Bonafide Bites

~by Jeff Tryon
courtesy photos

For Sam Herrin and Josh Anderson of Bonafide Bites, the catering business is more than just cooking food. It’s an art form.

Sam said her favorite thing is when a client says, “You’re the chef, I trust you to design the food.

“I want to know about the event, what the vibe is, and I want to go from there,” she said. “A lot of times I am thinking not only in terms of taste but also in terms of presentation, what the overall table spread is going to look like.”

The caterers think of the table presentation as “painting a picture with food.”

“You’ve got a lot of exciting flavors there, in addition to stuff that looks great,” Sam said. “I love the detail work. I’m the one who’s always doing the little fiddly things that take forever. I love doing hors d’oeuvres and appetizer receptions because you can pack a lot of flavor into some little things and you can get really creative.”

While Sam may be the more creative thinker, partner Josh is an organizer who would just as soon make and serve a perfect savory brisket.

“I always try to remove obstacles so that she can be as creative as she can be,” Anderson said. “We both like to be creative. When we have clients that just kind of let us run with it, that’s when the best things happen.”

Sam said Josh’s strength and skill as a chef is to take something mundane and make it elevated and impeccable. After they served seared fresh green beans at a recent wedding, a guest complimented them, saying, “Perfect green beans on a buffet–that’s impossible!”

“Catering is a whole other art form,” Herrin said. “Not only do you have to think about the logistics of how you’re setting up, but you also have to think about the way that food is going to behave; because you’re cooking off site and transporting it in an electric warmer, and then you’re still probably going to have some hold time before that food gets to the line.”

“It requires experience not only in preparing food, but in how to organize and deliver on a schedule,” she said. “Josh is skilled at figuring out how to execute that so that when it gets to the end result, it is absolutely perfect.”

The company has been in business about a year, and already has a full calendar and fourteen employees.

Along with full-service catering, they provide delivery catering, wedding catering, and personal chef services in an area ranging from Bloomington to Columbus to Indianapolis. But they are happy to live in centrally located Brown County, where they are feeling welcomed and very much at home.

“Brown County played such a huge part because people here were so supportive and encouraging,” she said.

Anderson and Herrin have had similar life journeys which nearly intersected at several points. Both grew up in rural south-central Indiana, where their families raised large gardens, cooked, and canned produce.

They both attended Franklin College, and both tried their wings in Los Angeles before returning to their Midwestern roots.

Each pursued a music career and enjoyed a memorable “marquee moment.” Josh was in a band with his brother that played at iconic LA music spots like the Roxy and the Viper Room.

“After a few years of pursuing music in LA, I started to get serious about food and cooking,” he said. “It was time to kind of grow up and pursue an actual career.”

He spent time between LA and Las Vegas and had the chance to work some high-profile events like The Oscars and other celebrity events.

Sam was a founding member of the regionally popular four-woman bluegrass band, The Whipstitch Sallies.

“We ended up one time headlining at the Vogue (in Indianapolis) at some musical showcase,” Herrin said. “And that’s a moment— when you pull up and see your name up on the marquee at the Vogue as the headliner.”

The band started in 2008 and played their last official show in 2016, although a reunion planned for 2020 was cancelled by Covid.

The company has found a niche partnering with several local arts organizations, non-profits, and performance venues.

After catering a staff event at the Brown County Music Center last year, Bonfide Bites has had the opportunity to provide meals for some of the musical acts which perform there.

“It has been such a cool experience, because these crews come in from all over the country,” Herrin said. “I don’t know what on earth these other venues have been feeding them—these are big tours, they are going to some big venues.

And they show up, and they are always shocked that their food is edible. They’re always so surprised.”

Part of their duties with the Music Center is going through the dietary restrictions of the group and making sure everybody has what they want.

The philosophy at Bonafide Bites is not to have a menu and say, here are your choices, pick from this. They want to work with people, custom crafting to the client’s vision.

“We’re really sticklers for handling dietary restrictions and food allergies as well,” Sam said. “It’s personal for me, I understand it completely.

“We want to feed people. The last thing we want is someone who is a vegan or vegetarian or has a food allergy to be an afterthought.

“We feed people. We want everyone to eat.”

You can reach Bonafide Bites at 812-318-1356 or visit <bonafidebites.com>.