Two Cooks Catering

Man, talk about 5 star food & service.

Heather canceled our booking three days before our event. She had emailed me letting me know this instead of picking up the phone and calling. Luckily we found «SLO Provisions, which was a wonderful experience, fabulous food and very professional !!

Two Cooks Catering nailed it! A home run! They catered two wedding events: a cocktail party with heavy appetizers and a Santa Maria style BBQ. Our wedding guests raved about the food, and the service and staff were professional and friendly. I would highly highly recommend them!

Fabulous boxed lunch for our group while traveling through the area. Loved the lemon bars!

Owners Russ and Heather Thomas team to offer delectable menus for your event whether it’s a corporate gathering or 5 course wedding. As a wedding venue owner, I’ve been very impressed with the quality of their food creations from tapas and paella to short ribs on polenta. Russ heads to the Farmers markets for the freshest ingredients and even bakes their own bread! Consider Two Cooks Catering for your next gastronomic delight…

Where to start!!! Heather and Russell are AMAZING! We booked them immediately after meeting them, and once we tasted their food, we ended up booking them for our rehearsal dinner on Friday, AND our brunch on Sunday. We were blessed to spend all three days will them, and gorging ourselves of all of their delicious treats. SO ridiculously good!!! From the start, we thought they were wonderful people that had a real passion for food, and a passion for the business that they had built together; that was really icing on the cake at that point. They were so knowledgeable about the food that we had no doubts that they would knock it out of the park. Russell, for instance, says he doesn’t like any of the bakeries in town, so he bakes all his own bread for events. That just showed the attention to detail for us that was very unique and special.
For our rehearsal dinner, we did an Italian theme with Chicken Parmesan and thousand-​spice pasta as the main courses, and then the best grilled veggies, salad and tons of appetizers as sides. The Chicken Parmesan was one of the best we have ever had; the breading was just the right amount of crunchy and really flavorful and the sauce was PERFECT (they should really bottle the stuff); it was cooked perfectly! And all of the veggies were local, in season, and organic, lightly dusted with olive oil and herbs — just wonderful. Everyone commented on the food at the rehearsal dinner, and I told guests that they were in for a treat because Two Cooks was going to feed us all weekend!
For the wedding, we did their famous BBQ, which had everyone in hysterics about how good it was. Getting married in a barn, I was originally worried that the BBQ would be a little casual, but they make everything so well that it felt homey but upscale. The main dishes were tenderloin, Pork Ribs, and chicken with homemade BBQ sauce; the sides were a mashed potato bar, baked mac n’ cheese, cole slaw and jalapeño corn bread. I don’t even know where to start here. You always expect food made in large quantity to lose a little bit of that special touch, but it was all perfect! The Chicken was juicy, the pork ribs were tender and also juicy, and the tenderloin was cooked to perfection! And the mac n cheese and mashed potato bar made me want to press pause on the wedding and engorge myself on all the yumminess. Even the cole slaw which I sometimes feels is my least favorite part of the BBQ theme was bright, light, and exquisite. I should have taken some of the food to go!
For the wedding we had an egg bake, strawberry lemon coffee cake, and a lox and bagel station. This was the perfect end to the weekend. I have no idea how the eggs were so fluffy, flavorful and satisfying. It had a very light crust on the bottom, and then fluffy eggs and ham baked on top. I could eat that every morning for the rest of my life! The Strawberry Coffee cake was out of this world; I normally don’t eat coffee cake or life anything sweet for breakfast, but there were whole strawberries baked right inside of it, which create this gooey strawberry filling inside — YUM! And I usually don’t eat Lox either, but their lox were lightly smoked, and the toppings were perfection on the lightly toasted bagels. Since I was no longer on my wedding diet, I had one plate of all three items and then went back for a second!
On top of the AMAZING food, event staff, and coordination, Russell and Heather were a joy to work with, and they were so thoughtful, and accommodating through the whole process. My husband is a bit of a picky eater, so I gave them a list of all his dislikes, and they worked around all of them to make sure he was happy. I promise, if you book Two Cooks, you will not be disappointed. I love them!!!

Heather and Russ at Two Cooks Catering are amazing. I have used them many times and they consistently bring out the great food and service. I am constantly amazed how my expectations are exceeded.
Russ is a bit of a mad scientist with food, but I love it. We will talk and he will give me great ideas and we will come up with a plan. On the actual day, the menu often changes (i give him that flexibility, he is not just going out of control). Russ usually starts the explanation with «I totally found this awesome _​_​_​_​» Russ makes a discovery and takes things in a different direction for me and it is always off the hook.
I have never had a quality issue and the taste profiles are crazy good. It is really nice that he is so versed that he is able to provide excellent vegetarian and vegan options for my events as well as amazing desserts (Russ was originally a baker, I believe).
Two Cooks pricing is always very reasonable and I have never felt that I did not get my money’s worth of catering.
Excellent company to work with for all things catering in the Central Coast.

