Chef Brian Schmidt was born and raised on the Eastern Shore in Trappe, Maryland. His first kitchen job was at the Masthead in Oxford in the mid 1980’s, and as his interest in the culinary arts grew, he attended the Baltimore International Culinary College in 1992. In 1994, he opened The Kitchen in downtown Easton, which he operated for 7 years. The Kitchen offered a range of services, such as: eat-in or carryout lunch, fine pastries, wedding cakes, and catering. Ready to focus solely on catering, Brian and his wife, Cathy, opened Garden & Garnish in 2001. All together Brian has over 25 years of restaurant and catering experience.
Garden and Garnish is a full service catering company that specializes in meeting the specific needs of the client. Located in Trappe, Brian’s home town, it is owned and managed by Brian and Cathy. We cater almost anything from delivering business lunches to serving 5 course plated dinners and everything in between. We have catered a wide variety of events including but not limited to: weddings, cocktail parties, holiday parties, picnics & pig roasts, special occasion buffets, baby showers, rehearsal dinners, baptisms and bar mitzvah’s. Our off – site catering experience has been quite diverse, which allows clients the flexibility to chose the site of their liking and be confident we can accommodate any party location– from empty fields to construction sites to yachts and beyond. Over the years, our professional staff has risen to the occasion to provide exceptional service for many unique venues.
The name “Garden & Garnish” was a natural choice as we deliver “fresh from the garden” quality and eye-catching presentation. We like to use a broad assortment of fresh vegetables and garnishes from our own herb garden, and take pride in developing seasonal dishes that utilize many local ingredients from Eastern Shore farmers and watermen. While we favor seasonal, regional fare we do not limit ourselves, and strive to be able to produce a variety of quality ethnic food, as well as our regional Eastern Shore favorites.
Our menus are as diverse as our clientele, and we enjoy working one on one to ensure each menu is tailored to the client’s needs, taste, and budget. All of Brian’s menus are specially designed for each party. This gives the clients ownership over what they serve, so that each party is unique to them. Of course, we have many suggestions and ideas, but we try to let what is in season steer our menu selections.
Our long term strategy is simple: to keep the clients you have and attract more, you have to be excellent at what you do. Repeat clientele is of course our best advertisement, and at the same time the best compliment we can receive.