What is a caterer? It seems pretty simple and straightforward — catering is a culinary chef and their team preparing, cooking, and serving food, right? That’s true, but there is more to it. A whole lot more.

Yes, catering services coordinate the preparation, creation, delivery, and presentation of food for clients. If you’ve ever attended a wedding reception, fundraiser, bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, or bar mitzvah that had delightfully prepared and presented food, chances are that event was catered. Additional responsibilities of your event catering company, often include the rental, set-up, and clean-up of decorations, tables, chairs, music and lighting (we’ll talk more about these non-food related responsibilities down the line).

So what does a catering company do behind the scenes? From the initial client-caterer meeting to the big day, catering involves a lot of planning, preparation, teamwork, creativity, and flexibility.

From concet, to the last uneaten bite of salad residing in the dumpster, a catering team works closely with their client to custom craft an appetizer menu, bar menu, sit down dinner menu and possibly dessert, coffee, and late night bites menus as well. This includes discussing staffing, scheduling, presentation, contractual expectations of both the wedding couple and the caterers, and post event clean-up (great right?).

image source: https://www.ecocaters.com/blog/what-does-a-catering-company-do/

In addition, some event catering companies like Eco Caters, will reach out to their organic, local growers and reserve the seasonal fruits, vegetables, and produce for the upcoming event. What’s in season will often drive the menu options for both the guests and head chef.

An event catering company can also help the client reserve rentals for an event. This includes, but is not limited to: tablecloths, cocktail/gift/cake tables, chairs, dishware, bar glasses, space heaters, and so on.

Once all the the details have been agreed upon, the catering company will draft a contract for review. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and negotiate! No contract? Don’t hire! A good catering company will be transparent with their costs and explain to the clients why they made the decisions they did, for example hiring X number of servers or choosing one wine over another.

Day of event — Before guests arrive, the catering supervisor & team will work hard to set up the tables, chairs, bar(s), and begin preparing food. Once the event is underway, the captain will work with the other vendors to stay synced with the event timeline, clean-up dirty or discarded dishware, clean-up broken glasses, and politely accomodate the needs of all guests.

Following the event — the catering team will most often be the ones in charge of disposing of garbage, organizing rentals for pickup, and leaving the venue in standing order.

Source: https://www.ecocaters.com/blog/what-does-a-catering-company-do/ retrieved February 5, 2021