Blue Ribbon Cooking Culinary Center

I recently got married and worked with Blue Ribbon for catering, wedding planning service as well as their Blue Ribbon Cooking Culinary Center building for reception venue.
One of the reason we liked blue ribbon so much was how flexible they were and how easy to work with them. They were so into making our visions into real wedding. We wanted to have Korean and Southern BBQ theme for our food and they were only caterer who were willing to make those happen.
Overall food was great. Many guests complimented about foods and how our food was something special with our characters other than just mediocre wedding meals. My only small complaint to food was that they used slightly different noodle for one of the Korean noodle dish. They were supposed to use sweet potato noodle and they did use right one for tasting but they use rice vermicelli noodles for the wedding. Many ppl couldn’t tell the difference but all Korean guests could tell the difference :) But they still pulled amazing meals off for everyone so I am happy.
Their flowers and decorations were great too. We also brought lots of extra stuffs such as table assignments chalkboards, menu chalkboards, our own table sign etc. They put together all those decorations nicely with their stuffs.
Of all these services, One of the best service blue ribbon offered was definitely their wedding planning service. Cassie was our planner. she helped with decorations, flowers, overall timeline as well as the day of wedding. She was always detail oriented, answer all my millions of small questions. While we were holding reception at blue ribbon, We had Outdoor wedding. I was so relieved that we had her to take care everything (out door decorations/​set up/​take down) on day of our wedding so we don’t have to worry anything. While she was dealing with decorations/​chair setup/​DJ set up and guest arrivals, we had lots of fun with photographers and bridal party for fun photo portraits.
Cassie kept telling me on my wedding day «it’s your day! I can take care of everything. You just have fun!» And she did take care of everything and I did have so much fun :)
I am so happy that I went with Blue Ribbon for my wedding. Planning my wedding with them was fun and easy. They truly cared what I wanted to have for my wedding day and did put all that visions together very nicely.

If I ever throw another huge party, I will be using Blue Ribbon again! Choosing them as our catering and event service was THE BEST decision we made for our wedding.
The Event Planning Staff
First I started off with Jill Petrie, but she left for maternity leave shortly after the initial planning started. Cassie Flynn took over and was AMAZING to work with. She was super attentive and was able to collaborate really well with me and my husband. I told her what we wanted — good food, amazing cocktails, and a fun party atmosphere with a modern vibe — and she coordinated the Blue Ribbon staff to make it happen. We also had some special setup instructions and Cassie made sure they happened. If I could have Cassie plan all my events, I totally would! Everything was superbly executed.
The Food
Everyone at the wedding kept talking about how good and tasty the food was. We had two pre-​wedding tasting because we changed a few things. Both times the tastings were as good as any fine dining establishment we’ve had the opportunity to dine at. They also fully customized our menu to what we wanted. They have a set of menus that they recommend, but none of them spoke to our personalities so we put together something completely original to us. Back to the food that was served at the wedding — we were afraid that the quality would degrade given the massive number of people at the event, but it tasted just as good as any of our tastings.
The Decorations and Flowers
We wanted it to look modern and sleek and that’s exactly what we got. We didn’t want the traditional foofy, overdone centerpieces but that’s all most florists seem to do. Blue Ribbon was able to give us the exact arrangement we wanted with seasonal flowers that matched our wedding colors. It was less pricey than other places we sought out. The bridal bouquet was stunning. Everyone thought it looked incredible. Once again — they used seasonal flowers so it was economically priced. The table settings were great as well. Their choices from their standard line were elegant and classic without being dated. They totally matched our modern feel we were going for.
The next time I have a big party to throw, Blue Ribbon will be the first company that I call!

So fun! Blue Ribbon was an excellent location for our corporate team building event this Spring. The location is beautiful, the kitchen is a blast, and their chef and staff were easygoing and helpful as we ran around making delicious courses for our Iron Chef Competition. I would recommend this to any team looking to get out of the office and spend some quality time together.

