Adventures in Catering at Savoury Kitchen

Tucked behind the front entrance of Shadow Ridge Hotel adjacent to Park City Mountain Resort, Savoury Kitchen caters to a wide clientele, offering a variety of home-cooked meals. The chefs use many practical techniques for heating and cooling food to provide a unique and safe experience for customers, including those dining in outdoor environments.

Original Head Chef and Owner Joseph Saladyga opened Savoury Kitchen July 1, 2009. Saladyga originally ran the kitchen alone with a very small crew and high aspirations. While other chefs have since taken over, Saladyga still partakes in menu development, and the crew —including new head chef John Fitzgerald and sous-chef Meryl Kornet—is able to execute his vision and keep customers happy.

While SK predominantly serves clients based in Park City, they have traveled as far as Rock Springs and Jackson, Wyoming to cater weddings. Budgetary restrictions included, SK is capable of exceeding standards for each client’s requests and needs for any specific event, including lunch gatherings, weddings, private meals at home and outdoor excursions into the backcountry.

“No party is too small and no party is too big.”

“Catering is the appropriate term, but at the same time that was the biggest issue of the pandemic—because [people imagine] we cook for hundreds of people, when it can range from two people to thousands of clients and customers,” Saladyga says. “No party is too small and no party is too big.”

A few of these “parties” include lunch at a local Montessori school, making burritos with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food and collaborating with local coffee shops such as Silver King Coffee and Park City Gardens. Most notably, SK cooks for local adventurers wanting pre-made camping meals to take on fly fishing, cycling and rafting trips. Saladyga also sources as much local produce as possible from farmers markets, further connecting them to the natural world.

Meals at SK commonly include Mexican, Asian and Italian cuisine as well as comfort foods such as pasta and burgers. In addition, they offer customized items such as baked apples and bananas, as well as common breakfast options such as burritos and broccoli hash.   “On the private chef side, we tend to design menus based on the client’s desires and needs—we adhere to basic dietary restrictions,.” Saladyga says. “If someone calls us up and wants us [to craft] an Ethiopian menu, we will take on that challenge and create it for them. We will do whatever the client wants, essentially.”

“If someone calls us up and wants us [to craft] an Ethiopian menu, we will take on that challenge and create it for them. We will do whatever the client wants, essentially.”

The idea of camping meals came into play particularly during the pandemic: making really good food really easily. For many outdoor adventures, the meals were prepared and encased in vacuum-sealed bags so that clients only had to heat them up in water. Trial and error was an essential part of establishing the techniques for containing camping meals in the backcountry through tools such as portable coolers and river traps.

Another elevating element of SK’s portable meals is the lack of dirty dishes; only a pot of water is needed. The meal options are offered year round for winter camping in Southern Utah, as well as traditional camping and car camping. Saladyga’s love and passion for cooking is equaled by his enthusiasm for the outdoors, which more than shows in SK’s final results for camping meals. “The number-one thing is: if you want to eat good food and enjoy adventure, don’t think of us as just a catering company. We give a little bit of everything,” Saladyga says. “We’re not just catering weddings, we cater to any client’s desires.”

To learn more about Joseph Saladyga’s continuing mission and techniques to provide spectacular meals and snacks to outdoor enthusiasts (and almost any other public or private event), check out Savoury Kitchen at savouryparkcity.com.

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