If anyone tells you that making a living from catering and the hospitality business is easy, you can be assured they have not spent much real time in this sector. Catering for clients, whether business or domestic type customers is, often, challenging for many reasons. Hospitality can be a tricky industry, as it is so characterised by the demands of high levels of customer service. Retail faces similar demands but, usually, they do not also manufacture the things they sell or if they do, the departments responsible are, usually, quite separate. Catering moulds and melds everything together, often, into a high-pressure form of doing business.Catering: Counting the costs of hospitality.
The Catering Process
There are many different types of catering and caterers. Function and event caterers, specialise in large gatherings, like weddings, conferences and social events. This means lots of mouths to feed and, usually, little time to do it in. It begins with meeting the client to ascertain the numbers and menu. There follows the purchasing of the ingredients and produce. You may need to engage and schedule staff to meet the appointed delivery time. Then, preparing those ingredients into the dishes requested. You may do this onsite or offsite. Next, you may require chefs and waiters to serve the food and, then, clear it. Kitchen hands may be needed to deal with all the dishes and kitchen detritus. You may be bumping in and bumping out equipment and food. It is an exhausting process, which needs to be organised within an inch of its life.
Catering is a Delicate Balance
Catering involves food, which can easily be damaged or spoiled. All those who deal with the food must be aware of food safety and hygiene regulations. Check this out to see a fine example of a Sydney event caterer. Good food prepared with care and flair, served with professionalism, and every detail taken care of, by your catering manager, to ensure that your function or event is a resounding success. Catering is a delicate balance, where you must get everything right. It is physically hard work. It is mentally demanding to get all the figures exactly right. It is largely dependent upon maintaining excellent relations with the client through exceptional levels of customer service. Things do go wrong but these must be quickly rectified and no mention of them ever made to the client. Frustrations must be subsumed by tolerance at all times.
