Everyone today has heard about the catering industry, and knows what it relates to, but what is it really all about?
The industry itself is made up of a range of services that can provide mostly food, beverages and other services such as wholesale catering equipment to diverse clients, normally for special occasions.
- Different food industry work can differ from a small personal, intimate occasion, to huge open affairs that involve providing not only food and beverage services, but also the likes of tableware, linens, service personnel and other aspects of the event, as in music and live bands.
Services that offer catering services might be as large as a company in several different locations, or as small as an individual who can provide catering services according to his or her speciality.
A caterer might be part of a business as in a restaurant or be a more specialist company, as in vegetarian/vegan or other types of exclusive foods. Caterers may sometimes make use of independent contractors for some aspects of their catering service.
From The Small to the Large
Dinners and banquets are popular occasions for which a caterer provides their specialist services. Such events are occasionally in people’s homes, a small restaurant or an outdoor venue. And there are some people will use a personal caterer who can provide private catering services whenever they are needed.
- And at other times, a specialist caterer will be hired to cater especially for a large event like a wedding, a family reunion, anniversary or a corporate event.
- Corporate caterers are specialists at working with large crowds of people and what is required at corporate clients and have the best relations with catering wholesale suppliers.
Special events like company picnics, holiday celebrations and functions held to entertain clients and customers, can be perfectly managed by an expert corporate caterer. Normally, these services have contracts with particular caterers so that company executives will be aware of the type of service and expertise they will get.
Facilities
On a number of occasions, people enjoy a particular restaurant’s food so much, that they wish for the very same food to be served up at an occasion which they are going to host. These restaurants might even have separate banquet facilities for this purpose. Servers, linens, tables and chairs are all most likely to be included in this kind of catering service.
- Some independent caterers frequently make themselves renowned by creating special menus and by offering outstanding service
Other Requirements
Alongside the actual catering for an event, catering industry work will require other specific skills also. Being able to create schedules, plan menus, order large amounts of required items, interaction with vendors and also having the ability to provide superior customer service are all crucial components of the job.
And even though hospitality training can be learned in classes and will be useful in the catering business, it is also possible to gain it during on-the-job training.