Start & Run a Catering Business. George Erdosh

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СКАЧАТЬ but off-premise catering compels you to plan and organize for each event.

      In off-premise catering, all food and equipment must be brought to the place of the event. Nothing should be missing, and the food must be in prime condition at the time of serving, even though several hours may have passed between the crew’s departure from the kitchen and the serving of the first guests. The hot food must be hot and the cold food must be icy cold. The facilities at which you are serving may have no kitchen whatsoever or only a tiny office kitchen, so you must bring all your equipment. Imagine if someone miscounted the silverware and you are short one fork. What can you do? How can you produce a single fork in the next 20 minutes when the crew’s every minute is planned for the next three hours? The answer is to avert such disasters by careful planning. If an unforeseen mishap does occur, then you quickly switch to your next prerequisite skill as a caterer: resolving crises and emergencies.

      If you think that you are a reasonably good planner and organizer, you can improve those skills by diligent effort and careful checklists. Review your first few events. Did you remember to take everything? Was planning adequate? Did what you anticipated happening happen? If so, you are capable of organizing and planning progressively larger parties.

      Planning for an event must be done well in advance of its occurrence. Even the smallest event demands some thinking four to five days ahead of the date to schedule the various phases of preparation, such as defrosting food and ordering supplies. Large events need even more advance planning because you must reserve staff time, rental items, and maybe additional subcontracted services.

      Advance planning and organization has five major parts:

      • Securing supplies and rental items

      • Scheduling food preparation

      • Reserving staff time

      • Preparing equipment and invoices

      • Planning the event

      The chapters that follow will deal with all these aspects of planning in greater detail.

      1.3 Efficiency

      Efficiency is important in most professions, but in some fields, it is an essential skill to ensure success; food service is one of those fields. The food the guests are waiting for must arrive at their table as quickly as possible. Preparation time must be kept to a minimum; only a high degree of efficiency can achieve this.

      You quickly discover what you can prepare far in advance of the event and what must be done at the last minute so that staff time is used efficiently. With careful planning, organization, and good efficiency, you’ll pull it off with the minimum staff possible to protect your profit margin. Fine-tuning allows a small safety factor of time for unexpected problems that notoriously crop up at the last minute. If you’re not a very efficient person, or are unwilling or incapable of learning how to be one, hire a good catering or kitchen manager who is. Then you can concentrate on other aspects of the business, such as selling and marketing, food styling and presentation, or financial management.

      Efficiency is necessary for several reasons. First, you must be able to shape masses of raw material into gorgeous food in the shortest possible time or you’ll never get to the culminating step: feeding people. Second, many items can be prepared only at the last minute. Some foods hold well hot but every extra half hour of standing will lower the peak serving quality. Many foods don’t keep well if they are chilled too long either. Salads and fruits lose their crispness. An extra hour does make a noticeable difference. One more hour, and even the host or hostess will notice. Such foods must be prepared at the last minute, so the end of preparation signals the beginning of serving with no time lag. That requires meticulous preplanning so nothing goes wrong. Some catering tricks you’ll learn along the way will help alleviate the last-minute rush and tension. Maybe what you’ll learn is how to deal with the pressure.

      1.4 Pressure: If you can’t stand the heat

      To be a caterer, you must be able to live with and work under pressure and not show it. Outwardly you must be cool, smiling, apparently doing your work with ease, without rushing. Inwardly you may have five different things to worry about (e.g., the guest who is back at the buffet table to pile another ten shrimps on his plate when you allowed two-and-a-half per person; whether the Sterno under the chafing dishes is going to hold out; and countless other potential minor disasters). Nothing is predictable during an event. The guests at each one are completely different: They prefer different food, eat different portions, and interact with you and your staff completely differently.

      When it is obvious that the guests like your food and ooh and ah at the elegant presentation, then you can relax and quit worrying. Once the guests and host or hostess are pleased, they will overlook slight problems, such as a missing punch ladle. If they are not pleased from the beginning, however, even small errors will seem like gross negligence and there will be no forgiveness.

      1.5 Crisis management and problem solving

      Off-premise catering, no matter how well planned and organized, is bound to have unexpected problems. Occasionally, problems reach crisis proportions. When so much equipment, food, drinks, staff, and peripheral items must be transported and set up for a complex event, problems will crop up from time to time. In the best scenario, your event is flawless as far as the client is concerned, though you and your staff know of the little bumps that you successfully overcame.

      Just think of the numerous little things that must be on hand for you to prepare an elegant meal for 35 guests at home. Then think of the further complications when a similar meal must be served for 135 at an unfamiliar location. Then add the complication of another crew in your kitchen preparing a reception for 50 at the same time. Everything that goes into the refrigerator is carefully labeled according to which event it belongs to. When loading, you must be really careful that you don’t accidentally take the other crew’s ingredients or equipment. No matter how much care is taken, there is a possibility that some things could end up in the wrong vehicle.

      Other problems occur at the event site. No matter how carefully you discuss every detail with the client, expect surprises. One of the things you must learn is not to despair or panic, but quickly find a way out of it, preferably before your client notices and, if at all possible, before the guests notice. Some problems can be solved with the help of the host or hostess. If an important piece of equipment or tool or ingredient was left behind, he or she may have something you can use. But usually you are better off solving it yourself without consulting the client, even if it means a quick trip to the store.

      To successfully solve problems, you must expect them to happen. Remain cool and rational. Talk with your staff. Someone might come up with a good idea. For some problems there is no easy solution. If you left your ice in the freezer back in your kitchen, check your client’s freezer to see if he or she has enough to last while you send someone for more ice. If all else fails and you must delay the bar setup, explain the situation to your client with apologies and make the delay as short as possible.

      Crises are more difficult to solve, but they should be expected occasionally, too. On your way to the event, someone pulls in front of you and you have no choice but to hit the brakes hard (something you should never do in a catering truck!) and four lemon cloud pies scoot at high speed against the lip of the shelf. They are now misshapen and can only be served to your staff, their families, and yours. There is no time to get a comparable pie from the local French patisserie; your only option is to stop at a nearby supermarket and buy their flavorless, over-sweetened pies with artificial topping. It is that or serve no dessert.

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