Be warned! Think long & hard before you book this caterer or venue. If you’re planning your dream wedding, I would take your business elsewhere, just in case. If you’ve ever had nightmares of things going wrong at your wedding. I can’t imagine it being worse that our actual wedding.
Honestly, go find another company if you are early on in your wedding venue/​caterer search. If you are already set on using this venue or have already paid a deposit, if you want to, you should still be able to get out of it with less monetary damage, earlier on. At the very least ask very detailed questions about contingency plans for every possible thing that can go wrong & get it in writing, because this venue is NOT PREPARED! They may tell you that they have a plan in place now (because of the disaster our wedding was), but we would suggest finding a way for them to guarantee in writing or a way for you to get your money back should anything go wrong, before you sign anything. Don’t wait until the day of your wedding to find out there is nothing you can do about a wedding nightmare, and then still have to pay every single penny, adding insult to injury.
We are writing this to WARN other couples who are going to spend so much money on one day where you have all your family & friends traveling from all over the world to share in this momentous occasion. To have a once in a lifetime experience completely RIPPED from you is truly heartbreaking. We felt so guilty to our guests for making them live through this horrible experience, especially for those who traveled from overseas, to deal with the horrendous event put on by this company.
Our wedding was a complete disaster, made only worse by the staff & venue. We paid for all the extras, hoping for the best, but planning for the worst case scenario, just in case, but we were horribly misled. We live in Seattle & we know how the weather can be unpredictable here, and we prepared for that. but there is no way we could have prepared for how unbelievably UNPROFESSIONAL the STAFF & UNPREPARED the VENUE was.
I’ll try to keep this as short as possible, but if you are planning on spending thousands of dollars on one day, you really need to know what kind of event this company is putting on. Here’s a list of what went wrong:
–No power with no backup generator (Even with a generator there is no way to have running water & flushing toilets, so make sure to ask about that)
–No lights (pitch black where the wedding & reception were going on, once the sun went down)
–No running water (can’t wash hands after using the bathroom)
–No flushing toilets (guests were close to puking with the disgusting bathroom conditions, even the male guests said they were seriously put off, and felt horrible for the conditions the females must have endured)
–No heat (even propane heaters were need to be plugged in to electricity, and with no power, there was no heat)
–Leaking tent (tent was leaking. not just small drips here & there, but cascading waterfalls in random places in the center of the tent, not just around the edges. We also rented tent walls, which did next to nothing to keep the water out)
–Wet floors & flooding inside the tent (yes people track in water, but the gaping holes in the tent made sure that the entire area was a slip & slide. Many people fell and its a miracle no one got seriously injured, just bruises, a few bloody gashes & sprained ankles)
–Summarized conversation between staff member (s) & bride/​groom about 30 minutes before event is scheduled to start:
Bride/​Groom: What is the contingency plan, since the power went out?
Staff: We don’t know, this has never happened before. What do you want to do?
Bride/​Groom: Can we hook up the backup generator.
Staff: There is no backup generator & even with one, nothing will work.
Bride/​Groom: So what can we do?
Staff: We don’t know, this has never happened before. Do you have any suggestions?
(How does a professional wedding venue & catering company have this response to a bride & groom on their wedding day??)
–Several staff members were yelling & berating guests throughout the night. Barking orders (people were lost because it was pitch black & no one could see any of the signs for bathrooms, etc) & threatening random guests that they would be keeping our wedding deposit (Seriously! The staff were discussing our finances with guests!!)
–The list actually does go on, and I have several dozen emails from guests detailing their experience, but this review is already so long. You probably don’t want to know the rest anyways.
PLEASE think long & hard before you sign with this place. They will be all smiles & promises at the beginning because they want your business, but we would suggest getting everything guaranteed in writing before you sign anything. Personally I would say, save yourself the headache & heartache and find some other company, but if you are set on them, make sure you have every possible contingency covered, get i

Only writing a review so others have fair warning… I would hate for someone to experience the same unfortunate events. Attended a wedding this past summer and the crappy weather was surprisingly more tolerable than the service.
— 90% of the event was powerless and by candlelight (due to a storm)
–The venue lost working toilets when the power went out
–Venue staff yelled at guests for dancing and enjoying cocktails
–The venue wouldn’t allow guests to pick-​up generators for lighting/​music and didn’t offer any option to get lighting back
–The cater waiters were unprofessional and seemed inconvenienced
–The dance floor had rivers of water running through-​it and no one available to mop it up
The list goes on…

if you want an overpriced wedding. And not received the service you paid for then book here. My wedding day was a nightmare now it will haunt my wife and I forever. No courtesy at blue ribbon and they are like car salesman upselling on everything imaginable. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere

