, Chef Don Alger as well
as a more interactive blog and better menu listings. I
know its been slow going for frequent visitors to the
site but be patient. We will get everything done before
too long.
WHERE WE ARE GOING
Small Potatoes, since conception in
2004 and launch in 2005, we have operated on a shoe
string budget and always operated with NO DEBT. We are
striving to find ways to continue this, however, if
current trends persist we may have to go to a bigger
facility, hire full time staff, and invest in a lot of
new equipment. We are not sure that is where we want to
go with Small Potatoes. We have built ourselves on
value for the customer and those customers we have
obtained in our almost 2 years in business, well we just
want to keep our prices at minimum and have a great time
working for you. As everyone knows, your caterer has a
full time job and one that he will not give up because
like his business, he believes and loves with all his
heart the company he has put all his heart into that
being, Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market™.
With the clientele I have
established I put it to you. Let me know what you think
of how we do, what we could do better, what could we do
smaller, is bigger better? or should we just stay Small
Potatoes in the sense of the word. I want to hear from
all of you! This is not my company it is yours. I am
merely your chef that enjoys each and every event I do
for you!
Small Potatoes will venture into a
New Year come January 01, 2008 and with that I want to
strive for new goals and new business and new concepts
to benefit all.
Some of the new and great things to
come from Small Potatoes Catering will be:
- Website development
- Interactive lessons with live
feed video with Chef Don and Assistant Keith
- Healthy menus and how to cook
them
- Cooking as family
- Full Wedding planning and
catering services *small potatoes is currently
accepting applications for experienced wedding
planners* for a per event position.
- Corporate catering. We would
like to see if it is feasible to allocate a loan to
launch our own facility in which we can service the
abundant amount of corporate catering that is out
there in Los Angeles and Orange County. But of
course this would mean a massive cash investment.
So we will see where this can take us.
- Online chats with chef. A
free once a week chat room where you can bring your
cooking questions and/or comments to Chef Don and
get direct and decisive advice.
My goal for the future of Small
Potatoes is to be more than just your Caterer. I want
to be your food guru. I want to be the one you come to
for advice about a recipes, teach you to cook, help you
plan a party, give your family a new old tradition of
cooking together to build a foundation of family that
has been lost in so many years.
Once again, I thank each and every
one of my friends and clients for making Small Potatoes
one of the top 10 growing catering companies in Southern
California. Without you all I am just a name on a
business card.
Please respond to my letter by
email at chefdon @smpotatoes.net
Best Wishes!
CHEF DON ALGER
EXECUTIVE CHEF / CO OWNER
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