Life during COVID can feel stressful and isolating. So during this holiday season, responsible gatherings can be a soothing balm. We know the recent resurgence of the virus may curtail many plans, but small groups of vaccinated and tested friends and family can still come together to celebrate the gifts we still possess. One thing COVID has given us is a renewed focus on all the non-material abundance in our lives: family, friends, and co-workers.
Thanksgiving, the most food-forward holiday on the calendar, is a big favorite in our Catering by Michaels kitchens. It’s a time to excite all our senses and conjure feelings of happiness, joy, and contentment—with food at the center of it all.
Our 2021 Thanksgiving menu is available now for you to start planning your celebration. To highlight some items we offer, we asked members of our CBM family what their favorites are (keep reading to find out!).
Autumn. The word itself elicits images of nesting, comfort, and all the cozy feels. We slow down, both in our lives and in our cooking. It’s a time when our thoughts of food transition from the bright freshness of summer to the warm heartiness of harvest. The immediacy of tossed-together salads and quick-grilled proteins transform into deep roasted vegetables and slowly braised meats. It’s a time to reflect, appreciate, and harvest all the beautiful feelings which have ripened over the summer.
On our plate, bright new potatoes mature, becoming deeply caramelized sweet potatoes. Herbed chicken breasts mellow into slow-roasted turkey. Everything about Autumn celebrates the patience of waiting for the last falling leaves and the promise of comforting fare.
Yom Kippur closes the Ten Days of Repentance that open with Rosh Hashanah, and the break-fast is the first ordinary human moment at the end of it. That is what makes it different from every other gathering you will host. Nobody wants to be greeted, seated or entertained. They want water, a chair and something to eat, in that order, and they want it without the host disappearing into a kitchen.
Hosting it well is almost entirely a matter of sequence. Here is how to plan the evening from a Chicago-area calendar backwards, so that when the room fills at once, nothing about the meal requires your attention.
View the break-fast menu and place your order.
This is the hosting-and-timing guide: use it for delivery timing, guest arrivals, setup, serviceware, and dietary planning. For current menu availability and ordering, visit the Yom Kippur break-fast catering and delivery page.
Everything is anchored to nightfall, not to a dinner hour you choose.
The practical consequence is that Sunday afternoon is your only real working window. Anything that has to be received, arranged, chilled or laid out should be handled before candle lighting Sunday evening, or scheduled to be handled by someone who is not observing.
Work from nightfall in reverse and the plan writes itself.
If you will be at services until roughly 7:30 pm yourself, one of two things has to be true: either the food is entirely ready to set out cold or at room temperature, or someone who is not observing is at the house to put it out. Plan for the first. It is the reason break-fast menus are built the way they are.
Guests do not trickle into a break-fast. Congregations release within minutes of each other, and fifteen people can be through the door in a five-minute span, all of them having gone a full day without food or water.
This is where hosts either buy themselves a calm evening or an hour of dishes.
The dietary list is the part of break-fast planning that gets left until it is too late to act on.
Catering by Michaels has produced Chicago-area events since 1980 from the Morton Grove kitchen at 6203 Park Ave. For break-fast specifically, the useful questions are logistical ones: ask which current items arrive ready to set out, whether anything needs finishing, how dishes hold at room temperature, how trays are sized, and whether a delivery can be timed for staging the day before. [Confirm each of these operational points with the client before publish rather than stating them as capabilities.]
For what to serve, see our Yom Kippur break-fast menu, and for the season as a whole see the complete Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur planning guide.
To confirm 2026 delivery and pickup windows, discuss a dietary list, or place an order, call (847) 966-6555 or contact the Catering by Michaels team. High Holiday capacity closes ahead of the holiday, so an early headcount protects your menu and delivery options.
Yom Kippur begins at sundown on Sunday, September 20, 2026, with Chicago candle lighting at approximately 6:33 pm, and ends at nightfall on Monday, September 21, with Havdalah in Chicago at approximately 7:31 pm. Times are computed for Chicago coordinates and customs vary, so confirm with your congregation.
Most Chicago-area hosts set 7:30 pm and have the first wave of food out beforehand. Because congregations across the North Shore release at slightly different times, expect arrivals to spread across roughly twenty minutes and keep the entry table stocked for that whole window.
Take delivery Sunday afternoon before candle lighting and stage everything then. That keeps Monday clear, which matters because the day is spent in synagogue and nothing about the meal should require attention during it.
Usually not, if the menu is built to be set out cold or at room temperature. Staffing earns its place at larger scale, in synagogue halls and rented spaces, and where replenishment, clearing and beverage flow need dedicated hands while the host is greeting people.
For a household buffet in the Chicago suburbs, upgraded disposable serviceware is the standard and practical choice, and it removes cleanup at the end of a long day. China and linens suit a seated hosted meal, and pair better with on-site staffing.
Ask in the invitation, ten to fourteen days out, and compile the responses into one list you hand to your caterer with the order. Requests gathered the week of the holiday usually arrive too late to be built into production.
More than you would for a standing reception. Guests who have fasted for roughly twenty-five hours want to sit. Borrow or rent chairs rather than assuming half the room will stand.
Even COVID cannot derail the rhythm of life or the traditions which celebrate it. As summer naturally gives way to autumn, we give a thought to endings, beginning, and cycles. This is what Rosh Hashanah is all about.
Rosh Hashanah, The Jewish New Year, begins in autumn and marks the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve. It serves as the first two days of the period marking our first sin and subsequent repentance. This 10 day period of prayer, repentance, and charity is known as Aseret Yemei Teshuvah. or The Ten Days of Repentance. The Ten Days of Repentance end in celebration with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