The customer service here was awful.
I had been emailing back and forth with the company, explaining what we want for our wedding.
Fiancé is allergic to nuts and we want to taste cake. I thought that it would be simple.
We show up to Blue Ribbon and no one is there to greet us. I have to go to the next room and interrupt a cooking class that is going on to find out where we should sit for our tasting. We are told to wait in the lobby, about 10 minutes pass and finally someone comes to get us for our tasting. No apology for being late. The atmosphere feels weird, so I double check to make sure that there won’t be any nuts in the food and that we are going to taste some cake samples. The woman, Jill, says «no, we don’t do cake tasting.» Um, okay. I check my email on my phone and right there in the emails it says that we have nut allergies and want to taste cake. The woman explains to us that the original woman that we were emailing with, is about to go on maternity leave. Okay, I get it. Things get crazy at work when you are about to go on maternity leave. About ten minutes later another couple sits right behind us, and their host says «okay, here are some appetizers to try and then we will bring out the cake samples.» Jill, our host for the tasting overhears this and says that they will see what they can do for us so that we can try some cake samples. Also, the host didn’t get the memo that my fiancé is allergic to nuts. There was no communication between the two women. I applause the chef for making last minute changes to our tasting. We are able to taste cake samples. The host isn’t very apologetic throughout the entire tasting. Very weird vibe. After the tasting, we get an email from her to follow up with our tasting. In the email she still is not very apologetic. She said that she was sorry for the miscommunication, but they were able to rectify the problem. They obviously don’t want our business. Too bad because the food was amazing. We will not work with a company that doesn’t take our concerns seriously and is rude.

WORST WEDDING EXPERIENCE EVER
If I could give Blue Ribbon zero stars, that would be appropriate. This was by far one of the worst customer service experiences ever, worsened by the fact that it was for a wedding where things are supposed to be happy and joyous in celebration for a once in a lifetime event.
Everyone knows weddings can be stressful and things don’t always go according to plan like the day of the wedding I attended as a groomsman. Unfortunately, that day had a severe rainstorm which caused a power outage at Sanders Estate (wedding venue). That is out of Blue Ribbon’s control. We get it. What is unacceptable is the way BR handled the situation. Everything seemed rushed and there was a lack of organization, compassion, accountability, problem solving, and simple courtesy.
The first thing we thought to ask for was a generator and they said they didn’t have one. We asked if they could get one and they told us the house was too old for a generator to be used. Well, the wedding venue was outside, all we wanted was a generator to power up some lights and to power up the speakers so there could be music as we walked down the aisle. Nope, not possible and not even a hint of helpfulness to try to look into it. A few groomsmen would later go out after the ceremony (more on that) so that we could get some music and lights for the dancing and they easily found a generator. You would think that a company that caters events would think to have one in case of emergency situations.
As guests started to roll in, there were no directions to parking. No signs and no one to direct traffic so the groom himself went out into the rain to direct people.
We asked the planner for some time to figure out if we wanted to start food/​dinner first to allow more time to see if the power would come back up. The bride was hoping to have the music to walk down the aisle. The ceremony was supposed to start at 3:30pm and we were constantly being told that we had to start the ceremony.
As for the venue, there were holes in the tent and one large one right around where the bridal table was so that it looked like a water hose was running. There were puddles and no attempt to mop/​clean the worse areas. There was two lamp heaters which wasn’t enough to keep the 150+ guests warm. Regardless of a power outage or not, a wedding in October should have more heaters. There was no running water in the kitchen set up so I’m not sure how hands were washed… pretty sure that’s a health violation. Also, we were told that they would set up tables and linen for the rehearsal dinner the night before at the house. They didn’t and we had to set everything up ourselves. Not a big deal, but again, promises that were made and not kept.
The worst issue is the rudeness of the «owner». One of the caterers came into the house and asked for help to bring in a guest that had a little too much to drink. I went with another groomsman and found some people helping a guest walk to the house. The owner said that the guest was a liability because he had fallen down and she threatened to shut down the wedding. She kept telling us that the guest needed to get into the house and how he was a liability even as he already to the house with the help of other guests. Well, it’s a wedding and I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the first time a guest had too much to drink, and the place he fell was the outside restroom that had no light and no caution slippery sign.
This is all from what I personally observed and I can only imagine what other problems occurred throughout the wedding. I would highly encourage looking elsewhere if, after spending so much time and money, you don’t want a half assed job and be rudely rushed through your special day.

