Wednesday, April 28, 2010

What to expect when attending a catered event.....

Ok people here is the long and short of catered event lingo. I have run into a lot of folks that are confused by with the difference between social, cocktail party, buffet, plated dinner, etc. Sometimes the confusion comes across fairly offensively. And I will tell you why.

Cocktail Party and Social are more often than not one in the same. This type of a party usually involves appetizers and beverages. Sometimes the appetizers come from all types of genres from sweet to savory and back again. These parties are not intended to provide you with a whole meal, so don't come expecting one:) Also just because the food appears small and sometimes simple, for the people making the dishes it is the exact opposite. We often spend countless hours providing each bite. A party for 200 people can easily equal 2000 pieces of food...this takes a lot of time and even more planning and thought than a regular meal. So be thankful, enjoy your time and go out for dinner afterwords. Oh and when requesting a bid such as this keep in mind that just because its "only" appetizers it will be cheaper.....so not true, we can often provide a full meal for the same price.

Buffet is an all you can eat situation, people have planned for you to come heap your plate with more food then you should eat in a week and enjoy. Although I must add a disclaimer....have some restraint it is no fun keeping a buffet line open for people to have 3rds and 4ths:) This food is often made in bulk quantities and we could keep it coming all night though so yum yum...eat up.

Plated Dinner equals fancy. Most times if you are lucky enough to attend an event that serves a plated meal someone has spent much time planning exactly what is on the plate in front of you. Most times we have spent a lot of time thinking of flavor profiles, aesthetics and what I call curb appeal as well as garnishing and what not. Plated meals are tricky because you are serving a lot of plates that need to look and taste as close to the same as possible. Know that there are probably 10 people at least making sure the plates come out in an orderly fashion. There is a big push for everything to get out hot and pretty:)

Mainly just remember to treat your caterers with respect and love!! Most of us really have a passion as to how your food comes to you and what it tastes like. Make a point to tell them everything was yum:) One yum goes a long way:)

Hope you find this helpful.

This public service announcement was provided and funded by The Angry Blueberry herself.

1 comment:

Ed / Julie said...

We once went to an extremely fancy plated dinner awards party with Ed's work at the Westin in Seattle. My word, but were those waiters awful! The food was delish, and I'm sure we saw only wait staff, not the actual cooks themselves, but one waiter actually removed the dinner fork from the guy's salad plate (granted, he had eaten with the wrong fork), set it down on the table, picked up the CLEAN salad fork, and took it away with the salad plate. Sheesh. I knew that he had eaten with the wrong fork, but I couldn't believe the waiter was so rude as to point it out like that! I love reading your catering stuff though. It's so interesting!