How to plan for the best menu for your next catering gig? Opt for cuisines that are tasteful, creative, affordable and will surely wow your guests’ taste buds. It’s either you pick an innovative cuisine or stick to what’s traditional. That’s why if you want to make your clients’ affair a really successful one, proper menu planning is essential as poor menu planning could really harm your reputation and ruin your client’s event.

1. Menu Planning for
Successful Catering
By Anthony Franco

2. Planning Principles for
Successful Catering
• Confirm from the client the date, time and venue of the event
• Quantify the number of people and budget.
• Clarifying everything with your client will eventually save time
and make everything clear in planning and in executing the
details of the event

3. Basic menu categories
• Catering events happen no matter what time of the day
• Your menus will have to depend on where you specialize at
• There are also different service styles to consider and you
have to be familiar with this so when your client asks, you can
offer him as many options as possible.

4. Seated, served meals.
• Pick menus that are ideal for serving at the table, either
individually plated or from platters.
• Cocktail receptions may usually precede this type of service,
where hors d’oeuvres may be served to guests.

5. Buffets
• Buffet service gives guests the freedom to select a variety of
foods.
• Attendants are available to help them pick the food, although
the need for wait staff is generally lesser compared to that of
a seated-and-served event.

6. Food stations
• Food stations are ideal when the event happens in different
floors of a building, when a variety of exotic cuisines are being
offered, or when guests mingle and move from here to there

7. Stand-up cocktail parties
• In this type of service, hors d’oeuvres are usually served and
may or may not follow lunch or dinner

8. Barbecues and picnics
• Perhaps the most laidback of all the types of food service,
barbecues and picnics are usually held outdoors where staple
foods include burgers, hotdogs, steaks, etc.

9. “As the Product Specialist of Better Cater, I’m working hard to
develop catering software that will give the caterers power to
control food cost and give you the ability, knowledge, and
confidence to do your job perfectly and to your specification. ”
-Anthony Franco
Product Specialist, Better Cater
www.bettercater.com