I want to make something clear upfront. I attended a friend’s wedding and the Sanders Estate that was catered by Blue Ribbon Cooking. That being said, I am not entirely sure who was responsible for what or if it all falls under the same umbrella.
Upon arrival, the situation seemed like it was setup very well for a large wedding (assuming around 200 guests?). Nice estate, big tent, tables, lighting, nice place settings, etc.
Shortly after arrival the rain really started coming down and flooding the entire wedding/​reception area including the prep kitchen. To be fair, this was one of the worst rainy days in all of 2015. Shortly after the heavy downfall of rain began, the power went out. This meant no lighting for guests, no music from the DJ, and no lights in the bathrooms (the toilets didn’t flush either). The prep area had 3−4″ of standing water and, as the night went on, even the main tent sprung a leak right in the middle just spouting water inside creating a slippery floor.
Granted, these are, for the most part, unavoidable events but the frustration comes in the handling of the situation. It seems as though they just simply weren’t prepared to deal with any unforeseeable circumstances. There was no backup generator or alternate lighting source and seemingly no staff taking action about the water (safety hazard), the bathrooms, the leak in the middle of the tent, etc. Granted I was not privy to all of the goings on but for a company that does these sorts of things often, it seems like there would be a level of preparedness. In addition, it seems as though their treatment of the wedding couple in regards to the handling of the situation was relatively unsympathetic especially for how poorly they handled the situation.
The initial setup was good and the food that was served was tasty and plentiful. They also did a good job of cutting and distributing the cake after the ceremony.
Given the circumstances, the guests made the best of the situation for the wedding couple. Also, this made for some unique, memorable moments (a first dance by cellphone flashlights and the crowd trying to bumble along in the lyrics they didn’t really know, the photographer backing his car into the tent to play music for the reception). We had a good time because the guests pulled it together, not the venue.

Blue Ribbon was the caterer for our daughter’s wedding reception last weekend and everyone raved about the great food! We did passed and placed appetizers, served a family style dinner with a salad, 3 entrees and 3 sides, a dessert bar that included Make Your Own S’mores and a late night snack. We brought in our own bar and Kaitlyn (and another gal) from BC were the bartenders and did an amazing job with our guests. The food was served in a seemless and timely fashion, no one had to wait for anything. The team did a great job setting up, serving, taking care of our guests and cleaning up at the end. Our thanks to Jill, Kristina and everyone at Blue Ribbon Cooking for helping make our daughter’s reception so special!

Okay, this review is VERY much overdue. Last year I had my wedding at the Weyerhaeuser Estate with Blue Ribbon. Everything Blue Ribbon did was flawless. I can’t think of one complaint and I started wedding planning 2 – 3 months before the big day. Yes I planned last minute & they sure moved fast. The food was tasty and the décor was everything I wanted. There were even little touches I never asked for like flowers being used from the ceremony in the reception, etc.
My wedding planners were Ami and Katy (I know I spelled that wrong). I really liked Katy and was told she would be the one at my wedding. For some reason it changed and I ended up with Ami. I wasn’t concerned as I did most planning with both of them.
The main reason I wanted to make sure I came back and wrote this review was Ami. She was fantastic! She was right there when I needed her and even stood up for me when I didn’t speak up for myself. While another vendor tried to rush me down the aisle telling me to forget the men’s boutonnieres, Ami would not let that happen. She told everyone to wait and ran like crazy up a few flights of stairs to grab them and get them on the guys. Two of my four kids wandered away and sat in the chairs and again I was being rushed to just get moving. Ami wouldn’t have it. She made sure my other two kids made it back to walk down the aisle. If she even sensed things were going differently then I wanted, she fixed it. The whole day she had my back, from fixing the train on my dress, to boxing up the top of our cake for us to take home, to making sure each part of the wedding transitioned smoothly.
I truly am happy I chose Blue Ribbon for my special day. Thank you again!

