Brenda Hammond and Ross Hanson started working together as Creating Flavors Catering in Los Gatos several years ago. He cooks out of a co-operative kitchen in the La Cañada building facing Victoria Lane while she handles the administrative side - and the family demands of three other siblings - from their Saratoga home.

"Not many people get to work with their kids," says Hammond, a veteran of 20 years in marketing. "I'm fortunate."

Daughter Dana, a 16-year-old junior at Saratoga High School, helps out with setting up when big parties require extra staff. Cameron, 13, and Monica, 9, "are not old enough - yet," their mother notes.

Hanson, 22, creates a variety of dishes to suit most any taste, including Chinese, Mediterranean, Italian and Japanese cuisine - even sushi. "It's the 30- to 40-plate dinners with an eclectic collection of foods that we love to do," Hammond says, "but we also enjoy doing backyard barbecues."

Known for his special "stacking" presentations, Hanson, a 1999 graduate of San Francisco's California Culinary Academy, will take various portions of an entree and build one on the other up to four inches high. "He might start with potatoes, then add the meat and top that with the vegetables sticking upward in long, skinny pieces," Hammond explains. "It's a great presentation."

Hanson holds cooking demonstrations periodically at Williams-Sonoma in Los Gatos. He plans to hold a special holiday demo there on Nov. 2 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. "We'll use whatever is fresh at the market and combine it with what the store is promoting - like a marinade or holiday menu items," Hammond says.

Another Hanson specialty is eggs Benedict. He uses the standard Canadian bacon, eggs and hollandaise sauce, but his "secret method" for preparing the eggs is what sets his dish apart, according to his mother. His raviolis are right for the season; he uses butternut squash or pumpkin to stuff the pasta, then adds a beurre blanc sauce, made in the classic French way by combining wine, vinegar and shallot reduction into which chunks of cold butter are whisked until the sauce is thick and smooth.

Hanson can accommodate all levels of service, whether it be a sit-down dinner in the home, advance prepared weekly meals for the working family or a wedding banquet. "Probably one of the more unusual events we catered was a five-course rehearsal dinner in Los Altos' Shoup Park," Hammond says, smiling. It was a full-service, sit-down meal. There were no facilities except one barbecue pit. There were plenty of bees, however, she adds.

Prices vary according to what is served and how many guests are present. "A sit-down might be $40 a head, whereas a buffet could be $19 each," Hammond says. The addition of serving staff adds to the cost. "We use my nephew, Jordan Kahn, chef at the French Laundry, if we need extra cooking help - and my favorite bartender," she adds, referring to Saratogan Sam Sandigo, a high school classmate of Hanson's. "We tend to ask for help from lots of locals and people who went to school with Ross." The rate is an additional $20 an hour per assistant.

The Creating Flavors Catering office is open 9 a.m.to 6 p.m. daily. Call 408.354.0002 or visit www.creatingflavors.com for more information.