More often than not, hiring a professional catering team is really the only realistic option when looking to organise larger events. To include professionals is to immediately lighten the load enormously, though it isn’t quite as simple as choosing the first provider you come along and the first service package you can afford. Quite simply, the catering services you choose for any given event will only ever be as you yourself ensure they are.
According to the experts at www.cameomarqueehire.co.uk, the key lies in proactivity and ensuring that nothing is taken for granted. If anything, it’s a good idea to err on the side of caution and to consider catering services that are at least a little more capable and advanced than you think you might need, just in case. But perhaps most important of all, it’s a good idea to take into account a series of common mistakes the likes of which really can dilute the event as a whole.
So rather than following your own unfortunate trial and error process, take heed of the following common mistakes and learn instead from the errors of others:
1 – Warm Salad, Cold Soup
First of all, never underestimate the complexities involved in trying to serve vast quantities of food to large audiences and maintain quality standards. If for example you are looking to organise an event with say 150 people, for obvious reasons you aren’t going to get far with three serving staff. In any and all instances, however, it’s a good idea to be strategic with your menu in order to ensure that all food items arrive on the tables exactly as they should be. If there’s a chance of cold dishes warming up or warm dishes going cold, you might want to rethink things.
2 – Overly Frugal
If anything, it’s better to ensure that your guests leave filled to bursting as opposed to there being any chance of anyone leaving hungry. Above and beyond things like food quality and variety, there’s really nothing more depressing for event attendee than spending the whole event hungry and still being hungry at the time they leave. There is such a thing as overdoing it with regard to portion size, but once again it is sensible to err on the side of caution and make sure nobody leaves hungry.
3 – Forget Special Dietary Needs
For those with special dietary needs and intolerances, the prospect of turning up to any event where absolutely nothing on the menu is suitable is, for obvious reasons, not exactly a pleasant one. Not only will this mistake displease the individual in question, but will also communicate to everyone else of the event that you have absolutely no regard/respect for those with special dietary requirements. Even if it was a simple oversight and you merely forgot to cater to specific dietary needs, it will still come across as plain and simple ignorance…which isn’t a good thing.
4 – Bad Timing
You need to be very much aware of what exactly it will represent the best time to feed your guests as to what appears to be the obvious time may in fact be quite to the contrary. Just as it is never a good idea to have your guests waiting all night and starving half to death before getting so much as a canapé, you might also want to avoid bombarding them with vast quantities of food before they’ve even managed to take a seat and get comfortable.
5 – Forgetting the Nibbles
Speaking of canapés, it’s crucially important to ensure that there are snacks and nibbles available at all times for those who wish to eat before or after the allotted meal times. Some will inherently be hungry at different times to others and there will always be those who are nigh-on impossible to satisfy portion-wise. As such, it’s a good idea to offer your attendees at least some control over what they eat and when.
6 – No Menu Choice
In many instances, you will get away just fine with a set menu just as long as you design it in accordance with your guests tastes and communicate it to them ahead of time. If on the other hand, you do no such thing, it’s of crucial importance for there to be at least some choice and flexibility on the day itself as otherwise you risk any number of your guests not enjoying anything you serve.
7 – Poor Service Staff
Last but not least, as well as having the right number of service staff on-hand it is also imperative that each member of staff be both capable and professional in what they do. You have to remember that along with carrying food to and from tables, chances are each member of staff will be asked a variety of questions throughout the night and perhaps brought into plenty of conversations. As such, it pays to hire those with at least some semblance of a personality, rather than those who specialise in purely robotic table service.