The Main Ingredient

Main Ingredient supplied the cake for our reception at the Westin Annapolis. When trying to decide on the cake design, we didn't have an exact one in mind, so we provided several photos of cakes that fit our style. I asked Main Ingredient to use their creativity and design a cake based on the photos we gave them. To my surprise, our POC, Jessica, said she had never assisted a bride with such a strange request. According to her, every bride provided them with a photo of the exact cake they wanted to replicate. I find this VERY hard to believe. In the end, after searching online for hours upon hours, we finally found a photo of a cake for Main Ingredient to replicate. The cake they created vaguely resembled the one in the photo, but it was still pretty and also had great flavor.

I had my wedding at the Westin which wraps in the Main Ingredient into their contracted price per person so we took advantage of using them instead of using another vendor. My husband and I were both concerned about the quality of the cakes due to some photos that we had seen of their work. At our tasting the cake and icing were good but we weren't blown away. We also chose buttercream frosting and cream cheese filling which limited us in our design. In the end the cake was very nice but it was a little difficult to get to the end result. Communication was often difficult and uncomfortable at times but all in all 3.5/5. Very nice.

My wedding cake was delicious. Four tiers with four different flavors. It was just delicious and my wedding guests loved it. Jessica was great at the tasting and communication was exceptional. I would definitely recommend the Main Ingredient for your catering needs.

Main Ingredient did an absolutely wonderful job at our wedding! Kailey was our consultant, and she was there for us every step of the way. From silly questions to deciding on the important stuff, she always answered emails and phone calls promptly, and was always so nice to talk to. We had some issues finding the right color green for our linens, but she really came through and found exactly what we wanted. The food was absolutely delicious, and I can't tell you how many compliments I got throughout the night on the meals and the cake. Kailey worked with my husband, who is a chef, to come up with a menu that would please everyone but also wasn't quite your typical beef/chicken/veg choices. Their responsiveness and attention to detail was amazing. We could not have asked for more!

Main Ingredient was a great choice! The food and drinks were amazing and the staff very attentive. They made the reception worry-free. I highly recommend them (and Rachel Cloud)!

Jessica worked my my husband and I to provide us with the wedding cake of our dreams. They offered free cake tastings (which all were amazing) and charged us 1/2 of what other cake vendors wanted to charge.

I would like to thank ALL the vendors that made Teisha and Zachary Price's wedding so unforgettable. The food by Main Ingredient, Annapolis, was unbelievable --would so love to have the recipes to the appetizers, tehe -- and the staff went far above and beyond the norm to make it so. I have excruciatingly painful knee joints and by the end of the evening could barely walk. Nanette from Main Ingredient was so gracious, she offered and did assist me in reaching my waiting car when I'm sure she had a million other more pressing duties to attend to. This in of itself show the level of professionalizm and caring they have for their clients. If you are in the Baltimore / Washington / Annapolis area and need someone to cater an event for you I strongly suggest looking into Main Ingredient. Again, thank you to EVERYONE!

Loved our cake!!! I found a style I wanted online and they were able to replicate it perfectly! and to say it tasted good was an understatement!! It was perfect!

We worked with Evie to plan our wedding menu and reception details and she was wonderful. She had so many ideas and was great about planning a well rounded menu with a flair of the types of food/style we love. This ranged from traditional foods to a more unique popsicle display as part of dessert. Their food and service was amazing on our wedding day. The staff were friendly and attentive, especially to our guests who were not as mobile. We are still receiving rave reviews of the food at our wedding from guests who state "it was the best reception food they've ever eaten" (especially the crabtini's!).

We worked with Debra at The Main Ingredient for our catering and wedding cake. Debra met with us about 6 months before our wedding to discuss our initial plan and what we were looking for on our menu. We did a brunch buffet with passed hor dourves before the buffet. About a month before our wedding, we did a menu and cake tasting. She had SO MUCH food for us to taste; literally everything from the menu (and not in small quantities!). It was a good thing too, because the day of our wedding, we did not eat a whole lot so I' m glad we were able to eat a lot for the tasting. She was very flexible with our cake desires. We had a two tiered cake with one flavor to cut and then two flavors of sheet cake to serve for the guests. The cake was amazing (the almond pound cake with the pastry cream with fresh strawberries was definitely the best!). Everyone loved the food. We provided our own alcohol and The Main Ingredient provided the non-alcoholic beverages and bloody mary mix. Unfortunately, they did not realize that there was a box with large champagne bottles for the mimosas and only were aware of the box with the smaller champagne bottles for the toasts, which they ended up using for mimosas. They informed us that we were running out of champagne and we cut off mimosas, so that there would be some champagne left for the toast. Only some of the guests got actual champagne for the toast and the others got sparkling grape juice. At the end of the reception, the box with the large bottles of champagne was found. If you use your own alcohol, make sure that the bartender is aware of the location and all of the alcohol you want them to use! (I am sure this goes for any situation where you provide your own alcohol) During the reception, the servers brought my husband and me our own plates, so that we did not have to go through the buffet line. They got the guests through the buffet line in a very orderly manner so that the line did not get out of hand. Overall, they were awesome!

