If you have planned many events, you know that they can be made great or ruined by the food that you offer. When you want to make a good impression, unless you are a caterer yourself, you need to hire professional catering services. From getting the right event menus to deciding all of the details of the presentation, you need to make sure you hire the right corporate catering company for your event.
- Start by looking at what you need. Not every event needs the same level of catering nor are all event menus the same. If you have staff coming in for an all day conference, your event menus will be different for your breakfast meal, your lunch meal and then you will need something totally different for an evening dinner or reception. Before you call any caterers, or begin your search, you need to decide what your exact needs will be.
- Be aware of people’s allergies and preferences. Today, more and more people are aware of problems they may have with dairy, gluten, nuts and other food allergens. You also have to think about people who are looking healthier options when it comes to eating, others who are either vegetarian or vegan and others who may have certain preferences that are dictated by their religion. This may seem complicated but good caterers can help you get what you need for everyone in your group.
- Talk to people you know. You probably know people who have had to get catering for one work event or another. The best way to get decent products and services is to get a recommendation from someone you know and trust. You should also know what kind of food they like. Different people have very different ideas about what event menus are “healthy.”
- Think about events you have gone to. You have probably been to a ton of events that had corporate catering. Think about the meals and snacks that you have had that were good and the ones that were not as great. If you are at an event and the food is great, get the information about the caterer. Ask what kinds of event menus they offer.
- Once you have a few caterers in mind, do some research. Look them up online. See if there are any reviews on social media sites. Check Angie’s List and Yelp. If you see that that the company has testimonials on their website, take some time to look into them. It is much too easy to fake that sort of thing. It is worth it to look into any claims they make about client satisfaction.
- Check out the caterer’s kitchen. This may not seem like a big deal but it is. The only thing worse than having people hate the food that you offer and that is having someone (or more than one person) get sick from your caterer’s cooking. Check out how clean the kitchen and how professional all of the people there are. The last thing you need to happen is a Tyler Durden style protest among the catering staff.
- Decide what kind of cuisine you want to offer. Not all caterers can offer the same event menus. If you are looking for Thai food or Indian, you need to go to caterer who specializes in that. Make sure you and your caterer are on the same page for this.
- Taste the food. If you have found the caterer through an event you went to and really liked, you may be able to skip this step but if you have never eaten their cooking, you are going to want to try it before you serve it to the attendees of your corporate event. Make an appointment to do some menu tastings.
- Get all of your billing questions answered. Make sure you know what you are going to pay and what that covers. There are a lot of ways that a caterer can add fees to the final bill making the costs of your event soar out of control.
From picking the right food catering menu to staying within your budget, this can be a complicated process. With the right amount of work beforehand, you can do it!