Big-time social events and gatherings have halted for more than two years now. In the promising signs of recovery, people are, bit by bit, returning to what used to be normal.
These everyday lifestyles, of course, include attending such elaborate and organized events. Every one of such is made possible by a team of personnel and equipment, plans, and venues.
What ties these parts and makes a plan into a successful event are a planner and catering services.
People solidify important events by sharing a meal. Catering businesses are vital for social gatherings for this.
Catering services work with an owner, well-trained crew, catering equipment, and memorable venues. If you’re wondering how all those work together, read this article to the end and find out!
What Is Catering?
From its root, “cater,” catering refers to businesses that work with provision. They provide services, products, and support. This can be for an individual or a group for a particular event.
Caterers work with food, its preparation, delivery, consumption, and after-care, under most circumstances. While their main focus lies with food, they also come with the preparation and service almost all the time. When someone talks of catering, the first thing that pops in mind is a decorated venue. It’s always with tables and chairs, and crew serving the meals.
A single company commonly provides catering services. The service then pulls together all the necessary factors for a particular event. Since events always vary with each other, caterers usually work under direct preferences.
People usually interlace catering services with formal events. They are not reserved only for such events, though.
According to how clients want it, they can hold catering on-premise or off-premise.
- In-premise
This covers events where you prepare, cook, and serve the food in a single location. On-premises does almost all the food-related activities in one location. This is regardless of whoever owns the venue.
- Off-premise
Off-premise has food made in another location. It is then delivered to the final or reception venue packed and ready to eat.
Formal events like weddings and debuts typically use on-premise catering. Meanwhile, outreach and like off-site activities work with off-premise ones. Picking one from the other usually depends on the kind of event the client wants and the agreement on the venue.
Caterers cover and take up different events according to their capacity. This capacity is according to the level of reaching the client’s goals.
Some of them only offer food, some offer dining sets and location. Meanwhile, some can do a package of handling an entire event themselves.
What Comprises A Catering Business?
Now that you understand what catering is, it’s time to move into what makes up a catering business. Catering is like other companies with how stakeholders put them up.
Business in the food industry also starts with a person or a group willing to spend for capital. Later on, after that the set up of the foundation, the following are necessary to keep the business going:
1. Owner
This individual or group is one that placed the first working capital for the business. As the owner, they work with making the decisions vital to the company’s success. They decide on expansion decisions and conflicts that regard the company as a whole.
2. Chef or cook
As an entity that serves food, a chef or cook’s role can be a pivot point in a catering business. Large catering businesses can rely on keeping hold of a unique chef. Doing this makes their taste remain as the company’s brand.
Hiring a friend or acquaintance is the usual option for small or start-up companies. They can also hire experienced and skilled chefs on a per-event basis.
3. Service crew
The service crew for a catering business can encompass many purposes. They’re all the people working with food other than the chefs.
Some catering businesses lay the foundation in one location. It can be a restaurant or something similar; owners hire most service crews as regulars.
Service crew typically work with food service. For an off-premise, they can also work with packaging.
4. Catering equipment
Businesses cannot work with quality catering equipment. These comprise all the tools and machines used.
These catering tools can vary from those used to cook the food. They can keep the meals fresh for delivery, and clean after events and storage.
These equipment are a factor of a working business. That’s why these pieces of equipment must be functioning and well-maintained regularly.
5. Event manager
As catering handles intricate events, they commonly hire event managers. Companies hire them to manage every occasion the company signs.
These managers also play multiple roles. The event manager can do planning and organizing an event for smaller businesses. Larger companies hire a separate person for that job.
6. Marketing personnel
As a business, the owners would want to make a profit from this venture. They need someone who can target and pull clients that will bring income to the fold for that to happen.
Marketing personnel work with finding potential clients and advertising the company’s brand. They can also pick which clients have needs that fall within the company’s current capacity.
7. Accountant
Accountants are necessary to make sure businesses are above break-even. For profit, that must be true every after the event.
This job requires accountants to record all the spending and revenues. It includes how much every event brings on their book.
Accountants also track how the assets and equipment are depreciating. They also watch the flow of salaries and internal and external loans.
8. Miscellaneous personnel
These are all the other individuals that perform vital roles within the company. They comprise the delivery personnel, the procuring team, and venue organizers.
The roles played by various individuals are defined by their contracts. For such, each individual can play many roles, at once. Each function has a purpose that personnel must fulfill to keep the business running.
What Are Examples Of Catering Equipment?
Catering equipment is an asset to a company. They are necessary to make all the events they work on end successfully. They cover every purpose that people cannot fulfill or will cost too much if they try.
