No matter what kind of party or event you are planning, the food that you serve can have a big impact on how successful it is. If you talk to the best event planners, they will tell you that finding the right companies for your events and catering can make a big difference in what people who attend say about it after it is over. Here are some tips to getting the right professional catering services company for your event.
- Make sure they have experience catering the kind of event you are throwing. Anyone with any experience dealing with events and catering services companies will tell you that the food catering menus for weddings are very different than those for Sweet 16 parties, corporate events, or retirement parties. You need to find a caterer who has experience dealing with the kind of event you are throwing. As you are talking to caterers, you should make it a point to talk to at least three companies and make sure they are able to do the kind of event you want to throw.
- Know what you want. It is hard for a catering company to give you what you want is if you are not sure what exactly you do want from them. Spend some time thinking about your event, what kinds of catering are best for that kind of event, and what you are going to want to serve. When you talk to events and catering companies, knowing what you want is the first step you need to take to get what you want.
- Make sure the caterer you choose is willing to answer your questions. When it comes to hiring a caterer for a big event. You will have a lot of questions. If a company is not willing to take the time to answer all of them before you hire them, you can be pretty sure they are not going to take the time to do so afterward. You should look for a company that is responsive to your needs and available to answer your questions when you have them.
- Make sure you can get the cuisine you want. Some caterers make really great food but can be very rigid when it comes to the event menus. This is your event so you should have the final say in what kinds of dishes that are served. You may have people who will attend who have religious preferences when it comes to what they eat and also may have dietary restrictions due to food allergies. Your goal with your catering is to have food that will be enjoyed by the people attending your event. If the events and catering company will not work with you on the menu, you should keep looking.
- Make sure you can taste before you buy. There are a lot of caterers who will provide you with tastings of the foods they offer. This is a great way to see what you think of the food the company can make. There are some companies who will not do this and there are some people who are scared to ask. Some party planners think that they will be considered to be a “difficult” consumer. This is not true and is a normal way catering companies do business. Doing the tastings can be one of the more enjoyable parts of planning a large event.
- Make sure they have experience working with the venue you have selected. Some venues require people use the caterer they have on site, so you should ask this before you start talking to outside catering companies. If you can bring in your own food, make sure the caterer has some experience working with the venue. If it is a new place, they may not but may still have a good idea of how to get the job done. The last thing you need is to find out on the day of your event that the caterer cannot work with the venue.
When you are planning any kind of event, picking the right caterer is just one of many details you have to worry about. These tips should help.
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Francis Pitt
Francis Pitt has made a name for himself in farm-to-table organics, working at restaurants in Portland, Seattle and Burlington, Vermont. While he has a taste for the extreme, most of his restaurant’s top sellers are much more down-to-earth, regularly featuring mushrooms gathered from the slopes of the Cascades, and fresh wild-caught seafood from the Oregon coast. Inspired by trends in Portland, his latest restaurant offers the ultimate chef’s table: dinner begins in the morning at his island collective farm, and 4 lucky guests every week get to follow the food, literally, from the field to the plate! Francis is a firm believer that you are what you eat — do you really want to be a chemistry set?
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