Beth Albright and Chris Brazzle have rediscovered their passion for the events industry thanks to a new catering venture. The pair hail from Food Glorious Food but officially started Blue Fire Total Catering this month. While Blue Fire can serve exclusively as a caterer for weddings and other events, the company can also act as coordinator, which is what categorizes it as a “total” catering company.
“I’m not in any way shape or form trying to be an event planner,” Albright says. “But if somebody needs help in terms of ‘Can you please find my equipment rentals, my DJ, my florists, my photographer—can you just book who you like and put together the team that you think would be best?’ Then yes, of course we can do that.”
In the past, Albright has experienced issues with vendors focusing on their single job during events rather than collaborating with others to create a broader vision. Now with Blue Fire, the vendors will work together to produce one outcome, as reflected in the company’s tagline: “One team, one outcome.”
When Albright and Brazzle made the break to start Blue Fire Catering, Albright was serving as the director of sales and business development for Food Glorious Food, and Brazzle as the the general manager. Combined, they bring more than 25 years of experience to Blue Fire. “Neither one of us really were looking actively to leave Food Glorious Food,” Albright says. “We both had just hit that event-industry wall … we would not have been as productive or creative as we once were.”
Albright and Brazzle have recruited the people they believe to be the best in the business to join them, including Brian Litolff, who was the original chef of Food Glorious Food and most recently served as the chef at the Belo Mansion. “I always joke that I type up how the event is supposed to go, but other people actually do the hard work,” Albright says. “And the people who are actually there doing the hard work and hospitality-driven side of the food service are a lot of the same excellent crew we’ve been working with who know how to execute very challenging events under challenging circumstances.”
With this team, Albright and Brazzle envision that their company will grow somewhere between a mom-and-pop operation and a large corporate entity. The company’s first event was just held in late March, but Albright and Brazzle are already setting goals for the future. The next step will be to partner with venues to get on their catering lists, and while Albright and Brazzle don’t want to their company to grow too large, they are aiming to carve out a unique niche in the catering industry. “Our investor has a lot of real estate, so looking ahead we have hopes of building a venue in Dallas from the ground up,” Albright says. “Then we hope to build in Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin, too.”