Just today we had an event for some of our interns at Blue Ribbon! We did the food truck wars and the staff was wonderful, food was delicious, and our interns had a fabulous time!
We were in two different groups, our group was Crepes and we worked with Chef Brent! He was absolutely wonderful and so fun. His hollandaise is amazing, by the way! We couldn’t get enough. We made two savory crepes, one w hollandaise and prosciutto and asparagus and the other with a white wine sauce, smoked salmon and bechemal! It was delicious. Our sweet crêpe was chocolate, strawberry and whipped cream, can’t go wrong there. We made everything, including the crepes! It was super fun, delicious and Chef Brent was a good sport dealing with our antics.
Our interns made tacos with Chef Élan and beat us. :(losing is tough, but I still got to eat everything, so I think we were all winners that way!
I really recommend blue ribbon for your next corporate event. We had a ton of fun and our interns talked about it all the way home.

Wow. This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time!
The Blue Ribbon Culinary Center is exceptional! The staff was incredibly helpful and kind and we were able to cook with great ingredients. The views of the lake are breathtaking! Our chef instructor, Danwula was not only knowledgable but also very patient and funny. She is a great teacher!!!
I arrived at the Unilocal Elite event and did not know what to expect. After all, I was going to be cooking with strangers. Little did I know that I would be making some awesome new friends! We are already planning our next get together :)
I would highly recommend a course at the Blue Ribbon Culinary Center!
Would love to come back for a date night.

Blue Ribbon was the venue/​caterer for my daughter’s recent wedding (Dec 2014). Everything was perfect; Vanessa was so accomodating and made many good suggestions that I may not have thought of myself. Pricing was surprisingly affordable and included décor, cake, food and the incredible service staff. All of our guests complimented the food and the venue. My daughter and (new) son have told me this was the best day of their life and they couldnt have wished for anything better.
Thank you Blue Ribbon!

I was married here at the end of June.
They took care of everything! We had no words to express how beautiful it was.
The good was amazing, people are still taking about it.
The staff was incredible, they didn’t let me down one time!
I loved every second of it, my husband and I never had any wedding planning stress!
I told them my dream, the guest count and my budget and it was more than I had ever dreamed it could be!

In the months prior I would ask the groom if they were sick of wedding stuff and he would say, «Nope. It’s all taken care of.» Wow. That was a first. It was very nice to have the couple not stressed out.
I attended their wedding on the lake this month. It was lovely.
Here’s the good:
The food was absolutely delicious. I can not rave enough about the pulled pork polenta cups, rosemary corn bread, fresh grilled veggies, and lavender lemon aid.
there were lots of other food choices but these were the best IMO.
The decorations/​table settings were beautiful. Loved the use of mismatched goblets that captured the light of the sunset.
The bar was well stocked with delicious drinks. Strong Old Fashions, sweet Lemon Drops, and did I mention the Lavender Lemon aid. yum!
The staff were very friendly and helpful.
Here’s the bad:
The building needs cleaned. Visible dust and dirt on the walls, stage, ceiling, front table and couch. Several guests commented on how dirty the wedding area walls were.
The bar needed to be manned at all times. I saw children reaching for the boozy drinks with no staff there to direct them to the non-​alcohol drinks. There was a person behind the bar for about the first 30 minutes then every so often to restock the drinks of the 4 hour affair.
I thought it was strange that after the couple cut the cake it was promptly taken away. On other reviews, they said BR did the same. Who does not give the guests wedding cake?
If I ever get married again I would definitely use Blue Ribbon Cooking Center (If they paint and clean by then.)