Russ and his catering team are truly amazing! All of my guests could not believe how amazing the food at our wedding was, and my parents continued to receive feedback on it for weeks after our wedding. Two Cooks Catering is not only professional, but they are trustworthy and passionate about what they do. My husband and I were living in San Francisco (the home of AMAZING food), while we were planning our wedding in San Luis Obispo. We became very discouraged when we started researching caterers in SLO, and realized that none of the food matched the quality of what we were used to in SF. That is — until we tasted Two Cooks Catering and our minds were blown. The quality of Russ’s cooking is unparalleled, and we wish we could get married every year so we could taste his food again and again. He also has a great personality and is a family man, so he’s wonderful to work with and very responsive.

Heather and Russ were fantastic! We used them for our wedding and did an outdoor, all-​vegetarian dinner with cocktail reception. They were very accommodating, easy to work with, and we still receive compliments about the food at our wedding. We were nervous about doing all-​vegetarian because we knew some of our guests would roll their eyes. But it was important to us. And Russ delivered the most flavorful and well-​rounded meal we could have asked for. Their service staff were also great, and the event itself went very smooth. The set-​up and presentation of everything looked great. Very, very pleased and highly recommend them to anyone who considers food the top priority for their special event.

These guys will knock your socks off!!! We were SO LUCKY to get them for our wedding in Paso Robles. Every encounter with them was top-​notch: Russ is seriously one of the nicest, mellowest, coolest guys you will meet. He is truly excited (and humble) about his food, which is UNBELIEVABLE!!! From our first tasting with him, we were hooked. Amazing, amazing food. I only wish that we were guests at our own wedding so that we could enjoy everything even more!
Of course, the best part for me was that he was able to make all the food gluten-​free and dairy-​free for me, due to food intolerances! It was SUCH a great feeling to know that I could eat everything there and not have to worry about getting sick later – NOT what you want for your wedding night!
In addition, much of the food was organic and came from the farmers market that Russ visited that morning. YUM!
Loved Two Cooks so, so much. They were one of the main ingredients in our perfect wedding, and I will never forget Russ and his food!

Heather and Russ, what can we say… absolutely delicious! We knew from our tastings that things would be good, but the day of wedding things were even better even when we thought it couldn’t get any better. We had I think a somewhat untraditional meal of BBQ and boy was it a hit with our family and friends! We can’t forget the mac&cheese, it was the best! We had a dessert bar that included homemade ice cream. Needless to say, our guest are still talking about the food!
In addition to the awesome food, Heather and Russ were a pleasure throughout our planning process. Always flexible and willing to add extra cheese to their already excellent mac&cheese :)
Also, I have to give props to their staff. All the guest commented on how friendly and pleasant they were.
If you are looking for truly good food, go with Two Cooks!

Heather at Two Cooks was very helpful to me when looking for a catering service for my wedding. She answered all of my questions and provided consistent follow up to her e-​mails.

extremely well trained staff and excellent service is provided by two cooks.

Two Cooks did our wedding. They were wonderful. Amazing food — fresh ingredients and simply delicious. Far exceeded our expectations!

We live in Southern Cal and had a wedding in San Luis Obispo. We had two events and had 150 people at each event.
I can’t say enough about what an amazing job they did. The events were held at Flying Caballos Ranch, which is a venue where EVERYTHING had to be brought in.
It all went smoothly and the food was AMAZING. Everyone commented on it. I was very nervous about serving that many people outdoors and keeping the food warm. it was well presented, the servers were great and the food was delicious both nights.
Thank you to Russ and his staff for making my daughters wedding extra special!

Two Cooks is, quite simply… ABSOLUTELY FREAKING AMAZING. My husband and I knew as soon as we met Russ and tasted his amazing food that they would make our wedding amazing, and they did. They absolutely blew us away from start to finish and our guests are still TALKING ABOUT THE FOOD! Not only did they cater our wedding, but they catered our rehearsal dinner at a moment’s notice, too. And they knocked them both out of the park! Plus, Russ and Heather are the BEST to work with. Easy, fun, smart, organized, hard-​working and oh so talented. We love that they use local, organic fresh ingredients and you can taste the love! Russ is insanely talented and we feel so blessed that he made our big day so delicious. Undeniably, TWO COOKS is the BEST!!!

We chose Two Cooks based on their focus on fresh, local, seasonal ingredients and we were blown away. After our tasting with them we signed up right away and although we made several menu changes after that we weren’t worried at all because we knew that Russ could cook anything. They buy their ingredients at local farmers markets and you can really taste the difference. Heather is very busy but always made adequate time for my calls. They were really flexible and we were adapting things right up to the last minute with no stress. Their servers were professional and courteous. Russ even surprised me with a delicious menu addition on my wedding day for me and my other vegetarian wedding guests. And don’t make the mistake of bringing in all of your desserts from somewhere else. Russ baked delicious cookies and they made fresh ice cream for us.

I want to post an addendum here, because we just had our 1 year anniversary and finally ate the cake. After having traveled from Paso Robles to our freezer in Alameda, then moved with us to Sunnyvale, and finally carted along up to Mendocino for our anniversary getaway, THE CAKE IS STILL GOOD. REALLY GOOD. I’m totally floored. Russ is a genius.