Catering business

[eman]

I assume that w/ a last name like Gauthier ( Go che a ) for you non cajuns that you learned to cook cajun food in Louisiana ?

So much of our cooking is roux based  and  seafood . i have found over the years that anything w/ shrimp ,crab or crawfish in it freezes ok but most times when you reheat the sea food gets over cooked. Best hint i can give you is vac seal and reheat in simmering water.

  If it was me doing catering i would offer a menu w/ a choice of appetizers, mains and desserts. Maybe 5 apps to choose from 2-3 soups,  5-6 mains and 2 -3 desserts.

 Let them make the choices of 3 apps  1 soups  2 mains and 1 desert. or something like that.?

  If you try to do to many dishes your quality will suffer because you are to rushed trying to complete to much.

 If you will be ordering fresh seafood  The price will be up there.

 The normal way we do pricing is to price out everything down to the napkins and triple that . divide that by number of portions they want and you can give them a cost per serving for the food.  Only you can set the labor cost.  Good luck and bon mange.

 

[superdave]

I have done a few events for friends for up to 40 people and have just asked for the price of my supplies.  Each event has included people from the party asking me for my business card.  When I entertain the idea of doing something formally, I think of the old family style approach where on a given night, one meal is on the menu, like jambalya night.  That makes buying and cooking quantities a lot less of a gamble.  For client ordered catering, you also don't need a huge selection, a few main dishes and a handful of sides to offer.  If I'm asked to cater, I offer 2 meats, 2 hot sides and a form of a salad or cole slaw. 

 

[glennmc]

Agreed SuperDave, focused menus are a LOT simpler.  If it's a pig roast, then pig, potato salad (something neat, not plain), cole slaw, fruit, corn on the cob and there you are.  It's the ones that want 3 meats,2 salads, 2 veggies, 1+ soups, AND oysters for the same price that kill your business.  I just had a prayer meeting with a customer from last year who is agast that $22/person won't cover such an expanded menu" after all we are a repeat customer".  Yeah, and you can repeat me right into the poor house.

Keep it straightforward, you do what you do extremely well, and let the guys in the ruffled tuxedo shirts deal with the rest.

Best!

Glenn.