Posts Tagged ‘Caterers’

Yes catering can be done cheaper than most people think or other caterers would
like you to believe.

The world of event catering never ceases to amaze us in terms of the pricing
and how caterers cost their products. Yes, we all have clients with varying
levels of budget and varying levels of expectation. But we do see some crazy
quotes that are often forwarded on from clients, prices that on the face of it
don’t stack up.

With clever menu writing a lot of the lower budgets can achieved with still an acceptable
menu, plus don’t forget it’s also down to how good your chef is and what they
can create with little ingredients.

We have catered for many events recently and as many believe we are still in
recession, the brief has been very similar in terms of a low budget to provide
an acceptable menu. A particular recent event saw us provide a three course
meal with a budget of £16 per person plus vat, I imagine some caterers have
just gasped with horror while others sighed in agreement, but yes it can be
done.

Firstly we agreed that a plated meal wasn’t an option and therefore agreed to serve the
meal as a buffet, not ideal for all guests but as the event was a charity
fundraiser, they got into the spirit of it. Serving the meal as a buffet saved
the need for 8 waiters.

Then the menu, ok I gave my chef £.90p to spend on the starter; he came up with a goat’s
cheese & roasted vine tomato tartlet, served on a bed of mixed herb leaf
with red pesto dressing. Some may say a dated dish but still plenty of positive
comments.

The main course, chicken is the safe bet and once served with leek mash,
crunchy veg topped with a Chablis sauce you’re pretty much there in terms of making
the event a success.

On too dessert to finish off the evening and a classic dish we haven’t seen for
while sticky toffee pudding with vanilla custard’ nice. Simple but also amazing
how many adults enjoy the custard.

Now what makes this evening significant is the fact that this meal was put together
using portable kitchen equipment housed in a room the venue uses as a child’s
play area, basically not a commercial kitchen in site. What is also worthy of a
mention is that the meal was prepared, served and cleared within 90′minutes
using two chefs and five waiters!

What I haven’t mentioned yet and is even more reason for praise is the number
of guests, 197 was the final count on the evening which also included a veggie
option and a couple of dietary requirements.

The reason I published this article was to show that catering can be done a little
cheaper than you may think, although the higher number of guests do make it
possible, the larger the number of guests, the easier the menu versus budget it
becomes. We couldn’t have catered for 50 guests at the same price for a banquet
or other event.

I hope the post was useful and if you have an event coming up and don’t think
your caterer can achieve the budget then email us chef@callthecaterers.co.uk
and we’ll see what menus we can pull together.

Www.callthecaterers.co.uk

The weekend started off with a barbecue for 200 students on Friday in Leeds, a fairly simple menu in the scale of what we do but still enjoyed by all. Some nice comments from guests and staff alike, as we always say, it’s not just about the quality of the food but the speed and level of service in which your guests get served.

To digress for one second, we took an enquiry for another BBQ on Friday, 400 guests and the client had been quoted £3 per person! We were asked if we could do any better, “not if you want some beef in your burgers” was the reply, I can’t understand why some caterers devalue what we do as an industry. We know there’s cheap food available but how do you staff an bbq event for 400 with that sort of budget? Maybe 2-3 hours to be served is acceptable!

Back to the wedding, congratulations to rich and Leah, married last week but they threw a post wedding party on Saturday in abberley.
For 90 guests we arranged a BBQ menu to include steaks served with balsamic onions or Cajun chicken skewers as your main choice, served up with some regional sausages (always great on a barbie). For the veggie guests they had the choice of aubergines stuffed with ragout or halloumi and med veg skewers. Both accompanied with roasted red pepper couscous, new pot salad with creme frieche & asparagus and baskets of French bread.

Thanks for the comments re the food and service, luckily the weather was on our side to cook the barbecue, although a little chilly to serve it outdoors.
Best wishes to you both and have a great time in Egypt

Callthecaterers.co.uk

Dave

Thanks for all your hard work, professionalism and efforts on Friday and Saturday, both days were a great success.

The food on both days was also delicious.

Please also pass our thanks onto your waiters who were fantastic.

Kelly ACG Group, Company funday Bbq 300 and VIP open day

Hi Dave, Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I haven’t been back to my desk for long since Thursday!

Thanks for providing the catering for our party last week. Despite the limited facilities at the venue the food was great and we’ve had great feedback from our guests. The service was very efficient with what seemed to be an endless supply of food!

 Thanks for helping to make it a really good event. I will definitely call you next time we need any sort of catering.

 I’m so sorry that we imprisoned your waiting staff in a lift… please don’t include that in the testimonial!

Thank, Lisa

 

Hi Dave,

 Thanks for everything last Friday, and making the whole evening stress-free and memorable.

 Everybody was very impressed with the “vegan” meal which Tim had prepared.  We found the whole meal tasty and interesting, and I was delighted that “vegan” food had been accepted by everyone and that they had enjoyed all of it.

