Celebrations
Medellin Elite Catering feeds graduates and their families on the day the diploma finally arrives. Since 2019 we have catered grado lunches, evening parties with friends and cohort receptions for high school bachilleres, undergraduates, master's students and medical residents across Medellín.
Our clients include parents who want a proud family lunch, international students whose families fly in for the ceremony, and departments that host a reception for an entire class. Coordinators plan in English or Spanish and send itemized quotes by email, which helps when relatives abroad are sharing the planning.
Graduation food has one hard deadline: the moment the ceremony ends and a hungry family walks in. Season after season of grado lunches has taught us to time the kitchen to the university's schedule, not the other way round.
Plan your event
We cater graduation parties for 20 to 200 guests: a family lunch straight after the ceremony, an evening party with the graduate's friends, or a reception for a whole class or department. Each comes with the menu, cooks and servers, tableware, setup and cleanup, or as a drop-off order if you prefer to host on your own.
The families we serve range widely. A bachiller's parents might want a home lunch for 25 relatives, while a medical school cohort might want canapés and wine for 150 people in a faculty hall.
What they share is pride and a tight timetable. Grandparents are tired after a long ceremony, the graduate wants photos, and everyone wants to eat within half an hour of sitting down.
Plan the food to be ready 30 to 45 minutes after the ceremony ends, which is how long it takes a family to take photos, find the car and cross town. Colombian ceremonies de grado usually start mid-morning, around 9 or 10 a.m., or in the afternoon around 2 or 3 p.m., and they often run 2 to 3 hours once every name is read.
Universities in Medellín each have their own rhythm. EAFIT in El Poblado, UPB in Laureles, Universidad de Antioquia at Ciudad Universitaria, Universidad Nacional, CES and Universidad de Medellín in Belén all hold several ceremonies a day in peak weeks, and auditorium seating usually limits each graduate to a few guests. That is why the lunch afterwards becomes the real family gathering.
Traffic is the hidden variable. Leaving campus at the same moment as 300 other families can add 30 minutes, and pico y placa (the weekday driving restriction by license plate) may keep a relative's car off the road, so we build a buffer into the serving time and keep the food hot in insulated carriers until you arrive. Knowing the roads around each campus matters here, whether the lunch is through our catering in El Poblado near EAFIT or our catering in Laureles a few blocks from UPB.
Most graduates end up with two parties: a family meal and a night out with friends. The menu, the staffing and the hour change with each one.
A department or student council sometimes adds a third: a reception for the whole cohort on the day itself.
A family lunch is usually a seated or buffet meal for 15 to 40 close relatives at home, in the building's salón social or at a restaurant terrace you rent. Think ajiaco or sancocho to start, then posta cartagenera (slow-braised beef in a dark panela sauce) or grilled chicken, with rice, patacones and salad. A tres leches cake with the graduate's initials in fruit closes the meal.
An evening party is louder and later, with finger food, a food cart and a bar instead of a sit-down meal. We plan 10 to 12 savory pieces per guest over four hours, a station or cart that turns the food into something to do, and a bartender for every 50 to 75 guests.
A class reception is a cocktail for an entire cohort, often 80 to 200 people standing in a faculty courtyard. Passed canapés, a glass of wine or a juice, and service lasting about 90 minutes suit it best. For recurring university events beyond the ceremony, see our university catering service.
Graduates almost always ask for the food they ate with their friends during the degree, not banquet food, so our menus lean casual and generous. The most requested evening option is a taco bar with carnitas, chicken tinga, grilled vegetables and all the salsas, often paired with a slider station or wood-fired style pizza catering cut into small squares. Colombian classics win too: chicharrón with arepa, mini bandeja paisa bowls, empanadas with ají and patacones topped with hogao and shredded beef.
For the family lunch, parents usually want something more traditional, so a typical menu pairs a starter of ajiaco cups with a main of pork loin in tamarind sauce, coconut rice and avocado salad, then finishes with arroz con leche. We adapt any menu for vegetarian or gluten-free guests, and international students often ask us to mix a dish from home into the spread.
Graduation season in Medellín peaks twice a year, in June to July and in November to December, so book 4 to 8 weeks ahead for those months. University ceremonies cluster in the last weeks of each semester, and the dates are often announced only a month or two in advance.
Schools follow two calendars. Calendar A schools, the majority, finish in late November, so bachilleres graduate in the same weeks that year-end parties and December events start filling our calendar; Calendar B schools, including most bilingual and international schools, graduate in June.
Once you have the ceremony date, send it with your guest estimate and we will hold the slot once the deposit is in. Final numbers are due 7 days before, which conveniently falls after most universities confirm how many guest tickets each graduate receives.
Questions and answers
Yes, we deliver and serve on campus when the university allows outside catering for the space you booked. Most campuses in Medellín require the vehicle plate and the staff names in advance for gate access, and some only allow food in designated halls, not auditoriums. Send us the faculty's approval or event booking and we handle the access paperwork with their events office.
Yes, joint parties are common when classmates share friends and want one bigger celebration. We build a single menu, then split the quote into separate invoices so each family pays its own share of the guest count. Each family pays its own deposit, and the party is confirmed once all the deposits are in.
Reserve your date
Tell us the ceremony date and time, the campus and your guest count, and we will send an itemized graduation quote within 24 hours. You can also email info@medellincatering.com.