The Four Seasons Hotel Catering

A business conference hosted by the commerce undergraduate society at UBC had me going downtown to the Four Seasons Hotel to listen to many interesting speakers. It was informative, it was interesting. I got to meet many new interesting people. I had been wanting to go to this conference since I heard about it last year, however once I found out I had a midterm the next day, I wasn't too keen. What ended solidifying my decision to go?
The $32 catered three course meal for the conference ticket price of $30.
I'm in.

Unfortunately, while the conference was excellent, the food.. was not so much so. I don't know if I should be associating this with the Yew Restaurant located within the Four Seasons in any way.. but if this is any indication of anything... well. Anyways, they set the salad and dessert out before anyone had even entered the ballroom where we were eating. I found this a little strange... But I realize getting all these plates out one by one across the ballroom while individuals wait once they're seated isn't the greatest.. So. I was curious as to how the dessert would hold up though. It looked as if it needed to keep cool.

Standard salad. The dried cheery tomatoes were very sweet though and I liked them. I wish there were more than three pieces.

had bread at this point-- but I've got a picture missing. A shame, because I swear the cheese and sesame seed bread were the most technically well done foods I saw all day.

This was the vegetarian option available. Spinach and cream cheese stuffed ravioli topped with mushrooms and a cream sauce.

The filling is.. where? There was more 'edge' (the parts that kept the ravioli closed) than any filling. The bite I had was rather bland.

This was the dish served to everyone else. Chicken and mashed potatoes drenched in sauce. Except the drenching of the sauce did nothing to keep the tasteless chicken from being dry.

Tasteless, yea. Dry, yea. Even with the fatty skin on top and all the herbs you see. How do they do this. Uhg.

And I know this picture doesn't give the best indication, but ignore the tiny piece of potato I have on my fork there and look at how my fork is lifting up the pile of mash potatoes. See how the mash potatoes retain its shape (flat from the bottom of the plate)? I think you get an idea of how good these potatoes were from that. It was gelatinous..

Like I thought, the dessert would have probably faired better if it had remained cool before serving. It was still a little cold, but had started to warm up, making the texture of the cheesecake far too soft. Perhaps this was intentional, but I prefer a a denser cheesecake. Not too dense, but just not a fluffy mousse.

I was glad that the shortbread cookie hadn't gotten soggy when I took a bite though. The cheesecake tasted far too tart though, and the extremely sour apple compote on the side did not make it any better.

Still. I'm a sucker for desserts. I cleaned the plates.
I did notice a majority of the plates around me unfinished though. And even more cheesecakes left untouched.

Overall, not a very good representation on The Four Seasons part. Perhaps this is because they were catering to 250+ individuals (although I don't see how this could be a problem for such a large hotel chain). Perhaps they just didn't care because a large majority of the attendants were students. Either way, this sets Yew down my "to-eat" list quite a bit.

OH. One more thing. After purchasing my overpriced (but inconsequential, as I've got to use up my meal plan card eventually anyways. cash nonrefundable) university coffee, I can say for certain that the coffee they served here at the Four Seasons tasted like an oil slick.