If you decide to go with the Main Ingredient I suggest asking for Rachel, she is very professional and helpful throughout the entire process. The food is great and very presentable. I would use them again and again and recommend them to everyone.

Main Ingredient deserves 1000 starts. Debra was extremely professional and flexible until the very last minute of the wedding. Her entire team worked very hard and we are very pleased with their food and their service. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The Main Ingredient was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding. Everything was absolutely wonderful. Rachel was so incredibly helpful & great to work with. She responded quickly to all my questions & helped me with all the details.
The day of our wedding was insanely hot (around 104 degrees) and Nannette was amazing, and she took great care of us. The staff was professional, friendly and super helpful. They provided a water station for our guests during the ceremony which was a life saver. The staff made sure our guests had water all throughout the ceremony & reception- which was so great! The food was delicious, the cupcakes were so cute & the tables looked exactly as we had envisioned. :) We truly have no complaints! Our day was better than we could have ever imagined. We are so happy with our decision to go with The Main Ingredient. We knew we would be taken care of and everything was great! We can not thank you enough!! :)

The Main Ingredient did an excellent job catering my wedding. I worked with Rachel and she made the planning process easy and enjoyable. As a bonus, our tasting was definitely the best part of all the wedding planning. Rachel was always quick to respond to all of my questions and concerns and she was open to all of my ideas. On the day of the wedding, I did not worry about a single thing. The staff even helped put out my decorations and neither I or my family had to worry about any set-up. The food was delicious and everyone raved about it. Everything looked great too and the staff was really friendly and professional. I have many years of catering experience myself and I have high expectations when it comes to table settings, service, buffet set-up, etc. It's clear to me that The Main Ingredient cares about its customers and the staff truly want to do a good job. Thank you for helping make our wedding day perfect!

The Main Ingredient was awesome! In fact, I just got a query about the cake(s) we had at our reception. Everyone loved the food, my only wish as the bride is that I took the time to eat! Seriously, everyone who attended only had great things to say about the food AND the wedding cake. The staff was extremely helpful and responsive to our needs. Rachel did an excellent job of steering us in the right direction when selecting the menu. I would recommend them wholeheartedly. Thanks for a memorable wedding! Shawn

From the very beginning, The Main Ingredient was an incredible partner in planning our wedding. Debra (our contact) was very easy to work with, very responsive to any special requests on our part, and couldn't have been nicer throughout the whole process.
What distinguishes The Main Ingredient from other caterers is the professional and comprehensive quality of their service. The serving staff are extremely good at the jobs and are on top of everyone's needs immediately. They were excellent about seeing to every dietary and allergy concern we had among all our wedding guests, in these cases more than happy to make up special entrees for those guests who required them. They saw that our other on-site vendors were well-fed as well, and in a manner that did not disrupt the flow of the evening. We received several highly-competent and professional bartenders from them as well. One, Eric, had a nearly photographic memory, it seemed, and would remember every guest's preferred drink, often having them made as those guests got to the front of the bar line.
Free champagne was provided for the bride and bridesmaids as they spent the day getting ready for the event that afternoon, and they happily included free lemonade and iced tea for all of our guests throughout the event (on a particularly hot June day, this was amazing).
Our day-of coordinator, Nanette, was fantastic as well. She ensured that while the photos were being taken, the serving staff regularly came by with trays of all of our hors d'oeuvres choices, as well as seeing that we always had one of our signature cocktails in hand.
All of this service of course, wouldn't mean much if the food wasn't good. Happily, anyone who knows Annapolis should already be aware of The Main Ingredient's stellar reputation as one of the finest cafes in town. Their bakery is also quite legendary and we were bowled over by both the taste and presentation of our wedding cake, which was beautifully designed. It should also be noted that as we were catering clients, the wedding cake was offered at half price with free delivery.
We could continue to exhaust superlatives about The Main Ingredient, but we'll leave you with this: if you're planning a wedding anywhere near Annapolis, MD, The Main Ingredient is without a doubt the smartest choice you could make for a vendor.