 I loved the way that you, Dave, just got on with anything which required doing, without being asked and in a friendly, charming manner, even serving everyone hot drinks after the meal.

 I would recommend “Catered-Events” to anyone for a delicious meal, stress-free evening, cooked and served by two very nice people.

Thanks again for everything, Sheila and Brian English

 

www.callthecaterers.co.uk

New wedding menus for the 2011 season are available from the chef@callthecaterers.co.uk ; many of last year’s dishes still remain as they proved ever popular and why change a good thing. The wedding menus have been designed into 3 categories to appeal to a wider audience in terms of costs.

The current economic climate is affecting most people and in particular young couples planning their wedding. We have found that enquiries for our services have increased but budgets still vary as people look at cheaper alternatives without compromising the quality of the food. Yes there will always be cheap caterers out there using packet soup or imported chicken full of water but with some clever menu writing  and talented chefs, acceptable menus can still be produced albeit slightly cheaper.

The menus are posted on the site www.callthecaterers.co.uk as with a few other new ideas, New Barbecue, canapé, bowl food and buffet menus have all been revamped to help with ideas for planning your event.

2011  looks like being a busy year so if you need to reserve a date do it ASAP, some dates are still available through 2011 but we can’t guarantee date availability.

Hi Dave

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your guy’s for a very well executed barbeque. Jackie and I thought the food was fantastic and we’ve had really good reviews from our quests. Also thanks for your very kind remarks on the email you sent Jackie, we certainly had a cracking day and fully enjoyed the dance.

Thanks again for making our day a very special.. It’s certainly a day we’ll never forget.

Very Kind regards

Rob & Jackie

Hi Dave

I wanted to drop you a line to say an enormous thankyou for last night. The team and the food were superb. Everyone loved it, here is just one of the comments we’ve received by e-m today:

 The music was great and the FOOD!!!!! It was so delicious we just couldn’t stop talking about it …….or eating it!

 You were a definite hit! The staff were really good, very keen, did everything asked of them. The young man was particularly good (sorry, can’t remember his name).

 Mike and Richard (chefs) were fantastic, calm, competent, solving various non food related party issues such as champagne wires that broke. The clean-up at the end was fast efficient and very good, and they left everything as they found it. Oh, and the bowls – they were great, really party-like, I was expecting porcelain or china so that was a nice surprise. The timing was also excellent, everything ran exactly as we discussed (and believe me, I’ve experienced catering companies who definitely can’t deliver that!).

I hope we haven’t made a faux pas – we only tipped the waiting staff as I assumed that the chefs were part of the management of your company and you don’t tend to tip management, but my husband thinks not, so please can you apologise to them for me if I got it wrong, as they really were excellent.

My only disappointment of the evening was that I hardly managed to eat anything, as I was in my “party anxious mood”, which rarely disappears until about 11pm, when I know that people are drinking, have eaten and are starting to dance. So we will have to use you again so that I can try the chilli salmon cubes that EVERYONE was raving about.

Thank you again, we would have no hesitation in using you for our future parties and events, or recommending you, in fact several people asked for your details last night.

 Please do pass our thanks on to the chefs and waiting staff.

Best wishes, Donna

Hi Donna, thanks for the feedback, sorry i couldn’t make it personally as i was catering at a wedding. As you established, you were in safe hands with Richard, Mike as both are talented Chefs. Glad you enjoyed the Bowl food and canapes we prepared and glad we helped make the party an overall success.

email the chef@callthecaterers.co.uk if you need us,

Hi Dave

Thank you so much for Saturday, You, Rich and the girls really made it such a special night for us. Everybody commented on the food, especially the canapes. Well done us for convincing Martin to do that. He agreed after the event that it was amazing. Please also pass on our thanks to Sadie and Georgina for a job well done. I know it wasn’t easy negotiating the driveway and our lack of drinks trays was a nightmare but I think on the whole they did incredibly well.

I would love to write a testimonial to put on your website so just let me know what I need to do??

In the meantime dont work too hard and did you enjoy the Kasteel Cru??

Kind regards, Sally

Sally prothero- Husband Martins 50th Birthday party- Canapes and Barbecue

Hi Sally thanks for the email and don’t worry about the testimonial as i think you’ve already done it! Glad you enjoyed the party but let me know when you the plans for your 40th?

Best wishes, Dave & Team

Thank you for arranging the extra food at such short notice; it seems the BBQ was more of an attraction than we anticipated. Despite the weather it was a success and I have had great feedback about your Barbecue food and I don’t think there was much left over!

Thanks for organising the Menus and the staff were brilliant, thanks again for making the day a huge success.

Look forward to seeing you again next year

 Kind regards Janet

Thanks Janet, email the chef@callthecaterers.co.uk when you need us.