If you're organising a party, a wedding, a funeral or some other event that you'd like to have catered, here are the steps you should take before calling a catering business.
Check who's coming and ask the guests to share their dietary needs with you.
Before ringing any catering companies, you must first find out for certain who is or isn't coming to your event and ensure that those who confirm they'll be attending let you know about any dietary needs they have.
If your guest list isn't finalised when you contact the caterer, it will be difficult for them to begin organising the food for you, as they won't know how much, for example, fruit to order for the fruit salad or how many salmon fillets they need to prep for the main course. They'll also need this information to determine the size or number of, for instance, saucepans, ice buckets and soup vats they'll need to have on hand to cook and serve the food.
Similarly, if you don't yet know which of the guests are, for example, lactose intolerant or coeliacs, it will be difficult to decide what to put on the menu or how many alternative lactose or gluten-free dishes the caterer will need to prepare for these people.
Likewise, if you ask the caterer to prepare an Italian buffet, which is likely to include a lot of wheat-centred dishes like pizza, ciabatta and pasta, and you then find out that many of your guests either prefer to avoid gluten or are coeliacs, the caterer might have to abandon this menu entirely or replace all of the standard wheat flour they ordered with gluten-free alternatives.
Consider the atmosphere you'd like the event to have.
Prior to meeting the caterer, you should also think about the atmosphere you'd prefer this event to have, as the menu the caterer creates will affect it. For example, if you want this event to be elegant, but not as formal as a sit-down, multiple-course meal, the caterer might decide to create a British-style, afternoon tea menu, consisting of dainty sandwiches, prettily decorated cakes, and fresh scones. If you want the event to have a lively, easy-going and fun atmosphere, then the caterer might come up with a Mexican fiesta menu, consisting of spicy, creamy and crunchy Mexican finger food that people can easily eat with their hands and nibble on whilst they socialise.
If on the other hand, you have no idea what you want the vibe of the event to be when you phone the caterer, the two of you may have to spend a lot of time brainstorming and this might prolong the process of organising the menu.
Contact a local catering company for more info.
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