Kailey was our main point of contact at Main Ingredient and she was beyond incredible. I felt like I had my own wedding planner because she was so organized and made sure every single detail was covered. She was very quick to respond to my many questions and concerns throughout the year leading up to my wedding. The food was incredible and every single guest told me it was the best wedding food they have ever been too (and one guest has been to over 40 weddings!). Kailey was there the day of my wedding and made sure everything was setup perfectly. Nanette took over once the ceremony was complete and everything was smooth sailing. She would check up with myself and husband as well as all the guests. The cake was also designed by MI and it was beautiful and delicious. If you want to best food at your wedding and best service I highly recommend The Main Ingredient.

The Main Ingredient catered our wedding this past weekend. They were absolutely fantastic! The food was out of this world, and several people told us that the cake was the best they'd ever tasted! And, the service was top notch! Rachel was a pleasure to work with and arranged everything perfectly. Thanks for making our day so special!

I am a busy professional. I needed to find a caterer that not only provides awesome food but are true professionals in the way they deliver their services. Main Ingredient exceeded all of my expectations. They were pros at guiding us through the process, understanding our needs and budget, and helping us anticipate and plan for MANY things we never thought of. All of our guests raved about the food at our wedding and Main Ingredient's service was stellar. And, our cake, well it was gorgeous and delicious beyond words. Main Ingredient rocked! I highly recommend them.

my cake was beautiful! the delivery was flawless and it was so delicious

We worked with Rachel Cloud and she was a joy to work with the whole way through. She was always available via email or phone. During our sessions and tasting she was very helpful when we had to make the big decisions.

When it came to the Wedding they made the event space look absolutely beautiful, the guest loved the food, thought the cake was delightful and the Ice Cream Bar...oh the Ice Cream Bar. :)

Overall a great catering...

Kailey was great to work with. Our cupcakes turned out awesome and very delicious! I would highly recommend them!

Jenny and Evie at the Main Ingredient were wonderful to work with. They give us a great price for everything (including the wedding cake). We went in for a tasting and the food was absolutely delicious!

Unfortunately we lost our venue a month before the wedding. Jenny and Evie were wonderful in working with us and the new venue in such a short period of time. The new venue typically, only under limited conditions would let an outside caterer in. Jenny and Evie were happy to work with them to coordinate the cooking. Although they couldn't serve the food, they pulled it off and all the guests were quite happy. We still have guests, almost 4 months later commenting on the food.

Main Ingredient also did our cake. My husband wanted to help with the design (using my engagement ring as inspiration) and they were more than happy to work with his design. We had the carrot cake with cream cheese icing, delicious! The design turned out well too!

Jenny and Evie went above and beyond for us. Working extra hours after we had planned everything at the first venue to have to switch it all. They did it all with a smile on their faces and a reassuring words that it would all work out, and it did! They were also willing to give us centerpiece and overall suggestions with all the little details.

They helped us create the wedding of our dreams. We have already recommended them to friends and will not hesitate doing so in...

Everyone we dealt with at Main Ingredient was professional, friendly, and accomodating. The best part was having an on-site coordinator (the lead server), who made sure that everything was just as I wanted it. I felt comfortable enough after meeting with them that I didn't even see the room before I was walking down the aisle. Shout-out to Rachel and Aileen!

One of the best things that I could have done during the year and a half worth of planning was have the Main Ingredient cater for us! They were one of the most professional companies that I have worked with!!! I loved that they were a "one-stop-shop" because they provided my cake, all the rentals, a coordinator and, of course, amazing food!!! The person that I worked closely with was Rachel, and you can't find anyone as sweet and as professional as she is!!!! She was there EVERY step of the way, always willing to help and calm down a crazy, OCD bride!!

On the day of, EVERYTHING went according to plan, and all I can say is that it was due to the Main Ingredient! The staff was absolutely wonderful and was very helpful to all of our guests! The food was out of this world, and thanks to Rachel, my husband and I were able to eat!!! She was VERY attentive to us and always made sure we had something to eat or drink! She kept us on time and all I had to do was say "I need Rachel" and she was there! I would recommend Main Ingredient to all brides AND plan to use them in the future!!!

The BEST CRABCAKE EVER! The best decision we have ever made is to have The Main ingredient cater our wedding.

Rachel, our consultant is the greatest. She gets back to you in just minutes after you email her. She is so accommodating to our requests. She worked with us every step and would even recommend how to save money on certain aspects of the wedding.

The food was phenomenal. We had crabcakes, shrimp and chicken bites for the cocktail hour and tenderloin with the tarragon bearnaise sauce(mucho delicioso) and grilled chicken for dinner with salad and grilled veggies that were to die for. Our guests couldnt be more happier with the food. They are still talking about it . We had the cake from them too. We had 3 flavors and were great hit to everybody.

The service at the wedding was impeccable. They were simply great. They made sure the guests and us the bride and groom are taken cared of.

Like I said, one of the best decision we have ever made for the wedding. Never had any stress in dealing with The Main Ingredient and would definitely use their services in the future.

