Picayune People: Tricia Henry
Tricia Henry with a copy of “Tuxedos and Tacos: The Mystique of Entertaining in Texas,” a book she wrote with the late Betsy Nozick of Austin. Nozick owned Gourmet Gals and Guys catering service. Henry managed the company for 25 years. The cookbook, which took a year to write and another year to test the recipes, was a bestseller and is available at the Marble Falls Public Library. Staff photo by Suzanne Freeman
Gourmet Gals served enchiladas (and more!) fit for a king and other celebrity guests
Prince Charles (now King Charles) so loved the cheese-and-spinach enchiladas served to him at a gala dinner in Austin that he asked for seconds. The dish was the centerpiece of a formal dinner cooked, presented, and served by Gourmet Gals and Guys at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in February of 1986, one of many highlights in the life of retired caterer and author Tricia Henry of Marble Falls.
“We needed a huge staff,” Henry said of the royal event. “Our families worked, our husbands, our kids. Everyone worked. As long as you had a tuxedo, you were set.”
Henry managed the catering company owned by friend and neighbor Betsy Nozick for 25 years. After they retired, they wrote “Tuxedos and Tacos: The Mystique of Entertaining in Texas,” published in 2007 by Eakin Press.
“I handled the nuts and bolts,” Henry said. “I ordered food, hired staff, did everything toward making it all work, but Betsy had a knack for knowing what ingredients to put together. She had a golden palette. She had the capability of creating a taste that worked. ”
Those tastes had a heavy lift. The catering guys and gals served hungry guests that sometimes numbered 2,000 or more. Once, they prepared food for a total of 10,000 people attending the grand opening of a mall.
Dignitaries fed at their events included former presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Gerald Ford and their wives, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President of the Motion Picture Association Jack Valenti, journalists Walter Cronkite and Bill Moyers, and columnists Ann Landers and Art Buchwald, just to name a few of the creme de la creme.
“Our clientele was fabulous, they were identifiable,” Henry said. “It was definitely ‘Old Austin.’”
Henry and Nozick, who died in 2018, equated their jobs to putting on a theatrical production “without a rehearsal.” They created a Hawaiian luau in Las Vegas and turned each wing of a new mall in Texas into Academy Award-winning movie sets.
“Rhett” and “Scarlett” served southern food in front of “Tara” from “Gone With the Wind” in one wing, while John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John look-alikes from “Grease” turned tables at a rock-and-roll serving station. In a “Casablanca” setting for desserts, “Humphrey Bogart” handed out champagne.
“Faith Hill was our headliner just as she was becoming Faith Hill,” Henry and Nozick wrote in their book. “Besides coordinating 275 in staff, the biggest problem of the night was keeping our love-sick chef in the kitchen with his mind on the food, and not on Faith’s performance.”
Using a building to set the theme for an event involved a bit of humor at the opening of a hospital in Round Rock. The three-day event featured extensive buffets with 75 food options, including ice cream and dill pickles in the labor and delivery area.
A corporate event planned around a huge conference table especially challenged the pair, who decided to combine the centerpiece with the entertainment. They arranged the buffet around a musician who plucked classical tunes from a harp in the center of the table.
Gourmet Gals and Guys also ventured into the Hill Country for events at Fall Creek Vineyard, venues on the shores of Lake LBJ, and at homes in the rolling hills. At the vineyard, guests received grapevine baskets filled with snacks for a tour preceding a formal sit-down dinner.
At a hill-top wedding, the multi-tiered bride’s cake resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa as it was removed from the van.
“Someone unfamiliar with the location of the house and the winding, hilly roads leading up to it delivered the cake at the last minute,” Henry said. “Thanks to back-up frosting and lots of fresh flowers strategically placed, the cake was successfully resurrected.”
As off-premises caterers, Henry and Nozick had to become adept at organizing the details.
“The key to success is planning and listening to your clients,” Henry said. “We brainstormed for every event to make it unique. We made sure that every party and each client felt they were the most important. It was all extremely difficult work, but we loved it.”
The best part of the entire experience was the people they met and worked with.
“Our clients were wonderful,” she said. “For some of them, we handled their rehearsal dinner, their wedding, then came the babies and the baptisms. People became like family. That’s the best part.”
When it came to writing the book, which is not really a cookbook, but a book of stories about cooking that includes recipes, Henry and Nozick had to figure out the correct measurements for much smaller gatherings than they were used to.
“We decided on servings of eight, but to do that, we had to cook the recipes and record the measurements,” Henry said. “It took us a year to write the book and another year to figure out the recipes. We both gained 20 pounds that year.”
The biggest hurdle in working on the recipes was overcoming their shared cooking style.
“We were both taster cooks,” she said. “Measuring ingredients was a problem because we often forgot to do it, which meant we had to cook the recipe again.”
The result of all that work—and good eating—is a collection of stories, menus, and recipes that until publication were kept under wraps.
“We never, not once, gave away a recipe,” Henry said. “It was one of our policies.”
Another policy was not to advertise or display the company name at their events. Staff did not wear name tags; Gourmet Gals and Guys displayed no branding.
“We were word-of-mouth only,” she said. “We were very blessed. We stayed very busy and did really well.”
Now, 88, Henry has been retired in the Marble Falls area since 1996. She and her husband of 68 years, Mike, live on property outside of town, where they mainly enjoy fresh, simple meals.
“Just between you and me, I don’t care if I ever cook again,” Henry said with a smile.
“Texas Tuxedos to Tacos” can be ordered online, but is also available for checkout at the Marble Falls Public Library. Recipes are creative and varied, including champagne risotto and burnt sugar ice cream pie served to the Prince of Spain at an event with Governor and Mrs. Bill Clements, taco sombreros served at Governor Mark White’s inauguration, molded gaspacho served at a Lady Bird Johnson event for the National Wildflower Center, banana rumaki served at the Texas Senate Ladies Club, and Political Pie served at a buffet for President’ Johnson’s press secretary Liz Carpenter.