From the outside, being a caterer can look like a fairly simple job: just prepare beautiful dishes, and voilà! But you know very well that it’s not that easy: there’s team coordination, delivering equipment and food, misunderstandings with clients; in short, it’s not simple. To make your service pleasant and smooth for your clients, here are 3 typical mistakes to avoid as a caterer, and how to avoid them.
1. Poorly planning food delivery:
There are two ways to get food delivery wrong. The first is to deliver it too early, which will cause a loss of freshness and/or temperature in the dishes. The second is, of course, to deliver it too late, which leads to hungry guests. You definitely don’t want hungry guests, since hungry guests are unhappy guests! So when is the right time? Usually, it’s to deliver the food about 30 minutes before eating, unless setup takes a long time, because of a large number of guests, for example. In that situation, 45 minutes or 1 hour at most is recommended.
2. Not including vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free options:
Sometimes, some consumers don’t mention that they are vegetarian, vegan or celiac, which can make things uncomfortable if you have no serious alternative to offer them. A simple solution to this problem is to bring dishes such as vegetarian rice wraps, gluten-free pasta, etc. These dishes also need to contain plenty of protein, or these guests will never feel full.
3. Underestimating the amount of food needed
This one isn’t easy, since not everyone eats the same amount. Sometimes, unplanned eaters even join the event. These situations can cause problems if you don’t have enough food for them. The solution? Prepare 2 to 5 extra portions, so that nobody leaves on an empty stomach. In catering, too much is definitely better than not enough!
You now know 3 typical caterer mistakes, and how to avoid them. Did you learn something? Great! Did you already know all of this? Well, consider it a refresher! Running a catering service means learning from your own mistakes and the mistakes of others, so you can keep improving and offer your clients the best possible service.
