The Catering Venue
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If you've ever been to a catered event, you know how impressive a venue can be when presented by a great catering service. Even if you are not in the catering business, you may be interested in how much work goes into choosing and managing a catered venue or location. The book "From Planning to Profit: Catering Like a Pro" has an informative section on how a caterer should approach their selected catering site, which we've excerpted below.
Title: From Planning to Profit: Catering Like a Pro Author: Francine Halvorsen Excerpt: |
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One of the delights of catering is that in addition to hotels and reception halls, any site is a possible location. Not only private homes and gardens, but parks, museums, historical mansions, corporate headquarters, ballparks, renovated train stations, and trains and boats can serve as wonderful settings for your events. Even abandoned mines, bridges, rooftops, and schoolyards all can serve, morning, noon, or night, as dramatic alternatives. Catering is done on movie sets and opera stages, in airplane hangars, public libraries, and town halls.
Most large events done by start-up caterers are basically stand-up, even when there are tables and chairs for the guests. Since service is circumscribed, it is the setting that will create the pleasurable environment that all partygivers and partygoers expect.
The design of the site is often the caterer's job, and the first impression the guests have of an event. Food presentation must be inviting at each station. Your food standards must be reflected in the quality of the ambience you instill. Decor and moods are not substitutes for delicious food in the proper amount, but they do enhance anything served.
Style is personal, but in catering it has to be a consensus. Your clients do not want to walk into an event they are hosting and wonder where they are. If it is a very large party, it is best for you to have a few samples of colors and a few sketches or photographs. Until you develop your own photo file, these can be gleaned from magazines. Refer to them in your confirmation letter and, if possible, have a floor plan or sketch of the arrangement you have in mind.
The atmosphere contributes greatly to how much enjoyment people have. One or two unique touches are often enough. Mainly the task is to harmonize the occasion, the setting, and the food. Decor can be selected either to turn a neutral space into a specific theme or to enhance thematic surroundings.
If you are not familiar with the site, do not make any assumptions. Check it out first. There may be features over which you will have no control. Though you cannot have a backup location, you can have backup equipment. Portable equipment and decor can be delivered almost anywhere, for a price. If there is a potential difficulty for a complicated event, make sure someone is in charge of the equipment. They should confirm delivery, make sure it is operational on location, and supervise its maintenance and return. The commissary must be functional at all times and geared up for special events to coordinate with the event location. Catering is a one-opportunity occasion, so a missed detail has a ripple effect. Even the most good-natured client will have zero acceptance for excuses.
It is the job of the account manager to visit the site of the selected location and walk through the facility, sometimes with a digital and/or Polaroid camera and tape measure, taking notes and making sure what is actually there. It is also necessary to find out when the area will be free for setup and by what time you must have everything cleared out.
- from "From Planning to Profit: Catering Like a Pro," by Francine Halvorsen
Most large events done by start-up caterers are basically stand-up, even when there are tables and chairs for the guests. Since service is circumscribed, it is the setting that will create the pleasurable environment that all partygivers and partygoers expect.
The design of the site is often the caterer's job, and the first impression the guests have of an event. Food presentation must be inviting at each station. Your food standards must be reflected in the quality of the ambience you instill. Decor and moods are not substitutes for delicious food in the proper amount, but they do enhance anything served.
Style is personal, but in catering it has to be a consensus. Your clients do not want to walk into an event they are hosting and wonder where they are. If it is a very large party, it is best for you to have a few samples of colors and a few sketches or photographs. Until you develop your own photo file, these can be gleaned from magazines. Refer to them in your confirmation letter and, if possible, have a floor plan or sketch of the arrangement you have in mind.
The atmosphere contributes greatly to how much enjoyment people have. One or two unique touches are often enough. Mainly the task is to harmonize the occasion, the setting, and the food. Decor can be selected either to turn a neutral space into a specific theme or to enhance thematic surroundings.
If you are not familiar with the site, do not make any assumptions. Check it out first. There may be features over which you will have no control. Though you cannot have a backup location, you can have backup equipment. Portable equipment and decor can be delivered almost anywhere, for a price. If there is a potential difficulty for a complicated event, make sure someone is in charge of the equipment. They should confirm delivery, make sure it is operational on location, and supervise its maintenance and return. The commissary must be functional at all times and geared up for special events to coordinate with the event location. Catering is a one-opportunity occasion, so a missed detail has a ripple effect. Even the most good-natured client will have zero acceptance for excuses.
It is the job of the account manager to visit the site of the selected location and walk through the facility, sometimes with a digital and/or Polaroid camera and tape measure, taking notes and making sure what is actually there. It is also necessary to find out when the area will be free for setup and by what time you must have everything cleared out.
- from "From Planning to Profit: Catering Like a Pro," by Francine Halvorsen