Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Event’ On HBO Max, A Reality Series About How Wolfgang Puck Catering Manages High-Profile Events

The Event, an HBO Max docuseries that has the subtitle Inside Wolfgang Puck Catering, was initially supposed to be an eight-episode series; filming began shortly before the SAG Awards in January, 2020. But, of course, the pandemic happened, and things were shut down in March. So an eight-episode season becomes a four-episode season, homing in on some big events that happened over those two months. Read on for more…

THE EVENT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Old shots of the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, location of the 26th Screen Actors Guild Awards in January 2020.

The Gist: The Event is a four-episode docuseries following Wolfgang Puck Catering as they manage high-profile events, from the food to the table settings to the coordination of the wait staff. First up: Last year’s SAG Awards, which took place about two months before the world shut down due to COVID.

The event is a huge challenge: Over 1200 people, many high-profile celebrities, will be there. During the ceremony, a room-temperature entrée will on the table, with all the requisite bussing and drink orders that accompany it. Immediately after the ceremony, though, the crowd will move from the expo hall to the auditorium for the after party, with passed hors d’oeuvres and stations. Managing two kitchens and two sets of wait staff falls to Puck’s senior staff, like executive chef Eric Klein.

Klein and his staff are really happy with the miso-glazed salmon and roasted chicken dish that they have planned for the ceremony, when the event organizers call them a few days before the event to tell them that the ceremony will be going vegan (remember that?). Klein and his staff scramble to not only cancel the protein orders, but also come up with vegan recipes and a plate arrangement that will look good, especially on TV. They settle on some glazed carrots, paella rice and a green salad.

The ceremony goes relatively smoothly, but there’s a bit of a problem during the after party, when the passed hors d’oeuvres aren’t getting out fast enough, due to bottlenecks in accessing the crowd. Of course, this all happens just as Wolfgang Puck himself shows up to make sure everything’s running smoothly.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Event almost feels like a combination of Top Chef and something like Restaurant Impossible.

Our Take: While we were watching the massive effort it took to cater the SAG Awards, we were simultaneously fascinated and annoyed with The Event. We were fascinated with just how massive an effort catering such a large, high-profile event can be, with complications like the waiters (or “butlers” in the WP Catering’s parlance) needing to dash out and take care of their tables during the show’s 2-minute commercial breaks. It was also fascinating to see massive tables of food plates as far as the eye can see, slowly cleared by the dozens of “butlers.”

But we were also annoyed with the tone of the show, which felt at times more like an ad for WP Catering than a document of how they actually cover an event. The breathless narration carried a lot of hyperbole about how the company is the best at what it does, and how they meet every challenge. But, as we saw during the SAG Awards, they left the audience with a meal that felt about as satisfying as eating twigs. We’re pretty sure that almost everyone, vegan or carnivore, who walked into that after party grabbed the first piece of protein they could find, perhaps more than one.

There was nothing much in the episode about the challenge that the vegan switch truly gave Klein and his staff; it was obvious that they couldn’t source plant-based proteins or come up with satisfying vegan dishes. In our salad days as a restaurant critic (pun intended), we’ve eaten plenty of vegan food that filled our bellies. We took one look at what Klein and company came up with and knew that the Shrine would be full of hangry people after a couple of hours. But co-directors John Watkin and Eamon Harrington (Puck is an executive producer) made it feel like the staff came up with a genius solution.

Of course, when Puck shows up, gently chiding line cooks about what they learned from Klein, schmoozing with A-listers, and saying things like “Leo [DiCaprio] is vegan tonight,” as he brings out a vegan pizza made just for Leo. His presence makes the hyperbole and manufactured drama we’ve seen to that point much easier to take.

Parting Shot: At the end of the event, Klein says, “It was a successful event. The client is happy; we’re happy. That’s a wrap!”

Sleeper Star: VIP Concierge Ramon Leon has one of the biggest personalities on the team. We really did wish he wore the long skirt he was trying on, but was happy he stuck with the ascot he was thinking about wearing.

Most Pilot-y Line: We never like manufactured drama on reality shows. And it seemed that the passed apps bottleneck wasn’t nearly as big a deal as the directors made it look.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Why are we recommending The Event, despite our annoyances? Because the behind-the-scenes look at how massive events are handled by a massive catering company like Wolfgang Puck Catering is still fascinating to watch, even if the show feels less editorial and more advertorial.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream The Event On HBO Max