Los Gatos Weekly-Times Photograph by George Sakkestad Bob Martinelli prepares a Mediterranean chicken platter for delivery. The Loma Prieta earthquake was turning point for caterer By Suzanne Cristallo Bob Martinelli remembers his mother and aunt coming to his downtown Los Gatos restaurant each day by bus. For 13 years before the earthquake of 1989, they came to help: Aunt Blanche Ubriaco ran the cash register and Martinelli's mother Helen rolled thousands of meatballs with the precision of a jeweler--each exactly the same size. The quake changed all that. Damage to his building on N. Santa Cruz Avenue forced Martinelli to seek quarters elsewhere. After a $100,000 investment in a kitchen at a new University Avenue location, which had previously been a veterinary hospital, the business took a new turn. What had been a three-meal-a-day restaurant and catering business became exclusively a catering kitchen--Martinelli's of Los Gatos Catering. Private parties and corporations can get the full treatment--original gourmet recipes, sparkling tableware, attentive service and sophisticated table decor. Or guests can enjoy a simple garden afternoon, perhaps with ethnic food prepared in front of them. Martinelli's does it all. Martinelli, 55, a San Jose native with family roots in Calabria, Italy, has been in the restaurant trade since he was 12. Before and after school, he went to his job at Lou's Village in San Jose to sweep up and bus dishes. The years he spent moving through the ranks from helper to chef in an array of restaurant kitchens, until becoming his own boss, have given him wide exposure and expertise. Comments from admiring guests such as, "Gee, this doesn't taste like wedding food," attest to his originality. "Food is very important to me," he stresses. Everything he uses is fresh and in season either locally or somewhere else in the world--but freshness can come with a price tag. For instance, because a customer wanted asparagus during its local off-season, he purchased it fresh from Peru at $65 for 10 pounds. "It was excellent. When I peeled it, it was just as green inside as out." Martinelli notes there can be great temptation among food providers to make their work simpler by using the huge array of available processed and prepared foods, including bottled sauces, stuffed chicken breasts and pre-made pastas. Food shows offer items that leave very little for a cook to do. "Every single thing you can think of is there," says Martinelli, itemizing everything from Chicken Cordon Bleu to pot stickers to chile rellenos--all of which he offers freshly made at "action stations" or tables set up at functions where the chef prepares the food from scratch in front of guests. Martinelli's high-end dinners can run $170 per guest, seated and served. That includes the wait staff, linens, stemware, china and table service, tables and chairs. A sample menu can include several hors d'oeuvres, such as crab cakes topped with marmalade mustard sauce; a first course of crêpes; a second course of watercress with smoked scallops in lemon vinaigrette; a pasta course of farfalle with broccoli and sausage with pancetto; an entree of rack of lamb with asparagus; and an array of desserts such as truffles and mini-cheesecakes. He can even provide an espresso bar and table decorations. Basic menus at $25 a head might include vegetable baskets and dipping sauce, an international cheese display, Caesar salad, fresh fruit and mesquite-grilled veggies and Chicken a la Martinelli with sausage, button mushrooms and artichoke hearts. Martinelli does all the cooking. Sometimes his wife, Kathleen, a San Jose State University public relations professor, helps out. Martinelli's Catering, 600 University Ave., Los Gatos. Office: 354-2707. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, December 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.