Rising Michelin-star chef prepares custom menus
Published in the February 18-March 3, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Marty Cheek
Diane Sturla serves eggs at a recent Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Community Center.
Diane Sturla, CEO of Just in Thyme Catering, knows South Valley cuisine. Her husband is part of a fifth-generation farming family in Gilroy, and so she has learned through that agricultural heritage the value of using the freshest and most local ingredients in cooking for various functions ranging from corporate breakfasts and lunches to elaborate wedding dinners.
Just in Thyme got its start eight years ago through Sturla’s son Collin Ferguson who studied the cooking arts and sciences at the Culinary Institute of America. After he graduated, he put his chef’s hat on and worked in the kitchen at the Bernardus Lodge in Carmel as well as in San Francisco and Napa. When he decided to take the leap into a culinary business, he invited his mom to join him in his business adventure.
“I love cooking,” Sturla said. “I’ve always loved cooking, and so we decided we would try this together. And so for the next five years I studied under him, he was my mentor.”
The dining duo found much of their business in the Silicon Valley region through Sturla’s contacts made during her corporate life as a marketing director. When Ferguson decided to try something else, Sturla found she loved the catering business so much she chose to continue the enterprise. Helping her now are two professional chefs, Scott Murdock, who has a rising-Michelin star rating, and sous chef Christopher Parker. Together, they’ve built a business mostly on referrals, with word-of-mouth marketing by people who have enjoyed her food at various events. Much of her business now is in the Morgan Hill and Gilroy region and she enjoys working closely with her clients to give them a special food experience at a cost they can afford.
“Most of our menus are custom designed for the client and their event,” she said. “We take into consideration likes and dislikes, dietary preferences, allergies, intolerances and that kind of thing.”
Recently, she catered a wedding where the groom was of Greek heritage and the bride was of Mexican-American heritage. It was a challenge to find a menu that satisfied both families.
“We did a polenta, but we put a cilantro pesto on it,” she said of the wedding dinner. “Our style is to take classic California cuisine and put on our own twist to it. We use seasonal ingredients. We try to get ingredients that are as local as possible. We have good relationships with a lot of the local suppliers. We do whatever we can to use local produce and seasonal ingredients.”
Sturla admits, like every caterer, she’s had her share of fun stories and horror tales in providing the food for an event. Smart preparation and good communication with the client are key to a successful catering experience for everyone, and she advises people to be straight-forward with her when designing a quality catering experience for guests. Just in Thyme can come up with a menu option ranging between $25 to $150 per person attending an event.
“Clients need to be honest with their caterer on how much they want to spend on food,” she said. “They need to know their overall budget such as what they are spending on linens, spending on tables, or flowers – all of these things. And the food needs to be there, too.”
Just in Thyme caters the monthly Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Community and Cultural Center, an event that Sturla says is one of her favorites, although it means she and her cooking crew need to get up early to get to the kitchen to prepare the food.
“I go to the Farmers Market on the Saturday prior and that’s where I get a lot of the ingredients that I use for the breakfast,” she said. “There’s a lot of agriculture here in this area. It’s really a sense of community in Morgan Hill and that’s why I love it here.”
Another favorite event for the Just in Thyme catering staff is the annual Philanthropy Night gala put on by the Morgan Hill Community Foundation. Amy Whelan, the foundation’s president, said she was impressed by the quality of the Chamber breakfast items that Sturla served, so contacted her to cater for the nonprofit organization’s biggest fundraising event of the year. The two selected a “Surf and Turf” combo of steak and shrimp that wowed the 220 guests in last November’s Philanthropy Night.
“We definitely wanted to go with a company that was local,” she said. “Diane is a lovely person to work with and her team does a great job. And for an event like Philanthropy Night, which is pretty large scale, you want to be able to count on a caterer. The caterer plays a big role in having the event come together. And we really got lucky with having them cater last year.”
Just in Thyme worked hard to stay within a budget that the MHCF had for its catering at the event, Whelan said.
“The great thing about Diane is that she can come up with very good menu choices that work and surprise people and make them happy to attend an event that doesn’t have a rubber chicken dinner,” she said. “All in all, I feel they did a great job for sure and I would definitely consider them again.”