Our work had a group activity here called the Food Truck Wars. There weren’t actually food trucks present when we were there, but the food we cooked was based off the quick and dirty version of creating food for a food truck.
We started the evening with some appetizers and drinks. Apps included an interesting take on nachos, Asian style BBQ pork and some other small bites.
We were then divided into three groups/​themes: sushi, Southern and tacos. Quite the variety of food, I’d say! They were all fun themes too. I was on the sushi team, we also got to name our food truck… sadly, I can’t rememberthe name, but we were assigned a professional chef to each team who guided us and taught us what to do. The sushi rice and salmon and eel were already prepared for us so we basically cut the veggies, made them into tempura, and made the rolls.
It was definitely a fun and exciting environment! We were a little pressed for time so some of our rolls were crazy, but each team ultimately had to plate one chef’s dish so they could judge.
In the end, all teams made really tasty dishes, but the Southern team broke out and won with their amazing Bourbon chicken and tasty, creamy dessert. They got mugs as the prize.
Overall, I’d recommend this for a corporate activity because it’s fun, interactive and delicious!

Who knew?! Right under my nose all these years, and less than a mile from my house, there’s the Blue Ribbon Cooking Center. They host corporate cooking parties which is great as an event to host with coworkers or friends, or anyone really. Even a super fun first date!
When I came I participated with a large group of friends and we had an absolute blast. As someone that mostly enjoys eating food and not cooking, it was good to learn cooking techniques from pros. Typically my hesitation with cooking comes from a lack of experience and with this style event/​class, I had 1:1 time with professional chefs to learn better ways to chop onions, sear meat, and do simple but tricky thinks like make the perfect salad dressing or create gnocchi from scratch.
I left feeling more confident in my abilities, more curious about cooking at home, and totally full from all of the food out group cooked and ate. This is a great way to host a friendly competition, learn new things about the food world, and ultimately it’s even a great way to get a really fantastic coursed out meal! What’s better than eating a meal you helped make with the help of local chefs and restauranteurs?

I attended a Unilocal event here which was a lot of fun. I cook a lot so wasn’t sure what this would be like. I loved the enthusiasm with which the chefs who really knew their stuff taught the groups. With so many people and such little time naturally it was a little crazy and everyone only did bits and pieces but I’m glad we could all watch and pick up some useful tips.
They have a nice facility, well equipped kitchens and friendly instructors. With smaller groups I’m sure it will be a lot better and more hands on than with a group of 40. A great place for some team building activities and a fun date.

I can’t comment on the wedding planning side of the business, but I attended one of their group cooking classes as part of a Unilocal event. We split into five groups of ten, and each got three 30 minute cooking slots putting together various parts of a five course meal.
One of my slots was with a guest instructor, so I interacted with two of the regular instructors. Both were friendly and informative, but realistically, you aren’t going to learn anything in an hour that you couldn’t learn on YouTube and practice on your own. They showed us some basic knife skills, and had us dicing onions and shaving fennel and supreming (that’s a word?) grapefruit. They even paused during one of the knifework sessions to give us a chance to go get another cocktail. (I declined, being pretty happy with the number of fingertips I currently have.) Most of the final prep and assembly happened in an internal kitchen somewhere; we didn’t cook anything start-​to-​finish.
If you can already kind of cook, however, you might come out of this event with a few new dish ideas. Of course, there’s no shortage of recipes online, but there’s no substitute for seeing a dish come together and tasting the end result. The menu is French-​inspired, but with some interesting tweaks. My favorite dish of the night was slow-​roasted salmon with a martini sauce (basically a beurre blanc with gin, vermouth and juniper berries instead of white wine), garnished with sliced pimento olives. Yes, it sounds like a gimmick, but the salmon was perfectly cooked, the olives added a nice briny contrast, and the sauce was a basically a vehicle for butter.
The entrée was pork tenderloin with sweet potato gnocchi and green beans. The pork was cooked to a beautiful medium, and came with flambeed onions and apples that I could eat straight on toast. The gnocchi came in a classic sage brown butter sauce; «it looks much better than the batch I made,» said one of my table-​mates. The green beans were a pretty standard amandine, but cooked to a nice tender-​crisp.
The meal wasn’t perfect. I didn’t love the Thai grilled chicken appetizer — it was dry, boiled-​looking, and bland. And the signature coffee — decaf with whipped cream and Mexican chocolate — well, I’m pretty sure that was instant coffee. But overall, it was an enjoyable, well-​run event, and a good meal. This would be excellent for a corporate retreat.