Michael C Events

We handle several off site events every year and we are fortunate to be exposed to a wide variety of caterers. I have found that some have great food, but lack professional staff and some have great food as well as service, but their charges per person are super steep and then, there are those caterers that have terrible food as well as service, but there prices are enticing.
We found a light at the end of the tunnel when two years ago, one of our clients turned us on to Michael C. Events. Michael Compean’s culinary training and dedication is impressive and well orchestrated. Michael takes pride in hiring friendly and hard working captains and staff. He understands that a tasting for two people can be easy to pull off, but the food should be as delicious for 200 or more guests. Michael C. Events starts at $ 80.00 per person which includes staff.
«Michael Compean began cooking as an adolescent and by the age of 20 he knew food was his passion. Chef Compean has over 15 years experience as a chef and pastry artisan. He has honed his skills at several exclusive establishments including L’Auberge resort in Del Mar California, La Valencia Hotel in San Diego and The Sunset towers in Hollywood. He was also a pastry chef in Budapest, Hungary.
Chef Compean has competed in numerous cooking events and competitions nationwide, including America’s best pastry chefs at The Patisfrance U.S. pastry competition in New York and Chef Magazines Best Of Buffalo competition. He also placed 1^st in the Wild Rice Board professional chef’s competition. His varied experiences have allowed him to master an eclectic and elegant style rarey matched in the culinary arts. His ingenuity and use of traditional and cutting edge techniques and styles will captivate you.»
GIANNA PROVENZANO

An Amazing Chef, and Just a Great Person
Michael catered our wedding for 200 guests in the summer of 2012. We started the process of looking for a chef a year before the wedding. We tried three companies Michael C, 24 Carrots and Food that Matters. The food from all three was great, but 24 Carrots and Food that Matters treated our wedding as a business opportunity only.
Michael’s reaction was very different, he showed a genuine desire to be involved in the wedding and to do whatever was necessary to make us happy. In fact, Michael not only asked for our opinions about how we would modify the dishes that were served at the tasting, but he even invited us back for a second tasting so that we could review the alterations and additions that he made to the menu.
The day of the wedding went perfectly. One of the most common complements that we received was that the food was spectacular. To my knowledge, not a single complaint was made. We had a total of five passed appetizers, a 3 course dinner, a dessert bar, and mid night snacks. All of it was delicious.
Michael is professional, driven, a true artist and most of all a chef who truly wants to help you put on the best party of your life. I recommend Michael to everyone I know.

Michael catered my wedding in June 2010, and it was fabulous. I think he had newly parted ways from a business partner, and mine was the first wedding he did on his own (with lots of great help from kitchen and waitstaff). I got married at a historical mansion, so Michael had to bring EVERYTHING in himself, and make sure it was all on protective mats. Huh? I had no idea why my venue had that rule, but he was on top of it.
Michael is incredibly accommodating, and he did multiple tastings with us to perfectly capture what we wanted served. We did heavy passed hors d’oeuvres, salad and main course — black cod and filet mignon. I was impressed by the quality of all the meat and that Michael really didn’t cut corners on the little things — he even made the mushroom and truffle butters himself.
I would definitely recommend Michael, he’s truly great at what he does. Feel free to contact me if you want to hear more about my experience!