We were excited to work with Main Ingredient because we have enjoyed the restaurant and found, upon further research, that they had catering menus with a lot more personality than you might expect from a company serving large events. Our guests seemed happy with the combination of classic (grilled veggies and chicken, simple salads) and truly unqiue (crab chimichangas!!!) items we selected. We enjoyed working with Rachel Cloud, head server Patti Underwood and the entire crew!

Main Ingredient was AWESOME to work with! Rachel was my sales consultant and was with me every step of the way; she was very supportive to me (affirming many of the things I wanted), as a bride, and advised and made suggestions based off of what I wanted. She also knew we were on a budget and helped us save money in different ways. She was totally responsive to all of my e-mails and many questions.

The food and service was great at the wedding! We also had their cupcakes, which were excellent. The only thing that I wish we more clearly outlined was where things were to go on wedding day; some of the catering team on the day of the wedding didn't seem to know what went where/what was going on with the various components of the wedding, which kind of had me frazzled last minute. This is probably due to lack of communication, but not any fault of Main Ingredients; I just wish we had outlined it more clearly when we met.

I was very pleased with my wedding cake. More so than I expected because at the tasting I was given a sample of cupcakes in different flavors and many of them seemed a little dry. The wedding cake was moist and delicious. I had a four tiered square shaped cake and the price was much lower than the competitors in the area with big names. The cake was also beautiful. I gave them a swatch of the wedding colors and a picture from a wedding magazine with two different designs I wanted added to each tier. I am still eating the sheet carrot cake and wish I had more of the lemon cake with the lemon curd that was in the tiers.

We enjoyed working with Main Ingredient to put together our wedding and we were impressed with the food and their problem solving skills during our tasting.

But while our catering contact seemed to have it together in preparation for the wedding, the team that was there on our wedding day didn't seem to know what the plan was or how to follow it. The caterers broke several of the venue's rules (even though they had worked at our venue before!) and the event manager was a sour party pooper all night long. The staff was polite, but they didn't work well with our other vendors who tried their best to follow the schedule we had prepared for the event.

We were disappointed that the marketing and the recommendations we received from others were not the reality on our wedding night.

The guests of my parent's anniversary celebration enjoyed the food. For dinner we had 3 appetizers, 3 proteins, garden salad, haricot verts, daughinoise potatoes, and a cake served. Of the appetizers, the cheese and fruit platter and the crab dip were excellent! For the proteins, we had herb crusted salmon, grilled ginger marinated flank steak with teriyaki sauce, and lemon chicken breast with tarragon. Overall, the food was quite tasty. I received a lot of nice praise about the food from our guests. The only complaints I heard from my guests were about the lemon chicken breast with tarragon and the dauphinoise potatoes, both of which were too dry. The dessert was excellent and decorated beautifully! We had a yellow sponge cake with pastry cream and fresh strawberries inside and on top of the cake with butter cream frosting. Overall, the best food items were the yummy crab dip, variety of the cheese selection, herb crusted salmon, grilled marinated ginger flank steak, and the dessert.

The service was very friendly, courteous, and efficient. The servers went out of their way to be helpful with final decorations and making the place look nice for our guests. The servers were attentive to our needs and pleasant to work with. They eliminated the stress for us and they made the event pleasurable for all our guests. I think they are a very good and experienced caterer.

AMAZING bakery -- and the cake looks like art work!

I would recommend Main Ingredient to any soon-to-be-brides! They were unbelievably understanding and helpful. They assured us of a fantastic wedding and that is exactly what we got. The staff put our minds at ease and really delivered. The food was excellent and the service was great. The head-of-staff made sure to check-in with my husband and I throughout the night to see if we needed anything or simply to ask how my night was going. I couldn't believe how kind they were. Our event planner constantly sent us emails checking-in with us, asking how the plans were going, what else she could do to see-through our wedding plans. Like I said unbelievable service!! Wouldn't have done anything differently!

The Main Ingredient catered our wedding in May and it was excellent! The food was fantastic - the steak was well cooked as was the chicken. Both had great flavor and were moist. The sides that were served were also great. Many people commented on the quality of the food.

But what made the event was the service from the folks at Main Ingredient. Everybody from the office staff and Rachel (who was our contact person) making sure the planning process was smooth down to the servers and bartenders. They were extremely helpful and worked with us to make sure everything was perfect.

I would definitely recommend The Main Ingredient for your next event.

The Main Ingredient is a Very good catering service to use for every party! They are very professional, easy to get a hold of, the food is GREAT and my wedding cake was so beautiful. My sister used them to cater her entire wedding and the food was fabulous! It is a little on the expensive side but worth every penny.

