And the ACE Award Goes To...Twilight to First Light: A Progressive Dinner

During the Leading Caterers of American Executive Summit, Catering by Michaels created a Twilight-to-First-Light Progressive dinner through the Chicago Cultural Center for the conference’s culminating event.

Catering by Michaels received the ACE Award for Best Off-Premise Catering. The Achievement in Catered Events (ACE) Awards recognize catering companies for excellence in culinary innovation, business management, and professional achievement. Awarded annually at the Cater+Event (formerly Catersource + The Special event) conference, they celebrate standout work in various categories, including on/off-premise, micro-events, and sustainability.

Hosting the nation’s top caterers is no small feat, but Catering by Michaels* accepted the challenge. During the Leading Caterers of American Executive Summit, Catering by Michaels created a Twilight-to-First-Light Progressive dinner through the Chicago Cultural Center for the conference’s culminating event.

“Hosting the best caterers in the nation should feel like a challenge, but instead, it became our north star,” said Lisa Ware in the event’s ACE submission. “This was for our friends, our community, our chance to showcase the best of our company.”

The event opened with a twilight cocktail hour of grand bars, passed bites, interactive stations, caviar bumps, and edible cocktails. Dinner unfolded at king’s tables with musicians in trees, synchronized service, and color-shifting cocktails. For the finale, guests followed a saxophonist to “dawn,” gathering beneath the world’s largest Tiffany glass dome for dessert, music, and dancing, ending the night with Chicago dogs served in the alley as the perfect wink.

“When we opened the massive doors to the dining room and guests saw the long king’s tables, the full trees with musicians tucked inside, the incredible decor, the lighting, the music swelling, and the entire Chicago skyline glowing beyond the windows…it took their breath away,” said Ware. “When they walked to the finale, the world’s largest glass Tiffany dome as the centerpiece and our closing band ready to rock the night, with so many more special touches and incredible dessert displays, the gasps continued. It. Was. Magic.”

In just one month, Catering by Michaels sourced 19 vendors, designed an over-the-top menu, crafted specialty cocktails, curated décor, coordinated A/V and music, secured sponsors, handled hair, make-up, rentals, linens, photography, videography, signage, and layered in all the little creative touches that they are known for. In just four weeks, Catering by Michaels delivered not just catering, but every component of one of the most important events in the company’s history.

In the first planning meeting in late September, the Catering by Michaels team came in bold with brilliant ideas and overflowing energy. The boldest and the biggest idea? They wanted to attempt a synchronized service, something Catering by Michaels had never done before. So, the stage was set: train 100 waiters to do something they have never done, in sync, and timed to music with less than a month to pull it off.

The day itself? Pure magic. Collaboration at its finest. Chicago’s best vendors executed Catering by Michaels’ vision with polish, grace, teamwork, and so many laughs.

“We do last-minute events all the time, but never at this scale and never with this many partners,” said Ware. “The collaboration between our own team and the extraordinary generosity of our vendor team will forever be my favorite aspect. They worked honest-to-goodness miracles to create magic. Everyone understood the vision, and without even a full vendor meeting, every detail landed cohesively and seamlessly. That’s trust. That’s alignment. That’s artistry.”

Congratulations to Catering by Michaels and all of this year’s recipients, who were honored during Cater+Event 2026 last month in Los Angeles.

Click through the slideshow for a look at this award-winning event.

*Catering by Michaels is a proud member of the Leading Caterers of America, a consortium of the top catering and event planners throughout the United States and Canada.