Creating a Catering Menu Creating a menu for your catering business takes a lot of careful planning and thought. It's not just about what you like to cook, but a variety of factors right down to controlling food cost while creating a versatile menu selection. You need to focus your efforts to match skill with a menu that appeals to a lot of guests and clients.
Chafers- Here are some tips to help you put a great menu together.
Get The Concept Down - It's important to have a primary concept for your menu that will help you stand out among the competitors.Restaurant Catering Equipment - If you're offering the same types of food as other catering companies in your area, with a huge variety, it'll be hard to give people a reason to choose you. Make your food match the business and focus. If you serve Italian-American then you shouldn't add sushi rolls.
Manage Your Resources - You need to know your resources and know how to work with them.
Catering Supplies -Everything you create and add to your menu is limited by your resources including your experience, the knowledge of your staff and the equipment you have. Build your menu around items you have the resources to consistently produce well.
Transporting - You will rarely be able to prepare every dish on site once you get to the venue, and doing so does require some special equipment. Expect to have to transport food to most events. As such you should design a menu using foods that hold well and can handle transport without breaking down. This can include chilled foods, room temperature foods, soups and braised foods.
The Food Cost Shuffle - The cost of your food has a big impact on the size of your menu and in how your potential clients react to it. It's normal to have some expensive dishes but to avoid shutting our target audiences you should also offer more affordable dinner options. Plan your menu to cater to a variety of audiences.
Variety Is the Spice of Life - People have different interests when it comes to food and what they like.
Chafers- Things like personal preference, religion, culture and tradition all play a part in how people react to, perceive and partake of food. Make sure you offer a variety of cooking methods for dishes, prep methods, allergy modifications and more to offer the most variety to guests and clients.
Seasonal and Holiday Dishes - Like clothing and the fashion industry, dishes change throughout the year. Sometimes soups are more appropriate than other times, certain meats become preferential, etc. Modify some of your menu as the seasons change to make them appropriate to generate taste and interest around the holidays.
Should You Customize?
Restaurant Catering EquipmentAfter you establish your menu you'll need to decide if your customers will be able to request changes or customizations in the items you're offering. Remember that this is optional but if you do, set limitations on how much can be changed. Dramatic menu changes take more time, more training and can increase your own costs in catering the event.
Your catering supplies and the equipment you use are just as important to your brand as your staff and your service. If you're looking for the best in restaurant catering equipment then turn to CateringEquipment.com Wehave everything you need to breathe life into your business, from chafers to high quality serving trays.