Jenny from Main Ingredient was amazing! She was very patient with us through bouts of indecision and had great ideas that we would never have thought of ourselves. The food was great and the desserts were a huge hit. We particularly loved the Thai Chicken Salad, and Marzipan Strawberry hourderves. They also were able to recreate a favorite dish of mine that I had years before. Also, when we had a crisis with the flowers for our centerpieces, Jenny was there to save the day with the perfect solution.

Everything we planned and hoped for surpassed our dreams for our beautiful wedding. Even thought the Wedding Day was rainy, Main Ingredient set up buffets and tables with such taste and finesse that our guests were delighted with the loveliness of it all.
It was a pleasure to work with Main Ingredient and would definitely recommend them highly!

Main Ingredient catered our wedding in October in Annapolis. They were wonderful. I had requested quotes from two other caterers and found that Main Ingredient was the most responsive, easy to work with and competitive in pricing. Rachel was amazing. She listened to what we wanted, took notes at our tasting, was very open to our feedback. On our wedding day, our guest kept telling us how great the food was. I would them again and recommend them for your wedding.

We could not have been more pleased with our cake. It exceeded our expectations in every way. I wish we could attach a picture. We showed Rachel the cake we wanted and they produced and even more beautiful version. Everyone was talking about how good it tasted as well...one of our many highlights.

Main Ingredient did a FABULOUS job with our wedding. The food was great and so was the service. Our guests really enjoyed everything, especially the mashed potato bar. We really appreciated their willingness to work within our budget. Rachel (our catering sales consulatant) was absolutely amazing, she was there to help us with every detail. She provided many suggestions on how to make the day extra special. I would highly recommend Rachel and Main Ingredient to cater any event, I would definitely use them again!!

My husband and I chose The Main Ingredient to cater our wedding and we couldn't have been happier with our choice! The food, the service and overall experience working with The Main Ingredient was absolutely wonderful. Our catering sales consultant was Rachel. From the initial meeting with Rachel up until the very end, she was so responsive and always available to answer any questions or make quick changes to the menu, schedule of events, etc. We hired Rachel as our wedding coordinator also, which was the best money spent. Our wedding was the only one that I've been to that started exactly on time! She promised it would-and it did because of her. Our wedding went smoothly, nothing went wrong and I wasn't worried about anything happening, because Rachel had everything under control-it just felt reassuring knowing that we had her there to depend on to keep the wedding running smoothly!
The food is to die for, especially the cake! I'm so happy we had Main Ingredient do our cake, everyone loved it! My husband and I will definitely dine at The Main Ingredient restaurant whenever we are in town.
I 100% recommend The Main Ingredient to any bride or person planning an event. Just schedule a tasting and see for yourself! - Ask for Rachel!!

The Main Ingredient did a great job of catering our wedding aboard the Catherine Marie. They are very professional, the service was great and the food was good, the hors d'oeuvres even better! They made our wedding cake and it was awesome, we did not have a traditional wedding cake, rather a replica of the family castle in France and they did an awesome job with that, might I add, the cake was delicious! the flavors and fillings are sublime. Try the chocolate cabernet with the rasberry mouse filling, you can't go wrong!
The mains were good, not amazing though, for the price, I would expect better. We chose the seafood wrapped in filo and it still came out soggy, not crunchy as filo should. So that was dissapointing, I'm sure most guests ate all the lovely seafood inside the filo though. The table settings looked gorgeous. The staff was excellent.

Rachel at The Main Ingredient really took care of me. I was planning my wedding from 4 states away and had verbally committed to another cake vendor before signing a contract. When I finally tasted that cake I was unimpressed and was suddenly without dessert for my wedding that was 1 month away. I contacted The Main Ingredient--I used to work for their catering side in college--and I knew that I would be taken care of. I was having trouble scheduling a tasting and Rachel left me a huge tasting of cupcakes, fillings and frostings for me to pick up and taste at home. We signed a contract via email the week before my wedding and I never worried for a second about everything getting done perfectly.

The cake was beautiful, my guests raved about the flavors and I can't wait to taste the leftovers. Thank you to Rachel and the Main Ingredient for saving this procrastinating bride!

Both my husband and I do not like cake, so when we tried the amazing butter pound cake with buttercream frosting and absolutely loved it, we knew we found our cake baker. Main Ingredient not only had incredibly delicious cake, but really beautiful designs. We met with Main Ingredient staff a few times, and they even had us meet with our baker who sketched out a design of our cake, which helped us refine our vision.

We wanted a very simple, elegant cake and that is what they delivered. Our cake turned out exactly as we envisioned and planned with Main Ingredient. It was amazing, and our guests also said that it was the best cake they have ever tasted. In addition, some of our guests thought it was fondant until they tried it because it was so well frosted. We cannot wait to try it again for our 1 year anniversary!

