About Us
California Rose
From our home in Berkeley, California, California Rose Catering is a family-owned company that specializes in fine food and start-to-finish event design. Good food is the centerpiece of all our events. Executive Chef Dov Sims combines the traditional flavors of Latin America and Asia. His flare for unique comfort food is nothing short of impressive, but more notably he delivers a culinary experience that will suit your style, your expectation and your palette. For our Vegan and Vegetarian friends, Chef Dov and his team offers a vast selection of unique and whimsical dishes surely to please everyone. From our handmade Tamales with Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onions to our Hoppin John Stuffed Tomato with Wild Mushrooms and Garlic Chives, Chef Dov understands that presenting well balanced Vegan dishes is just as important as presenting well balanced non Vegan dishes. We never cut corners on ingredients, and our trusted relationships with the best fresh produce, meat, fish, bread, cheese and beverage purveyors ensure an outstanding meal for you and your guests.
Simply put, we are food professionals that put our heart and soul into every dish.
Our style is to work individually with clients to develop an event concept and plan customized themes and menus. Our in-house event coordinators and core staff have been with us since our inception, and we believe a respectful working environment leads to high-quality events and most importantly, happy clients. We truly enjoy working together to create memorable events with incredible food. We are wedding and commitment ceremony experts, but also regularly cater corporate parties, special birthdays and retirements, Bar and Bat Mitz-vahs, fundraisers, and company launch parties. Whether your needs require an intimate dinner for 10 or a farm style meal in the wine country, we are ready to work with you to create a seamless event. If needed, we can produce any other aspects of your event including venues, flowers, gift bags, photography, hotel accommodations, and welcome bags.
Chef Dov
Chef Dov Sims first developed his eclectic culinary pallet and love for cooking as a young child. Born to a Southern Italian mother who imparted her deep love of food and cooking, Sims spent his early years between Mexico, where he learned to appreciate traditional Mexican cuisine and the use of indigenous spices and sauces, and a farm community in the Trinity Alps, where he was taught the importance of using fresh, homegrown ingredients.
In his early teens, Sims’ family settled in the Bay Area where he spent weekends assisting his mother as a food vendor at local festivals. It was through this work that Sims gained a love of feeding large groups delicious, homestyle food. He also recalls how important years as a food vendor was to the development of his strong work ethic: “Waking up at 5am on Saturday and Sunday was a normal thing for me. Even though I sometimes did not necessarily want to work, I felt proud to be around my mother, doing the same work she was doing. It somehow validated me at a young age”
By the time Sims graduated high school he knew that cooking was a passion that he wanted to turn into a career. He landed his first restaurant job in Berkeley, CA at the age of seventeen. By the time he was twenty he had worked his way up from a busboy, to prep cook, to acting chef.
Continuously hungry for new food knowledge and kitchen experience, local chefs began to recognized Sims as a talented, young culinary perfectionist. He was recruited to open multiple high end restaurants in San Francisco and the East Bay (GLOW, Viola, ALMA) and spent ten years working with noted Bay Area chefs.
Thirteen years ago, Sims again joined forces with his mother and left the restaurant scene to develop California Rose, a small- street fair based company focused on catering upscale wedding banquets and corporate events. Guided by the credo, “We bring the restaurant to you”, Sims has continued to impress his clients with a unique blend of professionalism, genuine hospitality and delicious food.
Married with two sons, Sims continues his love of creating fresh and exciting dishes and excites in training new culinary talent and consulting start up businesses, sharing the knowledge he has learned over the years. A restaurant may be on the horizon for this renaissance chef. Wherever the future will take him, it is bound to be delicious.
Locally Sourced & Organic Food
California Rose Catering is proud to be a certified Alameda County Green Biz. As a premier full-service caterer, we are devoted to minimizing our impact on the surrounding environment by implementing green practices in all areas of our business.
We buy locally grown produce and pasture-raised meats, and we support small-scale, sustainable farming whenever possible. Our team closely follows the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch list to ensure use of sustainable seafood. We work exclusively with vendors who support our environmental efforts in recycling, reusing, and returning items. We print conservatively, reduce unwanted mail, and replace memos with emails. We use energy conservation methods which include our dishwashing, T8 lighting, paper/plasticware and refrigeration.
For more information about California Rose and the Alameda County Green Biz program, please visit: http://greenbusinessca.org/
Vegan
Whether you are a strict vegetarian or just want to try eating meatless once in a while, you still want healthy recipes that satisfy nutritional needs without sacrificing flavor. Our vegetarian meal options can do just that. At California Rose, we are proud to offer plentiful vegetarian options during every meal, for every event. From simple salads to hearty dinners, we have vegan recipes to suit any occasion. Enjoy dessert too, with vegan cake, vegan cookies and seasonal fruit sorbets.