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Becoming a caterer

March 14, 2011 By

As a hard and fast rule you do not need any particular qualifications to become a caterer. A real interest in food and the presentation of it is a must whether qualified or not. Usually experience will teach you a lot when working in the food service industry but qualifications always help so if you are thinking of starting a catering business do look into enrolling on a course. Aside from a love of food and presentation skills a caterer will need to have some business acumen. A catering company is a business like any other after all and will need to comply with tax laws and this will require the correct knowledge. All work undertaken by the catering company will have to be paid for by the client and for this invoices will have to be raised. In the early days of any business taking on staff to support to you will be limited due to a lack of funds. Therefore, if you want to start a catering business you should know the basics of business including how to invoice clients, file VAT returns and keep your books up to date. If you really cannot bear the paper work side of business then you can always out source this work or bring help into your office. Remember this will cost and in any start up business keeping costs down is important.

Qualifications can be obtained in catering from organizations such as City and Guilds. The term catering is so broad that the courses available from City and Guilds range from barista skills and bar skills to professional cookery courses. If you wanted to open a food service company a course from City and Guilds could be a good place to start. You could pick and choose from the available courses to gain the appropriate knowledge to open the exact company you want. Any course from any culinary school would help to get you’re cooking and recipe ideas up to a professional standard. There are also a lot of adult education centers that provide cooking courses on the weekend and on evenings. Ideally anybody who wants to open a catering company would have already worked for a catering business at some point. Experience is the best thing to get any person though opening their own business.

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Opening a Catering Business Hints and Tips

March 9, 2011 By

To open a catering business you need to have certain attributes as an individual. Time management is very important in any food service business. Having food prepared and leave the kitchen in a timely manner is a must. This type of service must be consistent. Therefore you should be a very organized person to become a caterer. To be able to work well under pressure is also an asset. If something goes wrong in the kitchen and you have to start four meals again from scratch remaining calm is key. Communication skills are expected as well, as you will be dealing with suppliers, clients and if applicable coordinating your team.

A good process to go through to determine whether opening a catering business would be a good idea would to answer these questions. Once you have all the questions answers you could see whether it is something you should really consider doing.

● Ask yourself how passionate you are about food. Is it so much so that you could see yourself working around food for the foreseeable future?
● Are your food skills good enough to serve to the public? Would members of the public be tempted by the food you serve?
● Are you quite sure your skills are good enough that you would have returning customers?
● Do you have any business acumen? If not would you be willing to take some short courses that cover the basics and mean you could comply with the laws that surround running your own business.
● Do you have the personal attributes an individual would need to run their own business?
● Are you organized with your time?
● Can you communicate well with others?
● Do you have any experience in the catering industry?
● Can you sell your services?

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Starting a catering business

March 1, 2011 By

Starting a catering business would be hard yet the rewards would be fantastic. If you feel it is something you would like to pursue then visiting ‘The Nationwide Caterers Associations’ web site would be a good place to start. There is lots of advice on where to start and tips on making sure your business is a success. People even use this web site to find a caterer so if you stick at it your business may even end up on their web site one day. Also – look for deals online for cooking and catering equipment before you buy. There are lots of good kitchen appliance reviews sites that will help you refine what you want then you can do some price comparison to work to establish where to get the best deal. There are lots of home appliances sites that can provide a bargain.

Planning is vital – in catering there are so many lists of things you need to keep a record of so get yourself a cheap laptop and a spreadsheet package so you can create your work flow processes properly that you can share. Do not just use bits of paper! [Read more...]

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What are the different types of catering?

January 10, 2011 By
Event Catering

Event Catering

There are different types of catering depending on what it is you require catering for.

Mobile catering – This is generally a caterer who provides food from a van or a stall. A good example of where you would find mobile catering (‘the burger van’) is at fairs, festivals, carparks and outside workplaces.

Event catering – This is much more detailed as catering for an event can involve as little as a lunch box up to a full sit down meal. Event caterers have many things to consider such as dietery needs, equipment required if the function is for example a wedding where tables, chairs etc are needed.
When organising the catering for an event there is also sometimes the need to employ staff if the event is a catered event. Catered events require staff to serve drinks, hors d’oeuvres and food whether it be buffet style or silver service.

Boxed Lunch catering – this type of catering is becoming very popular, especially in office culture. Boxed lunch caterers basically box a lunch up for you and deliver it to your address.

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