We were highly impressed with Main Ingredient's customer service and their cake design and taste. It was a perfect cake for our wedding day!

We used The Main Ingredient as our caterer for our reception in May of 2010. We had our event at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. I could literally gush about this company and the job they did for pages and pages!

We worked with Jenny Francis and this is who I would recommend to work with. On our day of the reception, Kailey was my personal planner and literally my "brain" for the day. I had the challenge of planning my reception that was going to happen in another state. I live in VA and we were having our event in MD. Trust me, this REALLY could have turned into a nightmare and it was as smooth as if they were down the street from me.

I think one of the biggest challenges a bride has is trying to communicate the vision she has in her head to the folks who are going to be providing the services. It was as if Jenny was in my head because she just got it. She even added a few ideas and problem solved in areas that I didn't even initially think about. The fact that they knew the venue so well made it that much easier.

The menu we chose was really creative and unique. The food looked beautiful in the way it was arranged and it was hands down the most fabulous tasting menu! Seriously, when do you get a bride that says, I am going back for seconds and to hell with the schedule. We were late on our first dance because we were enjoying our meal so much! It's been 2 weeks and we are STILL getting rave reviews on our food and menu choices!

As for the wait staff and bartenders...they were AMAZING! My husband is in the military and these aren't always the easiest boys to serve and this bartender handled them so well that they even made comments to us about how great she was. (I believe her name was Linda) Samantha, the lead server was great as well. We never wanted for a drink or food at any time throughout the evening.

I would be remiss if I didn't devote a paragraph to our planner that day, Kailey. All I can tell you is this. From the minute we left our last minute details meeting on Thursday with Kailey, my brain went into relax mode. I realized after the fact that I never worried about a thing that day. I was so relaxed and so able to focus on my husband, our families and our celebration and I NEVER would have been able to do that if Kailey hadn't been absolutely spectacular in her role. She is the most calm, collected person and yet was able to handle any curve ball that came her way -- what I appreciated most was that she never let me know if there was an issue, and we had a little issue with our band. She gave me the ability to truly enjoy my day to the fullest degree.

I just can't say enough about our experience with this company. They truly made our day and celebration that we and our guests will never forget.

HAPPY PLANNING!

Darcy Thompson

Debra Darrow was a joy to work with, and our cupcakes were fantastic. Highly recommended!

We used the Main Ingredient for our wedding cake. The cake itself was beautiful and just how I had envisioned it. They captured exactly what I described to them. It looked smooth like fondant but didn't have the yucky taste! The buttercream icing was delicious and tasted the same as it did during our tastings. We had two cake types- carrot cake with cream cheese filling & chocolate cake with raspberry preserves filling. Everyone raved about our cake! The only negative is that I had to always follow up with them instead of the other way around. Luckily I was very organized and it was a non-issue but considering it's a really hectic time for any bride that isn't good business practice. All in all I did have a great experience- my cake was beautiful and tasted great and was delivered and set up ontime.

This was my favorite part of planning a Wedding, the cake tastings!! I love cake and this place did not disappoint! We fell in love with all the flavors and options that they offered. Our colors for our Wedding were Pewter and Ivory, they were able to manage a metallic/platinum looking cake with white flowers cascading down the side that really was the center of attention at out Wedding. People told us that fondant was not tasty and we should not do it but they were all wrong, our cake was so tasty that I contemplated not saving the top of the cake and just eating it all!

Thanks to Evie and everyone at Main Ingredient for doing such a wonderful job!

Great food!

The food was fantastic. They did a great job of working with us and coming up with a menu that we loved! Very easy to contact and to work with. The tasting was great and very professional. Overall, we were very satisfied and would use them again!

They are terrific. They helped me design the perfect menu and were accommodating to our specific requests for special meals. We provided our own alcohol, they provided a bartender. We provided some of our own hors d'oeuvres, they heated them up and served them with their food. It all blended perfectly and the staff was extremely diligent to provide proper services to all of our guests. They were terrific and I would definitely use them again!

The cake was great and it arrived on time and was just what we had ordered. Their cakes taste great and they are easy to work with.

The Main Ingredient did a fantastic job with the brunch style reception for my wedding. I had several special requests that were handled without any fuss or additional charges. Debra was quick to answer questions (and I called a lot!) and kept everything on schedule. The food was great and the cake was outstanding! The waiters were very attentive and professional.

We decided to use 8 of their incredibly delicious specialty cakes instead of a traditional wedding cake. They looked fabulous and our guests were so excited to try them! People were actually getting in line for cake! When does that ever happen! They did a great job! We can't wait until we go back and visit Annapolis so we can head back in for a slice! They were also very helpful when we were picking out cakes. They let us take home a couple of huge slices from their daily showcase to try out! Their cake is fabulous!

