Thoughts on Making Menus Win-Win Successes

When I refer to a menu that will work in a catering situation, I mean one that will be able to be put in front of the guest with the least amount of problems. In other words, hot foods will be hot, cold foods will be cold and everything will go along with the pre-determined schedule.

You really can’t have menus that work, if all you do is wish to please the client by promising them all that they want... even if the location will not support it. Menus that work, start with the location that the event will be done in. If it’s being done in your own banquet kitchens, you have a decided advantage, but if it’s being done at an off-premise location you have potential problems.

It’s Like Olympic diving

When Olympic divers gets ready to dive they must inform the judges as to what dive they intend to make. This is done because some dives are more difficult than others. Because of this a diver who gets a medium score on a difficult dive may win over a diver who gets a higher score on an easy dive.

Catering menus are like dives. They have different levels of complexity. They have different levels of “worry.” A cold poached salmon filet is far easier to deal with than a hot grilled one. A pan of rice sent hot in a plastic thermal carrier is a lot easier to handle than rice being reheated on site.

What I’ve suggested to caterers for years now is to place a degree of difficulty onto each and every menu item with respect to its chances of success in normal catering. So, with respect to this degree of difficulty, we choose a number from one to ten to represent good to bad. Let’s make one the good and ten the bad.

For example, since mashed potatoes in a four inch pan are very stable and stay hot for a long time they would tend to be a one or two on our degree of difficulty scale. Sauteed veal scalloppine, on the other hand, because of its thinness and difficulty in cooking correctly and staying hot for very long would rank a ten on the scale of difficulty.

Is this making any sense? Let’s make a list of other foods and see if you might agree:

1. Beef tenderloin - 2,3, or 4 - rather easy to work with... cooks by length of time... takes only 30 to 40 minutes to cook on sight... high yield per piece.

2. Breaded Fried Chicken - 8,9, or 10 - difficult to do off-premise unless you have special equipment... cools off very quickly... loses its crunch factor...

3. Broccoli - 7,8, or 9 - can be a problem... needs constant attention... easy to make a mistake with and hard to serve at proper temperature.

4. Creamed Spinach - 2,3, or 4 - easy to handle, always looks great no matter how it hits the plate... stays hot forever once it gets hot!

5. California Roll - 1 or 2 - just put them out and they do their thing!

Are you getting my point? All of you have different types of menus but they all have the same types of worry... yield... staying hot... looking good in the chafer or on the plate... amount of space it takes up... etc.

The next step

Once you get your foods numbered by degree of difficulty you can now move onto the next step which is to create an awareness of the locations you do catering in. You might do some events at a location that has a complete professional kitchen with six ovens and large walk-in coolers.

On the other hand you might be doing events at a similar location where nothing exists... not even easily accessible water! Both of these locations have their own joys and sorrows when it comes to catering. A menu that works well in one will not work at the other.

Why not take your locations and give them a point value also.... let’s call this the operations value. The location with the full kitchen might have an operations value of 50 points while the poorly equipped location might only have a operations value of 18.

Do you see what’s coming? We can now take our menus and add up the degree of difficulty of each item to see how many points we get. If the menu degree of difficulty points totals 27 after nadding them together, we now know that this menu cannot be done at the location that doesn’t have the full kitchen unless we decide to make some changes in the menu selections to use items with lower degrees of difficulty. When the total difficulty points are higher than what we have established for operations value, then we can’t do that particular menu.

A final thought

In addition to the two concepts above, I’d like to take a moment to get really basic because this is extremely important for catering success. To make a total menu development strategy, a caterer needs to be able to visualize what the menu will do while being cooked or reheated at an event sight. Let’s call this LAUNCH CONTROL.

Sound like fun? It really is. When planning a menu to be sold, you need to make sure that you can get it all done in time for serving. This deals with the amount of food that goes into pans, the number of shelves you have to cook on and the time it takes to cook. For example, let’s say that you need fifteen whole beef tenderloins for an event. You can put three into a pan for baking in an oven. That makes five pans. Now, the ovens you have to use have three shelves in them and you can get two pans on a shelf. That means that you have room in the one oven to place all the tenders at once.

