Getting catering jobs?

[buckscent]

So how did you guy's that do catering get your first gigs? I have my porch trailer i set up in different places but dont get any catering gigs from it. I have tons of repeat customers every week, figured I would get a gig here and there.

 

[backwoods bbq]

I remember my first catering gig years back I did 2 briskets for a friends Baby shower party. I told them I would do it for free. They ended up buying me a 750ml bottle of makers mark and 1100 feet of 18" butchers paper! and the brisket turned out pretty good.

 

[daveomak]

I remember my first catering gig years back I did 2 briskets for a friends Baby shower party. I told them I would do it for free. They ended up buying me a 750ml bottle of makers mark and 1100 feet of 18" butchers paper! and the brisket turned out pretty good.

They liked your grub..... Nice tip you got..... I'd take it...

 

[backwoods bbq]

still got the whisky Dave! I share it with my buddy when he comes over!

 

[blacklab]

I mainly do it for fam an friends. They buy all the product an throw in a 1/2 gallon of old #7. The price of admission is going up soon. Since they all tell me I should open my own biz. lol

 

[hdflame]

I'm getting a new rig next week.  I've thought about maybe doing a little catering to help justify buying a big rig.

This should be an interesting thread. :)

 

[welshrarebit]

There's one outfit here that will set up a cookout with non-profits for fundraising. Ive done it once, as a parent, and it's set up where we presell as much as we can (700 chickens that time) and the guy will arrive with his rig, and around 500 extra chickens, we set up on a major roadway and we sold out in about four hours.

The parents did most of the work under direct supervision from the owner of the rig. We made a lot of money and do did he!

 

[hdflame]

There's one outfit here that will set up a cookout with non-profits for fundraising. Ive done it once, as a parent, and it's set up where we presell as much as we can (700 chickens that time) and the guy will arrive with his rig, and around 500 extra chickens, we set up on a major roadway and we sold out in about four hours.

The parents did most of the work under direct supervision from the owner of the rig. We made a lot of money and do did he!

Welshrarebit,

Would it be possible for you to get me some more info on how this fundraiser worked?  My son goes to a school for kids with disabilities and I would love to do this for a fundraiser for his school.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks in advance.

Bobby

 

[welshrarebit]

This was a few years ago so the numbers might be a little off but I think we presold the chickens for $7.00 and turned the money in a week before the event. The chickens were around two lbs each and splatchcocked. They were brined the night before and placed in big coolers. The morning of the event we set up in a corner of our local Walmart. The spice rub was a basic SPOG w/ paprika. The pick up for the presell was 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and any of the 700 that wasn't picked up by then was resold to walk ups. We did keep track of presell and walkup sales to make sure we didn't sell any presells before two. The presells had tickets to redeem for the chicken. We also received a little more for the walkup sells, I think we got two bucks for walk up and $1.50 each for presell. After two whatever of the 700 that didn't sell we got all $7.00!

 

[hdflame]

This was a few years ago so the numbers might be a little off but I think we presold the chickens for $7.00 and turned the money in a week before the event. The chickens were around two lbs each and splatchcocked. They were brined the night before and placed in big coolers. The morning of the event we set up in a corner of our local Walmart. The spice rub was a basic SPOG w/ paprika. The pick up for the presell was 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and any of the 700 that wasn't picked up by then was resold to walk ups. We did keep track of presell and walkup sales to make sure we didn't sell any presells before two. The presells had tickets to redeem for the chicken. We also received a little more for the walkup sells, I think we got two bucks for walk up and $1.50 each for presell. After two whatever of the 700 that didn't sell we got all $7.00!

Thanks for the info.

One question, "After two whatever of the 700 that didn't sell we got all $7.00!"  Not quite clear on this part?

 

[welshrarebit]

All of the presells were suppose to be picked up by two pm. If they weren't picked up by then we then sold them as walk ups. Because they were already sold but not picked up we kept all of the money. As far as the rig operator was concerned he already was paid for those chickens.

 

[hdflame]

All of the presells were suppose to be picked up by two pm. If they weren't picked up by then we then sold them as walk ups. Because they were already sold but not picked up we kept all of the money. As far as the rig operator was concerned he already was paid for those chickens.

Gotcha.  In order for you to make $7, you had to sell them that day.

Wow, that's a lot of chickens.  Hard to believe you pre-sold 700 and then sold another 500 plus the pre-solds that weren't picked up!  That's great.  

Were any of the 500 not sold?  

Did you lose any money if they didn't sell?  

Do you remember what kind of containers you used to put the chickens in for pick up?

What is basic SPOG w/ paprika?

After re-reading your post, did you mean you made $2 for each pre-sell and $1.50 for walk-ups?  I would think he would give you more money for pre-sold  tickets.

Sorry for all of the questions, just trying to get an idea how to do this for my sons school.  Thanks for your patience!

 

[welshrarebit]

To make the $7 per chicken it had to be a chicken that was presold and not picked up. So this was a chicken sold after we sold all of the 500 for walkups.

Yes we sold a ton of chickens that day! We showed up at seven am to get set. We had a crew of four parents putting the rub on, four parents putting the chickens on rotisserie skewers, two parents bagging the cooked chicken, two parents were in charge of keeping track of money and ticket turn ins from the presell! The kids, in their soccer uniforms, ran the chickens to the waiting cars.

We were completely sold out by three pm.

We got more for presells because if we didn't sell the 500 it was the rig operators loss. The chickens were placed in plastic bags for pick up. Chickens not immediately picked up were placed in a cooler to keep warm (no ice!). That didn't happen often as we usually had people waiting for their turn.

SPOG w/ paprika= salt (kosher), pepper, onion powder and garlic powder with paprika.

 

[hdflame]

Does anyone have any guidelines for pricing catering jobs?

 

[hdflame]

I just took on my first catering job...if you could call it that. lol

Someone called and wanted me to cook 20 pounds of chicken leg quarters and about 5 lbs of wings and breasts.  25 lbs. total.

I told them I would do it for $100.  I figured $45/hr plus another $10 for charcoal and rub.

Does $100 sound about right for 2 hrs work and them supplying the meat and BBQ sauce?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[bushwoodsmokers]

In this area of Maryland we go by the size of the party, smaller is higher per person. General guide we follow is between $9 and $14 a plate depending on the type of meats cooked. Seafood and delicate meats are a little higher. An average chicken plate with all the sides will run about $9 a plate and pulled pork averages 10-12 depending on the sides. If we do burgers and dogs on charcoal it runs 7-8 a plate.  Hope this gives you a guideline.

 

[atomicsmoke]

I just took on my first catering job...if you could call it that. lol

Someone called and wanted me to cook 20 pounds of chicken leg quarters and about 5 lbs of wings and breasts.  25 lbs. total.

I told them I would do it for $100.  I figured $45/hr plus another $10 for charcoal and rub.

Does $100 sound about right for 2 hrs work and them supplying the meat and BBQ sauce?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

You can unpack, rub and smoke 25lbs of chicken in 2h?

 

[hdflame]

I can cook a load of leg quarters on the chicken cooker in just under an hour. I cook them until I can twist the leg bone easily. Fall apart tender. This cooker really does a good job on chicken. Once you put the chicken on somebody needs to stay with it and turn the rack about every five minutes or so to get a good even, golden brown.

I wasn't really sure how to price this one since they were supplying all of the chicken and barbecue sauce. I guess I'll learn from this one and add extra time if I need to.

 

[atomicsmoke]

Is the cooking happening at your place? If not you need to add up transportation cost and time, setup and cleanup time.