Catering tools can vary depending on what workers use them for. There’s also their capacities, and how often people need them.
Most equipment is necessary to cook food for every event. Some keep the prepped meals safe during delivery and some are for clean-up after events.
Our company provides equipment depending on your current business. We catalog it on basic categories, such as:
- Bakery or Cafe
- Central Kitchen
- Healthcare
- Hotels
- Quick serve restaurants
- Full-time restaurants
Businesses do fall within these categories. Categories help you pick which equipment you need.
Some equipment works well for a particular variety. You can use them if properly-suited to another. Some of our pieces of equipment are the following:
- Food Display Cabinets
This cabinet can store multiple dishes for cafes and bakeries that customers can see from afar. It can keep your food clean and in perfect condition for serving.
- Frier
Since fried food is a typical dish on almost every table of every event, you’ll need durable equipment for everyday cooking. This equipment can help you deliver large numbers of servings with a crisp every time.
- Mixer
Perfect for bread and pastry making, this tool has high volume capacity and multiple speed settings. Not only in bakeries, but this is also necessary for other bulk food production, running daily.
- Mobile heater
Mobile heaters are must-haves for food that needs heated storage for the time delay between preparation and consumption. Since chefs make food in large quantities, this equipment can help you keep the food’s prep condition the same until service.
- Waste digester
It is pretty standard for catering businesses to deal with food waste daily. For health facilities such as hospitals, caterers are not allowed to compromise, so this equipment is necessary to sanitize.
The equipment helps your food get prepared in time, and they also add value to your service by keeping the quality within a certain level. As a long-term asset, a caterer must prioritize their quality with time-value for a successful future.
How To Choose Catering Equipment
After getting a hint of how specific machines serve significant purposes within a business, it’s time to learn how to pick them. The first factor for that is the kind of business and the kinds of events you’re serving.
For example, you’re working along with formal events, so catering for weddings is common. You can also be working with catering for entertainment industry shoots, so you should be well-versed with outdoor settings and services.
You already established them when laying the foundation of your company and have served a few clients already. Other than that, there are other factors that you need to consider to choose the correct equipment to aid your services.
Here are some factors you must know before procuring equipment.
Number of attendees
After you’ve decided on what kind of event you’re going to sign an agreement for, you or your representative should next be meeting with the client for discussion. In this meeting, the client will outline how many people they’re expecting to attend, what food they’re expecting, the budget, type of food service, the date, and others.
This is also the time for you to explain how your preparations work, all the costs it entails, and the process. After both parties settle how the event will go, you can then assess all the things you’ll need and the personnel you’ll hire.
For equipment, the number of attendees directly signifies the amount of food and dining ware needed for the crew to prepare. More food means more plates, spoons and forks, tables and chairs, and a larger volume of food for the chef to cook.
The average number of attendees you get for all your events will decide the capacity of each piece of equipment you need. The frequency of these events also determines how often the equipment is necessary, so it should get tied with the time it’s operable.
Type of food ordered
The next factor is the type of food that a client orders. You can usually limit this by the menu you present in the first meeting, but it can be multiple dishes on one seating.
For such a set-up, your equipment must cover all the preparation requirements for each dish. For example, the machine must be capable of frying a dish with the same quality for all the servings, and a heater must keep all the soups fresh for its entire volume.
Setting of event
The food needs to arrive there on time, fresh and clean regardless of where you’re serving. This is true irrespective of whether the event you’re helping to host is on-premise or off-premise.
For outdoor events, you need equipment that can cook the meals at precise levels and keep them away throughout the transport to the consumer.
Type of food service
Also, according to the client’s preferences, you need to prepare the kind of food service they require. Food service can vary from plated servings, boxed proportion, and buffet lines.
As a hint, catering buffet tables require large, heated chafing dishes, where food is served all at once. Since food comes out cooked in large volumes, that’ll also require procurement in bulk which needs storage on large refrigerators.
The age group of attendees
Finally, the average age of the attending populace matters with how you’re going to present food. For events that most children attend, you need to prepare bright and playful meals which require specific equipment.
Most ingredients change color when cooked, so you want equipment that churns them out beautifully despite that. You also want ovens that cook large numbers evenly for pastries, event after event.
There are dozens of things that are in play other than these enumerated. There’s the factor of the size of your prep area, how far that area is to energy and water supply, and others.
If your needs don’t fall under the descriptions of equipment in the market, we at Continental Equipment, are willing to help you get personalized equipment. We can also assist you in organizing your kitchen to suit all your services.
Conclusion
It’s been successfully dished out! All the information you need to know about catering services have been served, and if you’ve decided on starting one, you may contact us for all your equipment needs.
