Catering

Two workers at an Overlea catering hall were shot and critically wounded yesterday by a former employee, who was later wounded in the leg during a shootout with city police outside his Northeast Baltimore apartment, police said.The two employees, Dennis Rembert Jr., 38, of the 300 block of Wellingborough Way, Cockeysville, and Duane Thomas, 27, of the 4200 block of Stanwood Ave., Baltimore, were taken by helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Rembert was in critical condition and Thomas was in critical but stable condition last night, police said.

U.S. Foodservice said yesterday that it signed a $200 million, five-year agreement extending its contract as a key supplier for Compass Group, a Charlotte, N.C.-based catering firm.Under the agreement, U.S. Foodservice, a Columbia-based national food distributor, will provide food supplies to more than 500 Compass Group locations from New England to central Virginia.The original three-year agreement, signed in 1997, had an estimated value of $360 million. The original contract was set to expire in 2000, said Mark Kaiser, executive vice president of sales, marketing and procurement for U.S. Foodservice.

I really like Outtakes, a new upscale carryout and catering operation in Cockeysville. The food was terrific, the service couldn't have been friendlier and the chef, Donald Spence, lovingly walked me through his menu. I do have a question, though. What the heck is this place doing in a strip mall anchored by a tire outlet? Just another one of those odd juxtapositions of suburban living, I suppose. Despite its somewhat incongruous location, Outtakes Celebrity Caterers could have a bright future.

Jean L. Watson, whose culinary expertise led to the founding with her husband of what became a well-known Baltimore County catering firm, died of cancer Friday at her Timonium home. She was 81. Jean Lindeman was born and raised in Washington, where she graduated from Coolidge High School. She attended Mary Washington College and George Washington University before earning a bachelor's degree in English education from the University of Maryland, College Park in the late 1940s. Mrs. Watson worked as a legal secretary for Robert Lynch, a Washington law firm, before her 1952 marriage to David R. Watson, who was associated with the Ray V. Watson Co., a family-owned business that manufactured gears and heavy equipment.

For Ridgewells, the Bethesda-based caterer, these first two weeks of June are like the World Series and Judgment Day rolled into one.Just days after preparing three square meals a day for the corporate guests and high-end ticket holders at the Kemper Open golf tournament in Potomac, Ridgewells is doing more of the same across the road at the U.S. Open.That's food for about 44,000 people, and that's in addition to the usual June catering for graduations and weddings.For the U.S. Open, Ridgewells has ordered 11,000 gallons of orange juice, 18,000 cocktail shrimp, 15,000 crab cakes, 27,000 chicken breasts and 800 pounds of filet mignon.

By late afternoon, chef Jim Schumann of the Manor Tavern is putting the finishing touches on spicy Cajun chicken ten- ders, smoked-salmon tortilla pinwheels, miniature spinach quiches and other hors d'oeuvres for an evening cocktail reception in Havre de Grace.The executive chef, who also oversees the preparation of meals at the Monkton restaurant, has been working steadily since 9 a.m., assembling roasted vegetables, rolling goat cheese in freshly chopped chives and wrapping pencil-thin asparagus in prosciutto.

Ollie Richards, who established a catering business after years of cooking in private homes, died of a stroke Monday at Sinai Hospital. The Gwynn Oak resident was 72. Known for her dishes designed to please the Baltimore palate, she once told a reporter, "Martha Stewart doesn't show me too much." Born Ollie Odell Moody in Northampton County, N.C., she made $12 a week there in domestic service. She arrived in Baltimore in 1958 to become a dining room server for a Ruxton family. "I made $30 a week, and I thought I was rich," she told an Evening Sun reporter in 1993, adding that she was soon inspired by Gertrude Jackson, another Carolinian known throughout North Baltimore for her cooking ability.

An entrepreneur for 14 years, Sascha Wolhandler has learned to live with fear."It's very scary when you hold people's lives in your hands -- when you have to make enough money in your business to meet people's salaries, taxes, health insurance and other benefits. That's a lot of responsibility," says Ms. Wolhandler, who heads Sascha's, a catering concern based in Mount Vernon.Yet entrepreneurs shouldn't back away from risk due to the fears that business decisions can arouse, Ms. Wolhandler says.

For the last three months, some of the best food in this city was not served in a restaurant but from the sides of catering trucks. Grilled swordfish and mango salsa, fillet of beef with bearnaise sauce, pasta primavera, Caesar salads, Key lime pie, fresh fruit tarts and chocolate brownies were among the tempting dishes prepared for the stars, cast and crew of Ladder 49, the action movie starring John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix, which wrapped up...

Pizzazz Tuscan Grille closed last month at the Pier V Hotel. I only just heard about it, which says something. Elizabeth Large reviewed Pizzazz positively two years ago, shortly after its opening .I never made it there, and I have to say I was never tempted to drop in. Pizzazz isn't the first restaurant to come a cropper in this restaurant space, which probably needs to be redesigned.  There are some intriguing messages from the owners on...