You know a Celine piece when you see one. Two interlocking Cs, inspired by the chain surrounding Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, have become one of the house’s most enduring signatures.
At a Celine event, that attention to detail extends beyond the pieces themselves. Food needs to taste as good as it looks. Service needs to feel as polished as the setting. When the brand appears on a cocktail, canapé or dessert, every detail needs to hold up to the camera.
Samantha Man, Head of Clienteling and Regional CRM Senior Manager for Celine Australia and Southeast Asia.
Her role sits between client relationships, CRM and events, moving between the front and back of house with equal ease. Samantha coordinates an in-store activation one moment, then is on a Zoom call with the Southeast Asia team the next.
That means the catering needs to be one less thing on Samantha’s plate.
Catering became particularly important in late 2025, when Celine was preparing for an event to mark the arrival of creative director Michael Rider. It was Samantha’s first event with the new caterer, Catered by Matt, and a significant moment for the brand.
By then, Samantha had already learned that confidence on a phone call wasn’t enough. She needed a catering partner whose standards matched Celine’s, and whose execution she could trust when she wasn’t standing in the kitchen, watching it happen.
That trust became the foundation of a relationship that has now grown into an established partnership.
“Everything’s Good” isn’t Good Enough for Celine
Samantha knows what great catering looks like.
Earlier in her career, she would attend food tastings with new caterers. She’d ask for photographs of dishes before an event. Even while travelling overseas, she would call back to Australia to make sure everything was on track.
She doesn’t have that luxury anymore. Her role now means she needs to be present with Celine’s clients, building relationships and making the experience feel personal.
And Celine doesn’t have events every month.
“When we do have events, if the F&B isn’t great, it’s not great for us,” Samantha says. “We have to be aligned on what we are after.”
That alignment matters even more when guests are accustomed to fine dining. The food needs to meet their expectations, while the presentation needs to belong naturally within Celine’s world.
Samantha had experienced what happens when that confidence starts to erode.
Her previous caterer had been a long-standing partner. Over time, familiarity had made the relationship easy. But Samantha felt that the ease of working together had gradually become complacency.
“They just stopped pushing,” she says. “Food quality was okay. Not enough to make me stay.”
The turning point came during an important store opening.
She needed a cocktail featuring the Celine Triomphe logo on top of an Amaretto Sour. As she would with any important branded element, Samantha asked for a mock-up. The photograph looked excellent.
On the day, it didn’t.
“The Key to a Client’s Heart is the Brand”
At this particular event, Samantha discovered the Triomphe logo on the cocktail had dissolved into the foam.
At an ordinary event, it might have been a minor presentation issue. At Celine, it was a critical part of the brand experience. Guests would be photographing the drinks. The logo was there deliberately, and Samantha couldn’t approve something that no longer looked like the Celine Triomphe.
The team suggested using another pattern instead. It looked more natural, but it wasn’t what Samantha had asked for.
Instead of being out with Celine’s clients, Samantha was in the back of the house trying to work out whether the drink could be served at all.
“I couldn’t even go out with the clients and engage,” she recalls. “I was trying to sort these out at the back of the house, trying to give them the approval.”
Celine clients are used to restaurants where presentation is part of the experience. Guests photograph what catches their eye, and branded details can quickly find their way onto social media. A Celine cookie, a branded cup or a Triomphe cocktail can be as memorable to a guest as the clothes on the rail.
“The key to a client’s heart is the brand.”
With Catered by Matt, the planning starts there: understanding the creative direction, working with the brand’s marketing, PR and events teams, and making sure the final food and service feel like they belong.
The Luxury of Time
For Samantha, time is a luxury. Her role doesn’t end when the catering is organised. On the day of an event, she needs to be with her clients, building the relationships that sit at the heart of her work.
That means she needs to know the catering is already taken care of.
With Catered by Matt, the team manages the timing, logistics and service behind the scenes, from creating custom menus to having food and drinks ready when guests arrive. Waitstaff are warm, polished and attentive, without pulling focus from the room.
There when they’re needed, discreet when they’re not.
The same goes for the end of the night. Cleanup begins while the event is still going, so the team can clear away quietly without disrupting guests or leaving Samantha with another job once they have gone.
The result is simple: Samantha gets to spend less time managing the catering and more time doing what her role actually calls for, being present with Celine’s clients.
A Relationship that Gets Easier with Time
Familiarity should make things easier. Caterers should understand how the brand works, anticipate needs, and require less explanation each time.
“As time goes by, we should know what each other needs so we can almost run on autopilot, which is great,” Samantha says.
When she first approached Catered by Matt, she knew she was starting again.
“I had a lot to rebuild. I was starting from scratch, but I needed to.”
What she found with Catered by Matt was the confidence she had been looking for.
“From that first experience, I know that the caterer knows what they’re doing and the level of standard is aligned with ours; I can have that trust and established relationship.”
Catered by Matt has built its reputation on that kind of relationship, working with global brands including Celine, Porsche and Ferrari.
Founder Matt Mirosevich spent two years at Quay and won the prestigious Brett Graham Scholarship, bringing that fine-dining discipline into a catering team trusted with high-profile events across Sydney.
At a glance
- First event
- Late 2025, marking creative director Michael Rider’s arrival
- Events
- Luxury brand and client events, in-store activations
- Services
- Custom menus, branded cocktails and canapés, waitstaff, bartenders, cleanup
Bring Celine’s Standard of Catering to Your Own Event
From branded cocktails and canapés to polished service and discreet cleanup, Catered by Matt has become part of Celine’s event process, giving Samantha one less thing to worry about when the guest list arrives.
Catered by Matt handles the food, chefs, waitstaff, bartenders and cleanup, while giving her a direct line to a team she can trust to sort things out.
Get the same catering experience that Celine trusts for your next event.
