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Hiring a Mobile Bar for an Event
Catering is about providing all-round solutions for your customers. If you don’t provide a thorough and well-rounded service, people are going to go elsewhere. It’s worth offering a number of additional services to make them feel as though they are getting good value for money. One way of doing this is to offer mobile bar hire for events.
Investing in a mobile bar might be costly, but if you market it well, it can be a profitable decision. Let people know that this is something you offer and make sure it is on your website. You will be able to hire out your bar for a variety of events, and if you’re also able to provide staff and stock, you could be able to make yourself some very good money from it.
If you don’t have the money to invest in a bar yourself, form relationships with companies who do. You will be able to point your customers in the right direction, or you might even choose to organise bar hire on their behalf. If you’re able to provide solutions for everything they want, even if it isn’t coming directly from you, customers a far more likely to choose you as their caterer.
Some Important Pieces of Catering Equipment
Every job will be different in the catering industry and it can be difficult to know what equipment you’re going to need for each one. However, there are some particularly important pieces of equipment that you will almost definitely need every single time. It’s worth investing in some of the staples so that you have your favourites to hand. Here is some of the equipment we’d suggest investing in:
- A good quality set of knives. This will ensure that you have plenty of options, with knives of different sizes and serrated and non-serrated blades. You may even want to invest in other knives to bulk this out if there are other kinds you use regularly.
- Storage containers. You will need plenty of storage solutions for the food you make. It will need to be sturdy and high quality, as you will most likely be transporting food in it. You can never have enough food storage as a caterer.
- A large refrigerator. Similar to food storage containers, you can never have too much space in your fridge when catering. You will need to be able to store ingredients, as well as the finished products, so bear this in mind when choosing the right fridge for the job.
- Pans for all occasions. A good quality pan that doesn’t stick and doesn’t get worn out quickly is invaluable. Make sure you have plenty of choice.You will be able to build up your collection of equipment over time, but these essentials should be plenty to get you started.
Catering and Hospitality – They Go Hand in Hand
Hospitality is an important part of catering, though it’s one which a lot of people don’t necessarily think about. The whole point of catering is to make sure that the guests at your events have a good time, and hospitality is the other essential factor in this. If you can’t ensure your guests’ all-round satisfaction, your delicious food might end up being under-appreciated.
If you’re also able to take care of hospitality yourself, you could end up making yourself some extra money. Food is usually pre-prepared at events, so if everything is ready ahead of time on this front you could realistically make time to do both. This would also allow you to get direct feedback on your food, and ensure that your guests have plenty of refreshments. Refilling glasses, checking on cutlery and making sure that platters are still well presented are all essential when ensuring positive guest experience.
If you decide that you are too busy to take care of the hospitality side of things yourself, make sure that there is someone around who can. When working in new venues, check what the arrangements are in terms of service and who will be there to help guests. Consider forming connections with hospitality professionals who can work alongside you in future.
Catering for a Birthday Party
Birthday parties are great events for caterers. They provide lots of opportunities to get creative with the menu and there will be lots of guests to impress. Use a birthday party as a platform for showing off your food-related skills.
Birthdays will always feature a cake as a centrepiece. It’s a good idea to prepare for this well in advance. Get some ideas from the party host about what kinds of things they like. They might prefer to have a fruit cake to a sponge cake, for example, or they might want certain types of icing. If they want a complicated design, this will ensure that you have plenty of time to put it together.
Make sure that you have plenty of other choices as well. Whilst a cake will look and taste good, it won’t be very filling. People will need more substantial food, especially if there are going to be alcoholic drinks for guests. You may want to decide on a theme, such as BBQ food, or food from a particular country. For example, Mexican food can provide lots of options, for vegetarians and vegans as well as meat eaters. Whatever you choose, you’ll want to make sure that there is plenty of finger food which is easy to eat.
Using a Time Plan to Stay Organised
Catering is difficult, and it takes a certain type of person to be good at it. Above all, a caterer needs to be able to multi-task – somebody could be the best cook in the world, but if they’re not able to implement good logistics and stick to timings, they won’t be a successful caterer. One of the most useful things which you can do to improve your multi-tasking ability is make a time plan. Here are some tips:
- Use a programme like Excel to plot out your time plan. This will allow you to change things around and will give you a good template to work with.
- Ensure that you think of everything. You don’t want to get held up carrying out tasks which you hadn’t factored in.
- Provide yourself with exact timings. This will be much easier to keep track of when you’re busy.
- If you can, save your template digitally and work with it that way. Therefore, if you need to amend the timings slightly as you go along, you can do so.
- Check things off as you go along. It will be both useful and satisfying to see your successes visually.
Follow these top tips to help stay organised when carrying out your catering work, and it will make a big difference to your organisation.