Most catering menus are built around what operators are good at cooking rather than what generates a healthy margin at scale. The two are not always the same and the difference matters enormously when you are producing food for a hundred people rather than ten.
Cost at scale, not at cover
Recipe costing for catering is different to restaurant costing. Your portion sizes change at scale, your wastage profile changes and your labour cost per head changes depending on the complexity of the dishes you are producing. A dish that is profitable at restaurant scale can be a money loser at catering scale if it is labour intensive or has high wastage in bulk preparation.
Build around execution reliability
The best catering menus are built around dishes that can be produced consistently to a high standard in large quantities, transported well and presented reliably at the venue. A complex plated dish that looks spectacular in a restaurant kitchen can be a logistical nightmare for a catering team working in an unfamiliar venue without full facilities.
Price for the true cost
Catering quotes need to account for every cost in the job — ingredients, packaging, transport, staff travel time, setup and pack-down time, hire equipment if required and a realistic allocation of your overhead. Many operators quote on food and direct labour only and then wonder why the job did not make money when they look at the full cost.
Have a tiered offer
A good catering menu has clear tiers at different price points that make it easy for clients to make a decision and easy for you to upsell from the entry point. Each tier should have a healthy margin and the gap between tiers should feel justified by the quality and variety difference.
Review your catering margins separately
If you run both a venue and a catering operation, track the profitability of each separately. Many operators subsidise unprofitable catering with venue revenue without realising it.
If you want help building or repricing your catering menu, Pestle and Mortar works with catering operators across Australia.
About the Author
Wayne Farmer is the founder and chief consultant at Pestle and Mortar, Australia’s hands-on hospitality consultancy. With experience running hotel kitchens, boutique dining venues, and a successful catering business, Wayne has spent his career helping Australian restaurant, cafe, and catering operators build more profitable, better-run businesses. Learn more about Wayne and how Pestle and Mortar works.