WHY For inventive (but not too risky) food and good party management.

WHAT Onil Chibas is Pasadena’s hippest caterer (and restaurateur, at Elements), with food that combines the comfort of American classics with lots of Asian and Latin influences. Passed dishes might include Vietnamese-style beef skewers with chili and lemongrass as well as Italian-style caprese skewers with fresh mozzarella. Good for dinner parties and mid-size shindigs.

WHO The kind of eastsiders who’d throw a wedding at the Pacific Asia Museum or a bar mitzvah at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.