Pfeffers Catering: Still Cooking After Recent Loss of Matriarch

Juliane Pfeffer served as both the face and the heart of Pfeffer’s Gourmet Catering of Rogers for almost two decades.

When she arrived on the Northwest Arkansas culinary scene in 1996, the L.A. girl brought a taste of sophisticated cuisine to what was then a small town with few businesses, and she ultimately became a go-to caterer for high-end clients throughout the area in what became an increasingly competitive market.

The company’s profile grew quickly and within a few years quadrupled its income, said Dwight Pfeffer.

The Pfeffer team — Dwight worked alongside his wife since the beginning — has handled both small- and large-scale events for some of the area’s most affluent families, as well as corporate events for Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and many of its vendors, including Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble and Pennzoil.

Over the course of a year, the average price of Pfeffer’s events comes out to be about $900 apiece.

Dwight attributes the company’s success in part to Juliane’s delicious recipes and meticulous culinary execution, but also to her unwavering drive, her grace and the generosity with which she gave her time and considerable energy.

“There’s no one she met who didn’t feel loved by her,” said daughter and event coordinator Jordan Pfeffer. “She was always smiling, and people knew it was genuine.”

For these reasons, when Juliane, 54, lost her years-long battle with cancer on Jan. 6, there was a possibility the company the family spent years building might die with her.

But that’s not what Juliane wanted and that is, by no means, the plan.

With a host of upcoming events on the books and a recently re-launched website, Dwight, along with his two daughters and a newly hired chef, has taken the reins of Pfeffer’s Catering and said he is carrying on Juliane’s legacy of impeccable gourmet cuisine and above-and-beyond service.

“It’s my obligation to my children and to the community,” Dwight said. “They deserve to have this company up and running. We have an excellent product, and we’re great at what we do.”

Since the couple took over what was Kaye’s Catering under previous ownership, Dwight has taken the lead on developing and executing the business model, having run several small businesses in his home state of California.

However, his primary role has been as the promoter of Pfeffer’s. A salesman by nature, he believes whether you are selling shoes or screenplays — a feat at which he recently tried his hand — the underlying goal is the same:  to make connections and give the customer what they want.

 

Easy Sell

For Dwight, it was never difficult to promote Juliane as the image associated with Pfeffer’s.

Besides being “crazy about her,” he believed in her talent, knew her skillset and appreciated her passion for catering.

But now that she’s gone, Dwight wants the public to know the company is equipped to provide the same level of service and product as before.

“We’ve got 17 years invested in this business,” Dwight said. “It’s frightening to do it without her, and it’s challenging, but it’s also what she trained me to do from day one.” 

Juliane was always teaching Dwight her recipes, and he worked more behind-the-scenes. And during the years that she fought cancer, he stepped up to take on her role in the kitchen, under her guidance.

She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, underwent a double mastectomy and was in remission until August 2012, when doctors found cancer in her spine. Months later, they discovered cancer in her liver, and it was an up-and-down battle until her death.

Although Juliane was sick, the business carried on. In 2013, the company reported to have worked 201 events.

Throughout the years, Dwight has become more and more adept in the kitchen, and Jordan said her father’s technique is now “spot-on” with Juliane’s.

However, going forward, the company must find a way to overcome what now has become a hurdle: stepping out of the shadow of Juliane as the brand.

But just as Juliane taught Dwight and their daughters a lot about cooking and the catering business, she also taught them about overcoming hurdles.

 

Clearing Obstacles

Juliane always set the pace at Pfeffer’s, pushing through, no matter what.

“She did not let cancer stop her from getting things done,” Jordan said, and “you could never tell that she was sick — even on her worst day.”

Dwight recalls an instance where Juliane, after undergoing an overnight blood transfusion almost immediately preceded by chemotherapy, cooked all day and worked a funeral that evening.

With Juliane at the helm of Pfeffer’s, “the joke was, you can never call into work,” Dwight said. And that example of a strong work ethic has stuck with him and his daughters.

