Passion began as a youngster baking sweets
Published in the April 29 – May 12, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo courtesy Diana Guertin
Diana Guertin is the owner of Catered by Diana.
In December 1992, Diana Guertin traveled from New England to California and discovered a new life in Silicon Valley. At the peak of the Silicon Valley economic boom, her uncle in Cupertino invited her for a vacation and she was amazed by the culture and activities of the Bay Area region.
Trained in the culinary arts at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, the Connecticut native found a job at the California Cafe in Los Gatos, and her passion for cooking, which had started from as a kid by baking sweets, came out in the restaurant kitchen as she made dishes from the best and freshest ingredients.
As time passed, she worked in other restaurants. A two-year stint at the former Golden Oak restaurant brought her to Morgan Hill followed by 10 years as the owner of the former Mushrooms Bar and Grill. She worked for a time in catering for Culinary Express. And then an opportunity opened up that allowed her to start her own off-site catering company — Catered by Diana. She has operated it for eight years from a licensed commercial kitchen in the Mission Bell headquarters.
Guertin recalls: “I knew the gentleman who was operating the kitchen here and one day he called me and said, ‘I got something you might be interested in,’ and I said, ‘Oh, yeah, what’s that?’ and he said, ‘I don’t what to do this anymore,’ and I said, ‘I’ll do it.’”
The catering business keeps her and her staff busy providing food for corporate and social events throughout the surrounding areas.
Among Catered by Diana’s local clients is the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill which uses Guertin for its weekly Wednesday afternoon meetings.
“It’s chef’s choice every week so they get surprised,” she said. “One of the longest running themes initially when we first started serving them is that we would never repeat a dish, so it was easily into the first year of service and they went, ‘I don’t think we’ve had the same thing twice.’”
For three years, she helped the Rotary Club with a fundraising event selling freshly-made mushroom soup at Morgan Hill’s annual Mushroom Mardi Gras. The money went to scholarships for local students. She still uses the recipe at social events because it has proven so popular.
“That particular recipe came from the company Monterey Mushrooms, and it was selected by the Rotary Club to serve at the Mushroom Mardi Gras for the last few years,” she said.
Stuffed mushrooms of various flavors are another popular offering that Guertin prepares for events – including a recent Chamber of Commerce social mixer hosted at Guglielmo Winery by the Mushroom Mardi Gras organizers.
She also prepares breakfast for employees at Mission Bell. And when she’s preparing for a catered event, the cooking smells waft into the ventilation system of the large building and workers find themselves getting hungry. It’s especially the case when she’s baking cookies or brownies or grilling up a meatloaf.
“I drive them nuts here when I’m cooking,” Guertin said with a laugh. “The aromas drip out and we get people coming down and ask, ‘What are you cooking? You’re killing us up there.’”
Although she has an extensive repertoire of recipes, she encourages clients to offer her recipes they’ve discovered such as from Bon Appetite magazine or the Internet. She works closely with people to make sure they have the best culinary experience at their social events such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, or retirement parties.
“Basically, I look at what they give me and I say, ‘OK,’ and I make it. That’s great because I love it when people ask me for things they want and don’t feel restricted to what’s on the catering menu. The world of food is huge, and if it gives us an opportunity for additional experiences rather than do the same thing all the time, that’s what I love.”
