Mojave Monaco

Chef Merilee and Rosa catered my retreat at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center. The food was delicious and truly exceeded all expectations! We surveyed all of our participants after the retreat and the meals received 5 stars across the board. One of our participants commented that the food was ‘orgasmic’, ha! I don’t think you can get any better than that. In addition to the food being absolutely fresh, healthy and delicious, working with Merilee leading up to the event was so easy and effortless, she took care of all the details. Merilee and her staff were all friendly, super sweet, hard-​working, helpful and accommodating in every way. I cannot wait to work with her again — I’m even planning on taking her with me to cater my next international retreat!

Chef Merilee and Rosa were spectacular! They prepared food for our retreat at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center. Every single one of our participants was thrilled with the delicious food prepared for us and it made our retreat that much better. Every dish was prepared from scratch and it was yummy beyond belief. The meals were very diverse, high quality ingredients used and the menu was even better than we could have asked for!
We will be making sure that Mojave Monaco are available to cater our next retreat at the JTRC.

Brunch, b.r.u.n.c.h, brrunnnccchhh! Merilee and her partner-​in-​deliciousness, Rosa, rocked our post-​wedding-​day brunch in JTree. Pumpkin ginger waffles with maple syrup, poached eggs with cheesy roasted potato cups, kale and brussels sprouts salad, fruit salad, berry muffins, and bonus yogurt and granola. A few notes:
1) The best poached egg I’ve ever eaten. Ok, not going to lie, the most perfect poached eggs I’ve ever eaten — definitely had more than one.
2) Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, these-are-so-good-I’m-eating-three spiced waffles. Win.
3) Merliee suggested the kale and brussels sprouts salad as a yummy, light complement to all of the comfy, carby goodness. Spot on.
4) Merilee and I exchanged 44 emails from start to finish. Yes, she’s very patient and responsive.
5) Total pros. After what must have been an exhausting 14-​day run of events, Merilee and Rosa were accommodating, personable, patient, and calm — and absolutely made us feel like they wanted our event to be great.
6) Recognizing that the true beauty of brunch is variety, Merilee and Rosa served up petite portions of waffles and muffins so we could try everything and not get stuffed… or try everything multiple times and be stuffed. We embraced both options.
7) As one of our 14 guests, a brunch aficionado said (while contentedly rubbing her stomach), «That was a superior meal.»
8) Thank you, thank you, thank you, Merilee and Rosa!

WONDERFUL CATERING TEAM. Absolutely 5 Stars.
Kate and Merilee are a dynamic and creative duo. Their communication and attention to detail over the course of our wedding planning (with me as the planner up until the wedding weekend when we had an organizer take over) was impeccable.
Their food was GORGEOUS and TASTY and very high end. We had a rustic/​bohemian/​desert wedding at Rimrock Ranch in Pioneertown and they were absolutely one of my best vendor picks of the whole event, which is saying a lot as we had more than a dozen guests tell us it was the best wedding they had ever attended! There weren’t any major hiccups with other vendors, K&M were just that good.
We had a buffet style dinner for 110+ people (including guests and other vendors we fed). The order encompassed a dinner with chicken/​vegan/​vegetarian/​gluten free options, some desserts and apps, and a small private rehearsal dinner we had the night before. We did our own alcohol and drinks, though we had K&M plus 3 catering staff and 1 bartender working the event.
I truly cannot recommend these women enough.
I do want to note that they have a separate Unilocal page under El Dorado Supper Club and they should probably be combined, as their business seems to have two different names — which might be confusing for their branding — and I want them to have the most bangin’ business and for everyone out there to know they are AMAZING!
Thank you for making our wedding weekend absolutely amazing. I will add photos of food when possible, but I wanted to get this out there as they are the jam.

I’ve worked at a wedding (in Pioneer Town) where Merilee and her staff was catering the event. The staff was really friendly and even helped out with the bar. (getting the glasses clean, and help me bring in ice and liquor). Not only that, they even fed me their delicious food. I would highly recommend them if you are looking for a catering company.

Mojave Monaco catered my sister’s small (50+) wedding in Joshua Tree last weekend.
Chefs Marilee and Kate were lovely, professional, calm, and so incredibly helpful.
The food was delicious. The whole menu was gluten-​free for my celiac having family, the vegan options were wonderful, and so were the vegetarian and meat dishes. Yes, that was ALL ONE MEAL that went together perfectly, and provided so many amazing options that every single person was beautifully fed.
Their buffet service was lovely. Tables and chairs company forgot a table, and didn’t delivery the napkins we had ordered. They work-​shopped solutions and I later heard Marilee went to her house to bring back napkins for us. For all I know there were other issues they worked around that they never even mentioned.
I would highly recommend them to anyone, and am still dreaming about the spicy/​savory jackfruit dish — their vegan entrée option. As a life-​long committed carnivore, the meat based dishes were inventive and delicious, and yet here I am drooling about the vegan food… they are that good!
Thank you Marilee and Kate, and to your whole team.

Oh.My.Goodness! How on earth did we luck out by finding Merilee?! I have never had such an incredible meal and overall dining experience as I did with Mojave Monaco! These ladies are top notch professionals and extraordinarily talented! I am still dreaming about the mushrooms and the kale salad! Absolute perfection! Merilee was a delight to work with, and she went above and beyond to make sure we had exactly what we wanted for our private wedding dinner. I cannot say enough amazing things about the meal and the staff! I am beyond happy and thankful for our experience!