Trout River Catering has been catering off-site events in Northeast Iowa since 1998, enjoying the bountiful choices of local ingredients. 

Trout River Catering is always allergy-conscious, specializing in gluten free options, and familiar with creating savory menus to accommodate your sensitivities and needs.

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From Ruth:

Originally from Iowa, I was introduced to the world of cooking in the restaurants of Minneapolis, including the Loring Cafe with Chefs Lenny Russo, Doug Flicker, Steven Brown, Phil Becht and Dawn Drouillard.

Though I am interested in everything about food, I especially love producing dinner events and performance evenings, exploring the theater of dining and its collage of elements….and exploring the story of food.

 

.photo by David Cavagnaro

Moving to Northeast Iowa has enabled me to dive into seasonal cooking, and mix cuisine nouveau with rural realness.  

My favorite project has been the melding of Performance Art and Food: facilitating eight experiential dinner fundraisers called Edible Alien Theatre.  

Other projects had been teaching workshops with My Awesome Retreat, and developing the recipe website AWEsome Cookery.

 

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“I cannot do justice to describing Ruthie’s catering talent!  She not only has a fantastic and delicious imagination for menus, she also has an amazing capacity to think of everything you would forget, and to plan for the non-edible important details of putting on a large meal: the logistics, timing, etc….

 

She also makes the planning process fun, and the most special ingredient she puts into the food and planning process is also the secret of life: LOVE!“

 

~Jane Shuttleworth and Hank Miguel

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“The food we were going to serve at our wedding was an important aspect of our celebration…when we first sat down with Ruth Hampton, we knew immediately that we had found the perfect person for the job. Fortunately we had Ruth to guide us through the task, offering advice not only on which dishes would best complement one another, but also which vegetables were in season among local producers.

 

Ruth demonstrated this kind of creativity and attention to detail throughout the entire process of designing our reception.  Planning a Decorah wedding from Los Angeles wasn’t easy.  

 

Ruth was wonderful at keeping us abreast of every situation, constantly seeking our input and offering her own… When we hired Ruth we hired more than an incredible chef.  We hired someone to help us create the tone of our entire wedding weekend—from selection of the wine, to arranging the proper order of events, to decorating tables and ballroom.”

 

~Jolene Hjerleid and Peter Buchman