But, the tenders take forty minutes to cook and you need them out of the oven by 7:45 pm, but you also have a starch to heat that also needs two shelves. And what about hors d’oeuvre that need to be cooked? This type of thinking goes on endlessly in many catering companies each and every day that events are being planned.This is my point... it needs to be visualized and planned before the menu is sold!

In summary, a caterer needs to understand the importance of Degree of Difficulty, Operations Value and Launch Control in order to meet with the greatest success level they can when performing catered events. Part of the fun of catering is solving these amazing problems, and potential problems, that arise when caterers sell the wrong menus for the wrong locations or cooking conditions. Discuss these ideas with both your sales and culinary staff to see if they can make them better or custom tailored for your operation!

Create Stealth Closings

Many caterers close off certain dates with the intention of giving staff a breather—and simultaneously cutting back on other costs. IN other words, prop sects are told that the date they are seeking is closed. A few days, very often a Friday or Monday, plus a weekend, are declared a “stealth” or invisible closing. No bookings for those dates are taken. Everyone in the company knows that a mini-break is on the books to increase the staff’s quality of life. This time can also used for outside contractors to come into the facility to deep clean or do other maintenance, repair or upkeep.

Remember: there are variable costs accumulating whenever your company is open. Everything from cost of staff consumables while at work to lights and phone calls. Every little bit of savings helps.

It's Normal For Buyers Not To Buy "Today"

This article has moved to the new CateringGuru.com! Click here to read the updated article!

Ten Actions For Successful Sales!

1. Be a giver... not a taker!

2. Be able to laugh at yourself.

3. Make buyers feel comfortable.

4. Continually search for new business.

5. Remain positive and optimistic.

6. Have total confidence in yourself.

7. Always stay on the buyer’s side.

8. Practice your presentation skills.

9. Develop mentors to learn from.

10. Be a team player.

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A Strange Selling Tip From Roman!

This post has been moved to CateringGuru.com.

Head over there to learn a lot more about catering sales!

A Very Unique Hiring Video!

My long time friend LeAnne Schwartz from LA Spice catering and events in Los Angeles sent me this link. It is a rather interesting video that a restaurant uses to hire part-time servers. I just think it is very creative (if you like this kind of stuff like I do) and perhaps this type of concept could be used to hire part-time event staff.

Also, if you check out their website you will see their very concise and useable employment application for those who watch the video to use.

Here it is:

Thanks LeAnne!

New Way To Pay Part-time Event Staff

You may think I’m putting you on with this concept, but really, I think this concept has a place in some companies. This concept deals with paying your part-time event staff… especially for off-premise events.

It all starts during the hiring of the staff person and deals with their pay. The pay is offered based on the “amount of work” they wish to do. Another way of thinking of this is that they get paid on “how much physical abuse they wish to take” during the event. OK, maybe a little dramatic on my part, but most part-timers come in two basic “models”… those that love to get involved and are anxiously willing to work as hard as it takes to get the event handled or the other model that holds back, is slow to carry the tables, and intellectually “hides” from the event leaders in the hope they will be able to stay in a “slow” mode.

Now from the staff team’s point of view, if your company pays the same amount for the willingly participating worker as you do the shirker and lazy model, a potential rift develops in the minds of the hard workers of “why am I working so hard while that person is holding back yet getting the same pay as I do?”

So, during your hiring process of part-timers why not say “we pay those who wish to really work hard and fast by doing the heavy lifting and more intense jobs $4.00 more per hour than those who just wish to work the less intense parts of the events without exerting too much effort like pouring water and scraping dishes. Which do you wish to do if we hire you… the harder work or just the simple stuff?”

Once you stop laughing, please remember that I have clients who use this concept with great success. I suggest you at least think about it. By the way, I can assure you that some new hires will choose to get paid less and work at the easier jobs!

