Essentials of a Good Corporate Caterer

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When we mention “corporate”, what comes to your mind? Yes, it directly relates to professionalism and high profile business clients, guests and parties. You need to approach a corporate caterer if you wish to set a good impression on your clients, staff and guests, through exquisite food and appealing presentation. A corporate event is of great importance for any organisation, and to make it successful, you need reliable and efficient services by the caterers. They hold the responsibility to provide you the best food and services they can.

As a commercial caterer you have to arrange for all kinds of services as demanded by the client. They can ask you to prepare for an event completely with food and other onsite arrangements or just prepare and deliver attractive boxed lunches. At times a caterer is also asked to deliver cooked food to another location or even freshly cook and serve it hot on the event location. While working on the location, you also have to, serve the food on the laid tables with the facility of waiting staff or arrange for a self serve buffet. As service providers you need to maintain set standards and also have well uniformed staff to work on big scale projects. Being a part of food service industry, it becomes essential to maintain the food quality as per the regulations and meet the basic requirements.

To survive the competition business caterers also need to raise their bar every time and introduce new varieties to their menu. There should be a range of food items and cuisines to choose from. The clients can ask for different stuff every time depending on their set of guests. This can even include religious or dietary restrictions. There can be a request for a vegetarian, vegan, non-vegetarian, halal or kosher cuisine.

Sometimes when there is a waiting time between the guests arriving and the meal being served, clients might also ask for hors d’oeuvres. This refers to serving the first course or appetisers before the main course; they are usually rotated by the waiters or passed. In many cocktail parties hors d’oeuvres are served with no main course later on.

Catering as a business can be a challenging job, and you cannot afford mistakes. Catering for an event is like setting up a restaurant for a while and then breaking it down. You need to master certain skills in order to be in business. Specialising in a particular set of food or drinks can gain you popularity. You also need to master your logistics brilliantly. Having a professionally well set kitchen and a good transport system to deliver hot food as “hot” and cold food as “cold”, adds on to your credibility. Also you need efficient and right people working for you. While loading a truck for an event with all the basic amenities, you can’t afford to forget or leave behind even the smallest thing required. For example, if you have coffee on your menu and you forget to get the coffee cups, this can seriously ruin your company’s reputation.

You also need to market your company very well within the set budget. Awareness amongst people about your services and specialities is very important for your business to grow. For this you can use the web as your primary tool. You can use word of mouth and print media are also strong marketing techniques. Getting into catering business needs a lot of planning, correct manpower and impressive culinary skills.