I have been asked to cater a small party for about 15 individuals. The menu will consist of Chicken Salad, Pasta Salad and a Cake for Dessert. What would you charge for this event? It will be at the customer's home.
No disrespect ever intended to you Chefross, but really?15 people is really quite small but I would suggest charging them the cost of the food and half again as much for your services.
No offense taken.No disrespect ever intended to you Chefross, but really?
Okay so chicken and pasta salads and a cake for 15... even if total FC was say, 100 bucks, (doubtful IMO)
half again would be 150.00 Even if it was all store bought ready made, and twas a simple "drop off", 50 dollars
wouldn't begin to cover my travel to and from the event and the shopping trip, and my time for getting it all
together. Such is why my minimum is in place--if they agree, then for 15 people I give them red carpet treatment,
over and above. But if they want to "convert" it to $$ per person, and feel 20.00 per head is to high for salads and
cake, (and they cant double the head count to "get their money's worth) then I pass on the event.
I'm just sayin... I couldn't do it, I'd lose me fair fanny on that one.
Well, if it was say, 10 miles away, and I had to shop locally for say a half hour, and it was a drop off,Half the cost of the food as profit to cater a small event such as this for 15 people.
What would YOU charge?
I agree with you, since sybrown 63 is providing a service for a small party and i'm assuming is not a large business owner , I think the cost of food plus a reasonable percentage for the services, travel and additional miscellaneous cost would suffice.15 people is really quite small but I would suggest charging them the cost of the food and half again as much for your services.
I realize that this is now 3 months later, but I just saw this and had to comment.There is no way I could provide you with any usable advise as our crew would not be doing a "catering" for 15. At best you could call it large dinner party. For over 7 years I have watched time after time someone who fancies themselves a food service professional google their question and Cheftalk comes up. I notice also that most of these questions come from individuals that join the board ask their question and never to be seen again. At the risk of the wrath of the mods trust me there are stupid questions to be asked and if you need to ask one so basic as "what to charge" or "how much beef do I need to feed 12 people" take this any way you like but that is a stupid question. I have worked my craft for many years and have learned by trial and error I was lucky to start long before the internet. So why would I want to give you an answer that I needed to serve a few meals to figure out for myself. I believe we do these new people a huge disservice by answering their questions we deprive them of the opportunity to learn. I have held my thoughts to myself on this subject for many years on this forum but this is a "Professional Catering" forum and in my opinion there is nothing professional about "how much to charge" questions let alone one for a party of 15. If this fists me my membership so be it but it needed to be said.
In Lodi, with sales tax of 8% and gratuity of 18% taken away, you now charged about $26.50 per person.Take away the tax and gratuity . You now charged about 20.75 per person.
Client attitudes regarding tipping/gratuity are really weird in the catering industry. And widely varied. And caterers themselves can haveWe stopped using the word "gratuity' on our contracts----and used 'serving personnel/staff charge'
Some people consider a 'gratuity' optional or based on the quality of the service---
I grew tired of explaining that it was not a 'tip' for good service--but the cost for paying the staff---
I suggested that if a tip was warranted,that they could add it to the total or simply hand out cash to the staff at the end of the event.