Serving food to the guests that choose to attend your gathering can be one of the most challenging aspects of holding a large event. However, working with a professional catering service can be one of the most convenient and cost-effective solutions for providing your guests with the highest-quality foods possible for the setting.
Avoid Having Too Much Faith In Your Head Count Estimate
A mistake that may lead to ordering too little food can be putting too much faith in the reliability of your headcount. This is especially true for relatively informal events and gatherings, as these are the ones to which individuals will be the most likely to bring friends or family with them. As a result, individuals that are planning to host these events should generally order slightly more food than what the headcount would indicate is needed. In addition to accommodating unexpected attendees, this will also compensate for those that may eat more than you had expected them to consume.
Create A Unified Theme For The Menu
Planning the menu for the event will be a key step in ensuring that the food service is a hit with your guests. Unfortunately, individuals will often put together a menu with fairly haphazard thought, and this can lead to choosing items that may not complement each other or that may even clash. While preparing a professional-quality menu may seem difficult, catering services are able to assist their clients in this step of the process. As part of creating the menu, it can be common for individuals to undergo a consultation with the catering service that may include tastings. This can allow for individuals to be able to sample potential dishes to better understand how they will interact with each other when they are served to guests.
Open The Facility Early For The Catering Service
While the catering service is will not need to prepare the food from scratch on-site, it will still be necessary for the catering service to have enough time to set up for the event. As a result, it is generally advisable to discuss the amount of preparation and setup time that is needed for the service to be able to serve your guests. For those that are wanting to keep this time as short as possible, opting for a banquet-style service will allow for a much shorter setup period than a full-service dining experience.