On-Site Culinary — Local services in Blacksburg

Chef Jud is a consummate professional and all-around great person to work with. Best of all, he masterfully prepares high-quality, sumptuous food and leads a professional staff who serve food with charm and efficiency. With three weeks to go before our wedding, we had to abandon the caterer we initially hired because she never got us an estimate even though she took our deposit. I called Chef Jud, explained my situation, and within an hour we had selected a menu for the cocktail hour and dinner, agreed upon the estimate, and completed the deposit. Chef Jud's detailed website with a wide array of menu selections for appetizers, entreés, side dishes, and desserts--complete with the exact price per person of each--made this a simple and enjoyable task. What could have been a wedding disaster turned out to be a pleasant opportunity to meet a truly fine person who cares about other people and is passionate about creating and serving the highest quality food to others, helping them celebrate their most important days. The food was superb, according to many of the guests--most of whom are real foodies with discerning palates. The antipasto for the cocktail hour presented a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds with a great variety of Italian meats, cheeses, olives, etc. For dinner, the prime rib with perfect gravy and creamy horseradish sauce was succulent, tender, flavorful: perfect and perfectly carved by an attending chef. The crab cakes, prepared piping hot by another server, were delicious--plump with crab meat and no grainy fillers. The mashed potatoes pleased our most discerning Irish guests, who know their spuds. The ratatouille received rave reviews as did the perfectly grilled asparagus. The food was fabulous, as reported by many of our guests. But as important as the food was to us, Chef Jud's presence, his humanity, his congeniality, his professionalism, and his passion for great food were just as essential to making our wedding--and even the preparation for it--a joy. What could have been a disaster--worthy of a Bridzilla meltdown--found a perfect solution in the consummate craftsmanship of Chef Jud and his staff. I can't recommend strongly enough Chef Jud and his On-Site Catering...

When planning our fall 2021 wedding in middle-of-nowhere southern West Virginia, my (now) husband and I had very little options to chose from for catering. The options included one local catering shop who mostly provided fried food, or due to the strain of the pandemic, companies simply weren't able to travel that far or plan far in advance. We decided to look in Blacksburg, VA, hoping someone would be open to cater for our beautiful outdoor wedding, and...wa-la! We reached out to Chef Jud on Christmas Eve of 2020, and he responded within the hour asking to set up a time to talk. Over the next few months, we stayed in touch, and Chef Jud was always timely, respectful, jovial, and knowledgeable. He answered all of our catering questions with immense detail, and when we told him we weren't going to have a wedding coordinator, he offered helpful suggestions and advice for other parts of our wedding. He was flexible with making food that was not on his standard menu, and really spent time to understand our tastes and figure out work-arounds within our limitations. And the food...omg! He really went above and beyond for us regarding the delicious food (our guests were raving about our Char Sui Steamed Buns, Grilled on-site Cedar Plank Salmon, and Apple Crisp/donut selection). We seriously could not have pulled off such an event without him and his team,. Thank you so much, Chef Jud. We will not hesitate to reach out again for catering if we have another...

He's forgetting to mention we had to cancel our wedding in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses were at risk of receiving a $1000 fine. Even if we could find a new venue last minute, it legally wasn't allowed. It was a small gathering, but still over the limit at the time. There was no cancellation policy listed in the contract I was given. Yes, Jud offered an alternative date, but only through July. At the time, how was I supposed to know when and if it would be safe to allow family and friends to come at that time? Virginia is entering phase 3 come July 1 and physical distancing measures are still in place and doesn't change the fact that I have family members with underlying health conditions. We tried to compromise over the phone and were hung up on. He couldn't even provide me an itemized list of what he had "already spent" in preparation for our wedding. Super unprofessional and insensitive to the circumstances. You can call my family's reviews "fake," but they were...