A magical night to be had. If you want your wedding to be truly amazing The Main Ingriedent will make it happen. Their performance was unmatched. The food was wonderful, succulent to the most discriminating palate, the presentation spectacular and the service outstanding. Our wedding was an event that was perfact. Dedication to every detail was made by every person involved. The service was flawless and effortless. They were absolutely fabulous. Jenny Francis and her staff will provide you with the most impressive event of all time.

The majority of our wedding guests were professionals who frequently dine at upscale restaurants and attend formal events.

They were extremely professional and let us know when they had any concerns about making our cakes. Our guests raved about the wedding cake. There wasn't any left after the wedding!

The cake turned out beautifully!! They decorated exactly like I asked and it was quite tasty too!

We did vegetarian lagasna. It was wonderful. The cake didn't taste the same as at the sampling but it was still good.

I already had a cake design in mind, but it was from a picture from a far-away bakery, online. I put my faith in The Main Ingredient when they said they could deliver the same product. They did not let me down, it looked just as I had hoped. I was very pleased that they were able to create exactly what I wanted, and not just their "interpretation" of it.

I am so glad that I chose The Main Ingredient to cater our wedding. The food was EXCELLENT! Everyone was commenting on how wonderful the food was, and many people went back up to the buffet for seconds and thirds! The cake was delicious (almond pound with raspberry filling, yum!) and was decorated beautifully. There was ample staff for the occasion and they really knew what they were doing. The setup and clean up was taken care of so none of my family was left taking care of that at the end of the night. Also, all the rentals (tables, chairs, linens, place settings, etc.) were done for us, all we had to do is pick which ones we wanted. If I ever plan another large event in Annapolis again, I'll definitely use them as our caterer.

Main Ingredient (we worked with Evie Loftus) was fantastic in helping us - very responsive to our budget and fantastic with their food. We received a lot of compliments for the buffet at our reception, and had no leftovers!

overall we were initially very happy with the whole package, after the wedding however we were hit with a pricy bill.....$800 for soda and bottled water....long story short. Were very dissapointed with how family was treated when we were on our honeymoon and caterers professionalism after the wedding.....had it not been for that it would have been 4.5/5.0 across the board!

There is no reason that mass produced food can't be delicious. The Main Ingredient is a testament to this notion. From our tasting to the actual meal, we were constantly impressed with the quality and flexibility of the menu. Our guests raved. The service was above and beyond, all staff were friendly and attentive. Evie Loftus personally made planning a breeze and ran the event to perfection. Can't recommend enough.

We used Main Ingredient for our Rehearsal Dinner food. We ordered the food and picked it up to take to the house. Samantha with Main Ingredient was wonderful. She was extremely patient throughout the process. The thing that impressed me most was the amount of food that we got. We ordered food for 25 people and had enough for lunch the next day. I also found out after I placed the initial order that I have a food allergy to wheat. Main Ingredient offered to change the menu to accommodate my food allergy. I would highly recommend Main Ingredient!

GOOD CAKE! We didn't even get one of the ones we had the the tasting... we ended up with a yellow cake with sweet buttercream frosting with fresh berries in a pastry cream in the center... SO GOOD!

We used Main Ingredient for our wedding cake and a picnic for out of town guests over the wedding weekend.

The cake was amazing. Our guests are still talking about the cake 8 months later. It was delicious and we had enough left over to serve at the post wedding brunch. Additionally, my husband and I do not live in Annapolis and the catering staff was very flexible about arranging cake tastings around our schedule. We had several tastings and they were happy to accommodate us.

The food for the picnic was also very good. I did not work with them directly to organize this event, but there was a ton of food left over and they delivered everything on time.

For our wedding cake we had almond pound cake with raspberry filling and sweet white icing...this was possibly the best cake I have ever had and all of our guests raved about it as well! On our wedding day, the cake looked exactly how I wanted it to be and tasted exactly as it did at our tasting.

Evie at the Main Ingedient was a pleasure to work with. She was professional, timely in responses and offered helpful suggestions. I would reccommend usuing the Main Ingredient 100%!

The cake tasted wonderful I dont think there was a problem there. It was like pulling teeth trying to get in touch with the person they "assigned" me to for a tasting. I was eventually sent to 3 different people ending up with one of the owners or managers. The cake was originally quoted to me at one price, then I was told it would be more expensive because the cake "had to" be so big or it wouldn't be right. They compromised with me but I had to give up a certain type of cake to keep the price where they originally quoted me. I informed them of my guests when I originally contacted them, so why this was a problem later, I'm not sure. It only was a problem as my date got so close I didn't have time to change. They showed up at the last possible minute the morning of my wedding as I was waiting for them so I could leave for the church (reception was at my house). They were running late because their van "broke down" and I had to find that out myself by calling. To top it all off when they set my cake up at my house they set it up CROOKED so after I was married I arrived home to my reception to my guests scrambling on the floor looking for the pieces of my broken cake topper I paid over $100 for. This company has the chance to be fabulous if they can get their act straight. Luckily, my wedding day was the most perfect day anyone could ever imagine and this was the only thing that went wrong the entire day.