Just one week after her funeral, Pfeffer’s catered an event for Saatchi & Saatchi X of Springdale.

Although Saatchi executive coordinator Jennifer Anderson encouraged the family to pull out, if they needed, Pfeffer’s decided to work the party.

“We have used Pfeffer’s for years, and since we started using them our events have exploded. People rave about the food,” Anderson said. “Juliane was meticulous about the quality of the food.”

The January event, the first without Juliane “went really well and was pretty much identical to the previous year’s party,” Anderson said.

Pfeffer’s Catering considered it a tribute to Juliane. “It’s what mom would do,” Jordan said.

 

The New Team

When not working as merchandise support services manager at Sam’s Club, Jordan, 22, works as part-time event coordinator for Pfeffer’s, supervising the service staff.

Another of Juliane and Dwight’s daughters, Shelby Pfeffer, 20, joined the family business after her mother passed.

“For me it was a no-brainer,” she said. “My long-term goal prior to this was to finish my business management degree. What a great opportunity to be a part of a company that already has my family’s name attached to it.” 

As operations coordinator, Shelby is an integral part of Dwight’s initiative to revamp the professional side of the business. Part of that includes improving customer service, including promptly answering phones and correspondence.

Another part of this process is determining what sells and what doesn’t, so the company can focus on the most popular products.

 

Part of the Club

As loyal customers and an example of its key demographic — small business owners — Dwight and Juliane started a relationship with Sam’s Club years ago that has endured.

For a time, Pfeffer’s Lemon Jewel cookies, a buttery shortbread cookie topped with a healthy dollop of lemon icing, were sold in Sam’s Clubs nationwide and were the top-selling bakery item at local locations.

Pfeffer’s had similar success leading up to the Super Bowl in 2011, when the company sold its chicken cheese dip and spinach dip in local stores, earning bragging rights as the top dip seller for the event.

The relationship also yielded a personal visit and dinner with celebrity chef Paula Deen and her husband Michael in 2011.

Although Sam’s Club does not currently sell Pfeffer’s products, Dwight hopes to reintroduce the Lemon Jewel cookies in the retail market at some point.

The cookies, however, are still available for catering events.

And, as Pfeffer’s continues to pump out these and its other staples, including Pfeffer’s signature shrimp dip and grilled beef tenderloin with gorgonzola cheese and caramelized onions, Dwight is not taking any chances when it comes to the level of execution in the kitchen.

Chef Paul Farbell has been on with Pfeffer’s Catering since December. Farbell was formerly executive chef for Club Marketing, a job he held about nine years, but he has worked with food for his entire adult life, for distributors, restaurants and hotels in Dallas and his home state of New York.

 

Giving Back

Now that Pfeffer’s is fully staffed, the company is poised to continue operations and even expand, eyeing the Fort Smith area as a possible future market.

“[Northwest Arkansas] has been great to us,” Dwight said. “It has embraced us, and we have gotten to become part of the fabric and have been there for celebrations and funerals.”

Pat Cooper, wife of the late John A. Cooper Jr., a prominent community leader and president of Cooper Communities Inc., is a longtime friend and client of Pfeffer’s. Pfeffer’s has catered many events for Cooper, including her son’s wedding, and they have always had a “fabulous working relationship.”

She said she looks forward to working with them in the future. 

Also in the future, the Pfeffers plan to follow Juliane’s lead in giving back. She helped local organizations earn thousands of dollars through auctioned-off dinners. In this spirit, Pfeffer’s Catering plans to sell Lemon Jewels at Sam’s Club to raise money for an event that will be bittersweet for the company, the upcoming American Cancer Society Relay for Life event.

To the family, Juliane’s contribution can be summed up in a quote from a letter Gov. Mike Beebe sent them following her death, stating Juliane was an “inspiration to many and will always be remembered for her courage, her amazingly strong-willed personality, her kindness and the legacy of good works she leaves behind.”