Catering today is a wonderful top-notch service that offers top quality services to make any event perfect. "The catering business has a wide scope and includes providing food and beverage to people who will not necessarily eat at the same time (Schmidt)." Throughout the catering industry there are many different types of services provided. There are two ways that catering is categorized first “Social catering includes such events as weddings, bar mitzvahs, high school reunions, birthday parties, and charity events (Shock).” The second is classified as “Business catering which includes such events as association convention and meetings, educational training sessions, and service awards banquets (Shock).” Some of the companies only provide for a certain event, a lot of times that will be weddings only. Center places are set up for the wedding scene, very elegant with plenty of seating for the reception as well as an area for the ceremony. Usually these places are very well put together, they take quite a bit of work to keep up the landscaping and cost high dollar to reserve a spot. Other catering companies provide for low-service functions or others that will only provide for a high-service event. Certain catering companies have a requirement of spending at least five thousand dollars on your event. Most catering companies provide for any type of event though.
Catering involves a special technique and patience. It also pays very close attention to detail, Manfred Ketterer states “A caterer performs a variety of tasks ranging from preparing and delivering a simple tray of hors d’oeuvres to organizing a banquet for thousands of people complete with a nine course menu, bar and table beverages, and appropriate service (Ketterer).” Throughout my research I interviewed one of my co-workers in the catering business she stated, “There is a lot of behind the scenes work (Miller).” I also interviewed John Kniesly who has never worked in the catering/ hospitality industry before. When I asked him "if he thought catering was a hard job?" He stated "Yes because you have to have good timing to have things ready and food hot or not over done. You also have to accommodate all kinds of individual need with the people you are serving (Kniesly)." I found this very interesting, even though he had never worked for a company he still had thought it was a difficult job. Throughout my experience as a caterer I have realized that many people do not understand just how much work goes into catering. Overall I just want people to understand that a lot more work goes into an event and catering is a great service to look into. I conducted a survey to be more informed on today’s community and what they know. As you can see from the graph that many people knew the general term of catering and have been to an event that was catered. Although many did say it was a wedding they had been to it was a better result then not knowing anything about catering. Many people agreed and thought that catering was a difficult job, that was not the result that was expected. A little less than half of the people that took the survey were interested in learning more about the catering industry. Doing research on the community helped me find out what on average people know about the catering industry and prompted me to make this webpage. Reference the chart below to see the survey results.
Sources:
Ketterer, Manfred. How to Manage a Successful Catering Business. 2nd ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991. Print.
Kniesly, John. Personal interview. 27 Oct. 2014.
Miller, Kelly. Personal interview. 23 Oct. 2014.
Schmidt, Arno. The Banquet Business. 2nd ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. Print.
Shock, Patti, and John Stefanelli. On-Premise Catering. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, INC., 2001. Print.
Ketterer, Manfred. How to Manage a Successful Catering Business. 2nd ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991. Print.
Kniesly, John. Personal interview. 27 Oct. 2014.
Miller, Kelly. Personal interview. 23 Oct. 2014.
Schmidt, Arno. The Banquet Business. 2nd ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. Print.
Shock, Patti, and John Stefanelli. On-Premise Catering. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, INC., 2001. Print.