There are a variety of ways that catering jobs can be carried out:
- You or the company you work for may be hired to do a buffet catering job. This means you will be responsible for setting out the food in a designated area. Then it will depend on whether it is a hot, cold, or combined buffet, as to what your work will be.
- You may be given the duty of ensuring that all the entrees are full. It certainly would be frowned upon if half your serving dishes were empty and not all the guest had gotten their meal.
- To be good at catering jobs you have to be observant. You must ensure that hot food is served hot and cold food is served cold. There must always be a good supply of serving plates, cutlery and condiments. It can be quite a task keeping up with these duties if it is a large event that you are catering to.
- Counter jobs are considered a form of catering jobs. Although they are not as important when working in a fast food restaurant for example. If you have taken courses applicable to the food industry, you are more apt to find higher paying catering jobs. With some training and experience on your resume, you stand a good chance of landing some catering manager jobs as well.
- Your catering jobs may not even consist of having any contact with the public. Your job may be strictly in the preparation of the food i.e. being a chef. This is where your cooking training is going to be important. Remember food presentation is half the battle. Depending on the seniority of your position you can either be a head cook or a helper.
If you are working in one of the catering manager jobs, then your responsibilities are much greater. It is one of the catering manager jobs to designate the work load to the employees. You may need to give instructions to your staff to ensure that everything is moving smoothly—that the guests are finding everything they need. Your role here will be somewhat like a host.
You must see to it that the food arrives on time and properly packaged. Then you must ensure you have enough staff to set the buffet up and manage it properly. You may have also had the task of planning the food for the buffet in the first place.
In any event, you will have to be sure that the side dishes such as the pickles, bread, butter, and that sort of thing is well stocked on the table. Then you must use caution when serving hot foods as well. These types of catering jobs may be a little more stressful because of this factor. It is less of a concern in the buffet setting. A table served buffet is in some ways not so demanding; because once you have served the prepared plates a lot of the pressure is off—unless of course you are serving seconds.
To be able to choose what foods to prepare is quite a responsibility too. You have to consider, the event, the cost, the work that it is going to require and the quantity that will be needed. Job duties such as this really should fall under the catering manager jobs.
Start your own catering business
Catering business involves less investment than a restaurant. You can start a big or small catering business depending on your budget. You will need to invest in kitchen equipment, linens, cooking supplies, dishes, etc. You need to be an excellent planner to succeed.
To start your own catering business, you will have to advertise the various catering jobs that you are going to need staff for. When you post the catering manager jobs, be sure to take your time to interview them well. After all, they are going to become your right hand person as well as someone you will be relying on heavily to make your catering business a success.
Don’t forget as the business owner you are going to have many individual responsibilities. You are going to have all of the accounting duties to perform. In addition, you are the one that is going to have to go out and drum up business.