Barbara Perry
A lot of us have no clue what to do after high school or college. For Barbara, she was very lucky because she was born with hospitality and catering in her blood. Her love and focus for her clients and strong professional background all come together, making her an indispensable asset in your back pocket when you need to send your daughter off with a storybook wedding, send your convention guests into a food coma, or want to show your friends from the UK that us yanks can throw one mighty proper tea party.
Barbara grew up in the heart of Oakland and after graduating, went straight to work managing multiple restaurants at a time in the 70's in Jack London Square.
Barbara has worked with some of the best caterers in Oakland as well as worldwide hotel chains. They include Banquets and Bartending at the Hilton at Concord, Banquet Management for the Sheraton, Banquet Management at the Monarch Hotel in Dublin, and the Holiday Inn.
Barbara's catering experience includes work with the famous Patrick Davids Catering company and Food Is Love Catering.
After retiring from an the exhausting and high demand world of hotel management and catering, Barbara did what any other retiree would do: get right back to work by starting a catering company of her own.
As luck would have it, Barbara met a certain chef Larry while managing restaurants at Jack London Square.
It didn't take him long to talk Barbara into it. Larry and Barbara then spent the next couple years developing their business plan, scouting out locations, and gathering their resources. Before they knew it, Small Thyme Catering was up and running in 2007.
Barbara was born to a family that loved to entertain, meaning she's been designing platters and menus since before she could walk. Barbara focuses on personal relationships with couples, loves to eat out, keeping up with trends in food, and tasteful decor.
Larry Kiesler
A great chef, like a good roast, requires the same ingredients: time, patience, and love... and Chef Larry brings all of that to the table
Chef Larry has been personally trained by the best chefs in San Francisco and has worked at many famous restaurants from Corpus Christi in Texas to Seaworld in San Diego.
Chef Larry got his start working at Victoria Station in the 70's in San Francisco, the reputed "King of Prime Rib." While learning on the job, Chef Larry was also a student at Laney Culinary school in Oakland.
From there, Chef Larry has worked at Sea World in the early 80's and the famous Railhead Restaurants in Corpus Christi in Texas.
When Chef Larry returned the bay area, he started catering with Petar's in Lafayette, where he was personally trained by Petar himself.
All of his experiences didn't go unnoticed, as Chef Larry has been recognized by Gourmet Magazine for his Clam Chowder, and rave reviews from Laney, UC Berkeley, and Kaiser.
Chef Larry has catered for many venues all over the bay area, including Fort Mason Centered, Rossmore at Walnut Creek , Stern Grove, Heather Farm, the Vet Center in Lafayette, Lake Merritt Community Center, Oakland Museum, the California Grand Ballroom, and many estates in Napa Valley.
Chef Larry's style is described as Haute California and specializes in Southern Italian and Country French Cuisine. He absolutely demands only fresh local ingredients and fresh not farmed seafoods for all his dishes.
And if you can ever manage to get a few moments with Chef Larry, you'll find that he's got many battle stories from his time in the trenches to share.