All my guests loved my meal! It was a little difficult because I was working with someone and then they were no longer working for the company. No one ever got back to me so when I finally contacted them I did get in touch with Jenny who is wonderful to work with. She was the best part of the experience for me. She is the main reason they are getting so many stars for professionalism.

I have many vegetarian friends so Jenny worked with me on creating a menu that would accommodate them as well as a very lethal Mushroom allergy. One of my disappointments though was to find out the salad had bacon ( even though we had put all the planning in place specifically for the vegetarians and kosher guests) in it which ruined that for a lot of the guests.

I was also a little disappointed in the actual catering staff who my groom and several guests overheard talking about other guests. They didn't even know who the groom was (THE ONLY ONE IN A TUX!) and they were rude to him and my mother when we inquired about the tables we had rented and had not been delivered.

They did work really well under pressure though in that the ceremony ended about 1/2hr sooner than expected but they also made me feel rushed and I now regret a little telling everyone we could end the evening an hour earlier than planned because of her suggestion.

We had cupcakes but we purchased a cake specifically to be cut and also to save for our Anniversary and they did not save it for us- we're not sure what happened but they didn't serve it to the guests either.

Overall though I really would use this company again, I would just also hire a party planner to co-ordinate with the catering staff- and definitely work with Jenny again- SHE WAS WONDERFUL!!!!

** Now that it has been a year since the event I contacted Jenny again to make reservations so we could have an anniversary dinner. She contacted me back right away and even told me she was going to order me a cake! I said it before and I will say it again- WORK WITH JENNY!!! She REALLY is a great help! I've RAISED my stars BECAUSE OF HER and their Yummy food.

The only reason this vendor received even one star for service is because the food was very good. Otherwise, my experience with this company was completely awful.The company sells itself as a one stop shop for overall event planning and they were grossly under qualified to do this. At the beginning they were easy to work with. As we got closer to the event and further into details, things began to fall apart. The lack of attention to detail and mis-management of our expectations were horrifiying. When we requested simple things (revised proposals, seating layout, price estimates, etc) we were often told we would have an answer that day. I wouldn't hear back from them until weeks or even months later and that was because I was constantly calling and emailing. Often times I had to tell them the same things over again, because notes were lost and they didn't remember what was agreed upon. The worst part was when the realization hit that the wedding was less than a week out. We were asked to pay our bill ahead of time, but they wouldn't give us an itemized contract that we had been requesting for over a month! By the time we did receive an updated contract it was significantly (thousands) higher than the estimate. I ended up having to hire a wedding planner to help with setup that they refused to do. After many sleepless nights we weren't left with much choice but to pay the additional costs. We had no recourse and finding another caterer was out of the question. Future brides, please do not use this vendor--my experience with them was very stressful and frustrating.

They did an excellent job and the food was delicious. We had them make our cake also and it was great.

The Main Ingredient did an amazing job at our wedding, providing great food, great service, and professional servers. I would recommend them to everyone. They even fixed the bride and groom a plate of food and drinks while we were having our pictures taken before we entered our reception! They are great!

The Main Ingredient did an amazing job catering our wedding. the food was absolutely amazing and our menu was exactly what we wanted. Also, they have the most amazing tasting cakes!

The Main Ingredient designed a cake for a recent styled wedding shoot that I had the pleasure of photographing and I was truly inspired by their bakery's design! The cake was elegant, beautiful, and truly took my breath away! I highly recommend the Main Ingredient to all of my brides getting married in the Annapolis area! They are a truly fantastic group of creative wedding professionals!

I had personally hired The Main Ingredient for my own wedding cake and what they were able to create for my wife and I was astounding! Even our photographers kept asking "who did your cake"!

We worked with Evie and she provided us with many options to choose from, and even gave us a few tastings to pick the flavor we wanted. In the end, one we didn't regret; it was very moist and flavorful and all of our guests loved it!

As far as the design, we picked a cake they had in their album, threw a little personal touches on it, provided an extremely difficult metallic pewter swatch, and they nailed it 100%

I'd recommend The Main Ingredient to anyone looking for wedding cakes!

I would love to work with this caterer more often. They are organized and friendly. This is the kind of caterer that makes a Wedding Planner's job easier. I am happy to refer my clients to The Main Ingredient! www.annapolisweddingplanner.com