Jay's Beginnings

Born out of a conviction over 40 years ago that catering should be available to everyone, not just the wealthy, Jay's Catering's mix of tradition and innovation has led to decades of success in the catering industry.

Founded in 1961, Jay's Catering began as a retail and wholesale distributorship. Eleanor and Jay Mastroianni used a converted carwash in Midway City as their food service facility. Jay's Catering provided a one-stop shop for catering truck companies, who could purchase everything from milk and dairy products to ice, fruit and freshly- made sandwiches for their daily routes.

This business model would soon evolve as Jay's Catering began to develop its own catering truck business making deliveries to factories, institutions and construction sites throughout Southern California.

Outgrowing the facilities in Midway City, Jay's moved to a 5000 square-foot facility in Huntington Beach. This step proved to be one of many to accommodate the success and growth of Jay's Catering.

In a clear move of "addition by subtraction", Jay's eventually closed the catering truck business and opened Parties by Jay's in Westminster, Ca. This move single handedly led to the birth of the social catering business for Jay's Catering and the beginning of one of Jay's most successful accounts, Mercury Savings. Jay's Catering provided lunches to bank branches and business grew quickly, thus spurring the advent of the famous "cold buffet" lunch menu.

Shortly afterwards in 1976, with business booming, Jay's Catering made a move to Garden Grove to a location on Brookhurst Street. It would be home to a state-of-the-art catering headquarters, the first of its kind in Orange County. Jay's Catering's 11,000 square-foot location was home to sales and executive offices, a commissary, bakery, florist, refrigerated cake decorating room, radio-controlled operations center, warehouse, and wine room.

The 80's brought much of the same for Jay's Catering as growth exploded with the awarding of its first major contract with the city of Carson's Community Center. Additionally, Jay's was selected to provide catering to various venues for the 1984 Olympics.

As catering was booming in the 80's, Jay's Catering built on its success and created its own party prop divisions. With its own in-house architect, Jay's created Hollywood-style production sets ranging from "Sonny and Ellie's" diner, 1950's themed diners to Tahitian huts, Art Deco bars and Western-themed sets.

In 1987, moving trucks were called upon once again, this time for relocation to our current 36,000 square foot location on Garden Grove Boulevard. Jay's flourished in the 1990's under the leadership of Jay Mastroianni's son, John. His vision led the technological growth within Jay's, resulting in the purchasing of new computers and the creation of its own custom catering software. At the same time, Jay's crossed the threshold into golf tournament catering, landing over 10 tournaments, most notably, the Los Angeles Open. In 1994, Hole-N-One Golf Catering formed by sons, John & Mike, branched out from Jay's.

The latest chapter in Jay's Catering's history began in 1994 when Jay's daughter Linda took over day-to-day operations. Under her leadership sustainable growth has been achieved. Much of this success must be attributed to her father's invention of the "chef caddy," an innovative way to keep delivery food both hot and cold for up to four hours. This creation, along with Linda's daily management, led to the boom of Jay's corporate catering business.

In 1999, Jay's Catering entered new territory and began to purchase and rent its own inventory of rental items, positioning itself as a major player in the rental business. In 2006, Jay's gave itself a face-lift with a remodel of the outside of the corporate headquarters. In 2007, Jay's added the Benevolenza Room, which means "good will," in Italian; a community service room whose use is dedicated to helping Non Profit Groups.

Additionally in 2007, Jay's embarked on a new era. In its effort to become a more sustainable and environmentally efficient company, Jay's purchased Eco Friendly Sprinter Vans for Corporate Catering, purchased a Cardboard Bailer as well as eco-friendly serviceware.

Today, Jay's employs over 300 people, operates nine exclusive venues and caters events in some of the most desirable locations throughout Southern California. Jay's keeps up with current trends in the industry by its active membership in some of the top catering associations, such as ABC, ICA, WIPA, ICA and Catersource.

Jay's continued success is based on its current strong and successful foundation, which is comprised of food, family and a strong work ethic, which has been in place for over forty years.