Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan and Silvia Moss.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Dan and Silvia. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
We met in San Diego California in 2000 working together in a kitchen and fell in love with each other and the passion for food and cooking we both have. After moving to the Boston area in 2004, we started our own catering business. First as an occasional side job and for the past three years, a full time love affair! In 2016 we purchased a food truck to support our catering business since more and more couples are getting married out in fields where there is no kitchen facilities. In May of 2016 we brought on Souped Up Food Truck.
Silvia: I have been cooking all my life, starting in my home country of Switzerland where I attended culinary school and worked in several restaurants before moving to USA. Dan: I had a 22 year career in the U.S. Navy before becoming a culinary school graduate in 2001. I found my passion.
Has it been a smooth road?
Of course, it has not been a smooth road. I have never heard from anyone that starting a new business was smooth. For us it was all the bumps and bruises of starting a business of our own. While we did get some good advice from places like SCORE and others in the catering industry, much of what we do has been learned from the school of hard knocks. No one else has a business exactly like ours with our principles and goals.
We have always wanted to be a hands on type of operation. No one can prepare the dishes we put out and present them as well as we can. Just ask us, we will tell you.
One of our greatest struggles has been getting our name out to the public. We have not taken ads out nor advertised our business. It has always been by word of mouth. How do you advertise phrases like “handmade” or “loves making from scratch to develop flavorful dishes” and not make it sound like every other catering business. So we chose to let our food and our compassion for our customers do the talking.
One of the other bumps in our business was finding a kitchen to work out of. There was a period of time we had to shut down our business because we could not find a commercial kitchen to work out of. We had one, but, the owner wanted a permanent tenant. So we had to start looking for a new location again. It was almost a month later a fellow caterer let us know of a kitchen we could work out of that was only about 20 miles away. We jumped on it and have had an awesome relationship with the owners ever since.
Another challenge is getting across to our potential customers that we do not have a set price list. We customize each menu to the event and that makes it all a bit more complicated. It is more work for us and the customer, but well worth it in the end.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Above the Clouds Catering and Souped up Food Truck – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are Above the Clouds Custom Catering, our slogan is “Welcome to food heaven”. To completely immerse your senses in the pleasures of flavor, texture, scent and visual excitement. We specialize in custom catering.
Here is a bit more about our philosophy: We try to give our best every day. We are honest to ourselves and to our customers. We trust in our abilities and each other. We believe in the driving force of love and the impact it can have in what we create.
What moves us is the gratitude from our customers and the happy moments… when we realize that we are a part of making someone’s day a very special one.
We believe what sets us apart is the following two points:
– Our customer service: from the first contact to the end of an event we truly want to be in touch with our customers to not just customize their event but to show them what true hospitality is.
We believe in our ability and gift to listen to your love or event story and we try to put all the beautiful and positive energy into continuing your story in our menu and cooking creations. We value the personal contact, not just on the day of your wedding, but long before that, waiting longingly to set the creation in the right light and to conjure a smile in the face of you and your guests.
– We as chefs put our food first: we always go above and beyond to find the perfect ingredient, cook as much as possible on site and fresh from scratch. Our passion is cooking and we are continually learning new ways to prepare dishes. We constantly challenge ourselves to create better food than we have ever done before.
We love simple things that we prepare with the highest care and the best ingredients possible. That is our way to live and understand life.
On our food truck we change the menu weekly to keep it interesting to our clients and to satisfy the creativity and curiosity we have for new cuisines and dishes.
What we are most proud of is recognizing the talent of our front of the house captain, Carol Barry and her team from the first time we worked with her. She has changed our business from just serving great food to it becoming truly about hospitality: making connections with guests is one of her focal points. Taking care of the customers’ needs and making an event run smoothly, even when there is obstacles in the road, is invaluable to us chefs that have time to focus on our strong points-the food.
What we are known for is going above and beyond, whether it is a special recipe or dish the customer has in mind or putting on a wedding reception in the middle of a field, we will work with them to make it happen.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Our home and office is just south of Lowell and our kitchen is just west of Lowell. Lowell is a great city centrally located for us. It is blooming into a culinary and cultural hotspot. There is more and more diverse restaurants and food outlets every time we turn around. We love the atmosphere up here also. Don’t get us wrong, Boston is great also. But, if you want diversity, as we love to work with, but don’t want to travel in and about a large city, Lowell is the place. If we had to pick something that we liked least about Lowell, it would have to be that it is not blooming fast enough.
Contact Info:
- Address: Billerica, MA
- Website: Above-clouds.com and soupedupfood.com
- Phone: 781-439-3924 or 781-439-3925
- Email: dansil@above-clouds.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/AboveTheCloudsCatering/ and facebook.com/soupedupfood/
- Twitter: twitter.com/Soupedupfood
- Yelp: yelp.com/biz/above-the-clouds-catering-billerica
Image Credit:
All from Above the Clouds Catering
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