Catering Tips for Newbies – Our team offer their insight into the catering industry

Do you know the difference between a soup spoon and a dessert spoon? Are you aware of how to serve silver service and what side to put the water glass on? Read on for some great catering tips for newbies and advice from inside the catering trade. And how you can get ahead in your career. Our team at Cucumber have genuine experience in the catering industry and has compiled their insights into some incredible insider catering tips.

From a business luncheon to a large wedding, what are the rules of service for caterers? Do you serve customers from the left or the right? Do you spoon out the food in a buffet or does the guest? Are you responsible for food prep or is it someone else? Do you set the tables and how? Is coffee or tea served before or after the meal? Who takes out the bins?

The food service industry can be intimidating, especially when you’re new and unfamiliar with the rules, but it can also be rewarding. In the catering industry, many of your co-workers will be interesting, lively, and social. It’s certainly a career for social people – and you can get an inside look at soirees and elite social gatherings whilst earning enough on the side. It’s flexible work, but physically demanding.

Front-Facing Catering Servers vs Catering Chefs vs Catering Managers:

The catering industry has front-facing serving staff and chefs who both work behind the scenes to bring everything together to achieve the final product. Catering servers are the ones who interact with the guests at the event but also may help set up the event.

Cancel the buffet

Unless your clients specifically request a buffet, family-style entertaining is the new rage in catering. It’s more intimate and halts the need for long lines and waiting too. For catering chefs, buffet food temperature is more difficult to regulate, which could lead to illness. For servers, with fewer guests mingling around, there are fewer chances of accidents, and you can see to the needs of the guests more easily. Open-seated cocktail parties with buffets often have many obstacles for both servers and guests – tables, moving on surfaces, carrying their plates and drinks, and so forth. Catering managers will have much less stress hosting sit-down and family-style events than monitoring a long buffet line.

Understand food safety

As someone working with food, you want to know the basics of food safety. Your supervisor will most likely train you on key points, but here’s a quick run-down of our insider catering tips. Everyone from servers to chefs to catering managers must know about food safety temperatures.

• As you’re constantly dealing with food and utensils and customers, it’s really important to keep washing and sterilising your hands regularly to avoid possible cross-contamination.
• Make sure if you’re tasked with preparing food, you use separate chopping boards for raw meat and fresh vegetables. To avoid cross-contamination.
• When cooking, storing, and keeping food on warmers or ice, make sure you avoid the danger zone (4 to 60 °C) so that no one is at risk for foodborne illness as bacteria multiply at an alarming rate when kept at these temperatures for a prolonged period.
• Cook all foods to the appropriate temperature.
• Cool foods to the appropriate temperature (5°C).
• Store foods properly in airtight containers that are clearly labelled and dated.
• Choose hot and cold foods
• For a catering chef, the demands of keeping all food hot can be astronomical, especially if you’re cooking in a venue kitchen and are unsure of the number of ovens beforehand. If you’re cooking in advance of the event too, it’s much more stressful to worry about how you’ll heat everything in time.

Slice meat thinly

To save money, slice all big joints of meat thinly. Guests often take three slices of meat whether the meat is thick or thin.

Prepare ahead

Mentally prepare the tasks you have to do for the night – no matter your role. A chef can go through all the steps to get the food to the table. The manager can decide what steps to take to pull off the event, and servers can decide who will do what too.

For the staff, make sure all preparations – table cloths, setting up chairs, cutlery, napkins, etc – are done ahead of time. The chefs and kitchen staff will want to prepare as many foods ahead as possible too to alleviate any stress.

Always provide excellent customer service

As a caterer, you’ll provide customer service, quality control, hygiene, cleanliness, staffing, shift work, and sometimes budget work. You’ll have a lot to balance so make sure you’re able to withstand the demands. However, many caterers do say that when the events begin, adrenaline is high and the job is a lively one. Keeping you going into the late hours.

It’s important that you are polite, friendly, and diplomatic. You want customers to rave about your service so you’ll have a job weekend after weekend or evening after evening

Ask for help

To some up our guide on top catering tips, we will keep it simple. It is always ok to ask for help when needed. No one expects perfection or for you to learn everything immediately and mistakes are bound to happen. Ask for support from colleagues and managers to help when you need it. Everyone has to learn and there is no need to be worried about it looking bad. It is productive to ask for help and manage your learning.

Want to know more about our insider catering tips and find a role in catering? Message our team and we would be delighted to help you.