Craft Service is a completely different thing. At least in Hollywood, it's a lot more cleaning and sweeping up than it is putting food out on the table. Cooking? Not really. Some heating up, some toast.
I never worked on a film crew catering truck; but was on a lot of film and tv crews (mostly as a grip); ate off quite a few catering trucks, God knows; and at the time had already done a fair bit of other catering.
From the outside, it appears quite weird. You've got quite a bit of help for set up and teardown from the teamsters, but not nearly enough help for cooking and serving especially if there are a lot of extras. In addition to the two "A" or "B" proteins and all the hot garnish and several cold sides and salads, you'll have to prepare for every service, you'll have to provide adequate vegetarian options.
You also may be expected to do special meals for a few "above the line" people; occasionally your truck will have to operate like a "roach coach" doing breakfast burritos and other special orders for the construction, grip and lighting crews who show up well ahead of the rest of the company on early morning calls. There's (ahem) variable weather, too. Catering has the propensity to turn into experiments in terror anyway, but film industry catering seems to do it on a more regular basis. Predictably unpredictable, if you will.
There are hours of waiting around doing very little, followed by hours of enormous overtax. Maintaining focus can be challenging.
Good luck finding either job. If you get work, save a lot of your paycheck. No matter how good you are, it can be a long time between gigs.
BDL
Edited by boar_d_laze - 9/9/10 at 10:45am