Meryl Snow: Excerpt from "Style Me Pretty"

All of Meryl's videos are available on the Catersource website. www.catersource.com

We Will Be Bringing 247 Pounds Of Food!

I’ve never seen a catering contract for an event that read “Caterer insures the host that they will create and serve 247 pounds of food to guests.” Sometimes shoppers will ask the caterer “How many pieces of hors d’oeuvres will be served?’, but they seldom ask “How much tenderloin are you bringing?” My point is that when it comes to hors d’oeuvres, most hosts understand, through previous experience and gossip, that caterers often run out or hold back appetizers, especially if they are being passed, hence their concern.

So, a level of trust needs to exist between the caterer and the client with respect to food amounts. Yet, most caterers do very little to speak about food amounts of menu items. I’m suggesting that in some instances it might be wise to explain to the shopper how you determine the amounts of food you send to events and why you guarantee ample foods based on the number of guests guaranteed by the host.

In my view, this trust is further enhanced when a chef or culinary team members explains it. My point is simply that while food amounts may not be on the caterer's mind, they are on the shopper's mind. Please consider discussing this concept with your full team during one of your upcoming company meetings. I’m just offering some “food for thought” so you can think about it.

A Basic Pre-Pricing Event Checklist

Every major event a caterer bids for needs to have pricing based on the actual event site’s features. An event site is either user-friendly or a nightmare for a caterer. To set a price and book a major event without first touring and inspecting the event location is both unprofessional and foolhardy. To determine the good and not-so-good of an event site, use this checklist:

a) Measure all rooms or areas to determine space and flow for:

1) Buffets.

2) Bars.

3) Band, DJ & dancing.

4) Field kitchens.

5) Cooking or reheating.

6) Trash storage.

7) Preparation and plating.

8) Storage of your boxes.

9) Seating.

10) Etc.

b) Determine how much distance there will be between the prep and plating area and the guests.

c) Check for equipment that is already at the location that can be used, i.e. chairs, dishes.

d) Check for stairs or multiple floors.

e) Check the kitchen (if available):

1) For cleanliness.

2) Try all stove burners and ovens to make sure they work.

3) Verify temperature correctness with an oven thermometer.

4) Make sure hoods and exhaust systems work.

5) Check refrigeration and freezers.

6) Count number of trash containers.

7) Count and locate fire extinguishers. Insure that they are have not expired.

8) Insure that drains work.

9) See if your pans fit into the ovens.

10) Verify the quality of both hot and cold water.

11) Verify that the size of doorways will permit free movement.

12) Etc.

f) Check electrical outlets to see how many exist and how they are connected to each breaker. Learn where the electrical panels are located.

g) Determine how the delivery will be made. Through which doors will it come and where it will be placed?

h) Inquire about for parking for your staff and your truck.

i) Determine who is in charge of maintenance at the location.

j) Determine if there is going to be any security staff

k) Determine how poor weather will affect your performance, especially if using an outside location.

l) Determine where you will place garbage and who is responsible for removing it.

m) Obtain the phone number of the location. Check to see if your cellular phones receive a signal.

n) If elevators are needed, check to determine the hours that they will be available.

o) Determine which bathrooms, if any, your staff may use.

p) Interview the custodian or maintenance people to see what problems they have had with other caterers.

q) Take video or photos to share with other team members during planning meetings.

Don’t Lead Every Meeting

Ask another team member, including other managers and regular staff, to lead a future company meeting instead of you doing it all the time. Ask them several weeks in advance and then work with them on planning the topics and flow for the meeting. I can assure you that you will be amazed by the interesting results that arise from this simple change in the “predictability” of your meetings. In my view, predictability sucks and leads to a comfort zone that limits staff sharpness and creativity.

Test Drive Software Before You Buy or Lease

I suggest that you test-drive software before you buy it. Let the staff members who will use it test-drive it as well; if they don’t like it, they won’t use it. Many companies that sell catering software now offer a web version of their application, which is less expensive and quicker to get up and running. You can get a listing of catering software vendors by visiting www.catersource.com.