Chicago Catering Spotlight: Kitchfix Makes Dietary Restrictions Easy

When you’re busy, especially in a big city like Chicago, it’s easy to reach for unhealthy comfort food if you’re pressed for time. Kitchfix might be just the remedy. The Chicago catering and healthy meal service was founded by former personal chef Josh Katt. He first started designing anti-inflammatory meals for cancer survivors, and now counts actors, busy families, and over 100 professional athletes among Kitchfix’s customers. Kitchfix’s delicious and gluten-, dairy-, corn-, and soy-free meals are built around organic and local produce, grass-fed meats, pastured poultry, and sustainable seafood. With more and more Americans going gluten-free, according to Forbes, this makes Kitchfix is a great option for accommodating eaters with a variety of dietary restrictions.

Kitchfix offers catering options like chimichurri steak, lemon and garlic grilled chicken, Puerto Rican-style pulled pork, and much more. Everything is craveable and satisfying. Kerry Johnson, Director of Catering Sales, shares how Kitchfix started their Chicago catering business and how they continue to provide healthy and delicious food to customers across the city.

How did you first get started with catering?

My first job in catering was at The Drake Hotel as a catering coordinator. It was a very wedding-heavy venue, and I was present for all of the weddings to help coordinate. After a few years, I transitioned into a position focusing on catering for corporate, entertainment, and sports clients.

What does your typical day look like?

Every day for me involves a lot of communication between our kitchen, delivery team, clients, and our third-party partners such as ezCater. I also spend a significant amount of time doing outreach to new customers. ezCater helps to get us in front of new clients which is great.

What have you learned from being in the catering industry?

Food is very personal. With catering, you’re always thinking about pleasing each individual in a group. It’s always good to put items on the side and make sure there are options for vegetarians. With Kitchfix, all of our food is always gluten-, dairy-, soy-, and corn-free, so we are very friendly to customers with dietary restrictions. That also helps when working with a group.

What advice do you have for caterers looking to start their own or grow their catering business?

I think the most important thing a caterer can do is make tasty food with high-quality ingredients. If you do that, business will follow. Signing up for ezCater also helps when you are starting out since they can get you in front of a lot of new clients immediately.

What makes food and catering in Chicago unique?

Chicago is close to so many midwestern farms, and Kitchfix does an excellent job of sourcing local, high-quality ingredients. We have a very close partnership with Gunthorp Farms in Indiana. All of our chicken, turkey, and pork comes from Gunthorp Farms and is pasture-raised.

What do you predict for the Chicago catering industry in the next few years?

Kitchfix is a trendsetter in providing food that is also always gluten-, dairy-, soy-, and corn-free. I think that many catering companies offer gluten-free, but I think more companies might start to focus on developing meals that are gluten- or dairy-free first instead of trying to figure out how to remove flour or dairy from existing menu items.

What makes Kitchfix’s food unique?

We have the highest food standards of any company I have worked for before. We buy organic and local whenever it is possible. Our chicken, turkey, pork, and eggs are pasture-raised, our fish is sustainable, and our beef is grass-fed.

What’s your favorite menu item from Kitchfix?

Anything with our chicken. It is pasture-raised which really makes a difference in the taste. It is delicious.

What advice do you have for those that order catering?

Catering is most successful when there is a lot of communication. The more details we are given or discuss, the better the result will be.