**WARNING!!**
DO NOT HIRE THIS CON-​ARTIST NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO! HE SCREWED MULTIPLE COUPLES IN 2010!
Michael Compean talks a great game, shows up to your door with hot samples straight from the back of his mobile food truck, shows his awesome culinary skills, discusses the contract terms, takes your deposit… and then (Drum roll please)… and THEN… he disappears without a trace.
Yes. You read correctly. He literally takes your money and runs. Why am I saying this? Because he conned my wife and me into hiring him for our wedding and he literally disappeared.
My wife, then fiancé, hired Michael C. Events after the taste test. We signed the contract in April of 2010, then decided to contact him 1 month later to get a menu update. I emailed and called. No reply. Odd, my wife and I thought that maybe he was extremely busy. After all, he was bragging to us about how he had just beaten Robert Deniro’s personal chef for a gig at our tasting. Maybe he’s got a lot of gigs. Two weeks pass, still nothing from him, then three weeks, then four. That’s when my wife and I started to worry. What is going on? June/​July rolls along and still nothing, but we figured maybe we’re ok still. Our wedding was in October and people are usually all done with the catering part by then.
Turns out, Michael C. Events was in financial trouble PRIOR to our hiring of Michael Compean as our wedding caterer. They were in trouble months prior and yet they continued to steal other customers’ money. After being surprised at finding this out and finally getting a hold of him, my wife and I demanded our deposit back. I asked Michael Compean, «Why did you take our deposit and let us hire you, knowing that you were about to go bankrupt?» Michael Compean just said, «sorry, there’s nothing that I can do. You can speak to our lawyer about it.» Next thing we know, my wife and I received a letter in the mail that stated Michael C Events is filing for bankruptcy. He didn’t care.
In a nutshell, Michael Compean is dishonest and not trustworthy. His food is not bad, but his lack of ethical business practices and dishonesty takes away any sort of credibility left.
If any reviewers are reading this, please feel free to contact me directly concerning our personal incident with Michael C. Events if you want proof or more in depth knowledge of this character. I have all the records and emails still that I can show you. It truly shows this person’s character about how he handled everything with all the couples he screwed in 2010.
**In the end, my wife and i were lucky that we had wedding insurance. We ended up with something extraordinary for a caterer, Auntie Em’s Kitchen. Surprisingly, the owner was on «Bobby Flay’s: Throwdown.» In some ways, it was almost a Pyrrhic victory**.
AGAIN DO NOT HIRE MICHAEL C. EVENTS UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR MONEY STOLEN… LITERALLY.

Michael catered our outdoor wedding (~200 guests), and the guests were still praising the quality and quantity of food even months after the wedding. From the day we first met Michael, his passion for exquisite food was plainly evident, and it showed even in just the tray-​passed appetizers at the wedding (KOBE beef sliders, are you kidding??). Our menu offered Filet Mignon w/​Tiger Prawn in black truffle sauce or Chilean Sea Bass with Wasabi Mashed Potatoes (and a vegetarian option at no charge). Now, I’ve been to a fair number of weddings whose menus looked impressive on paper, and maybe even on the plate – but this is the first time the menu and the dish were in flavor/​quality-​harmony (mind you, my wife and I were prepared to be extra-​critical because it was our own wedding, after all). Both the Filet and the Bass were cooked PERFECTLY – try getting THAT at the average wedding, where the typically served chicken or salmon is overly dry almost all the time! Michael even went out of his way to accommodate 3 of our 200 guests who had severe dietary issues, at no charge! Heck, he even went out of his way to make a wonderful tomato soup at no charge for my wife’s grandmother who had trouble digesting solid food. It gets better – since the wedding was outdoors, all of our vendors were setting up and preparing since morning, and Michael offered to make lunch for all of them, again at NO CHARGE.
Before the reader goes off and thinks Michael is some kind of culinary/​catering god and we are his enamored worshipers, let me state that there were some setbacks, just like in any other wedding. My family let me know later after the wedding that many of the guests were waiting significantly longer than others to receive their main course – apparently, some received their main course as a few tables were preparing for dessert. Second, we found out later that during clean-​up, the staff had dumped some oil on the premises which NEARLY cost us our deposit (the coordinators had made clear what the clean-​up instructions were). However, Michael was quick to reimburse us for the cost difference between the full deposit and the deduction – professionalism!
It is a bit cliché to say that no wedding is perfect, but it’s true. There WILL be problems. That’s where the quality of the service you receive from your vendors is critical, and Michael and his staff fell short in no way – where there were mistakes, they were quickly and professionally taken care of. At the time of this review, Michael is the executive chef at the Culver City Hotel – you can meet him and sample his amazing cuisine to see for yourself.

Very disappointing experience! We communicated frequently by email and phone with MICHAEL COMPEAN over 6 month period. Much to our surprise, HE NEVER SHOWED UP TO OUR WEDDING and sent a caterer who we had never met before. The food was mediocre and much of the details that we had discused with much time in advance did not come through on our actual wedding date. Example, his staff never brought us any food as was offered to make sure we ate, items on the buffet were missing, our signature drinks were not garnished. I was later told that these details WERE NOT IN OUR CONTRACT. I guess professionalism was lacking as well since was not explicitely stated in the contract either. Please DO NOT hire this unprofessional and unreliable vendor. They’ll sweet talk you until you agree for a food tasting session (he was 45 minutes late by the way!!!) and sign a contract… then, the real service begins.
PLEASE BEWARE!