Consulting for Catering & Banquets
Per-plate costing, scale production and execution away from your own kitchen.
Catering profit is decided at the quotation stage. Once the client has agreed the per-plate price, every cost that was missed comes out of your margin. And with catering, a lot can be missed: trim, transport, on-site staff, equipment hire, fuel, disposables and the extra guests who always turn up.
The second risk is consistency. A recipe that works perfectly for 40 covers can taste quite different at 400, and off-site events add food safety risks a restaurant kitchen never faces.
What usually breaks
- Quotes are given from memory. Large events end up being the least profitable because the hidden costs grow with scale.
- Recipes do not scale. Seasoning, cooking time and texture change in large vessels, and taste varies from one event to the next.
- Off-site execution depends on one person. When the head cook is at a different event, quality drops.
- Cold chain is assumed, not managed. Food travels for hours without temperature checks.
What we do
Build a costing model by event type. Weddings, corporate lunches, buffets and live counters each have a different cost structure. We build a costing sheet your team can use to price any menu and see the margin before quoting. It covers recipe cost, trim, wastage, staff, transport, equipment and disposables. Read how to calculate food cost percentage for the basics.
Scale recipes properly. We test recipes at the batch sizes you actually cook, write down the yields and timings, and build prep schedules that work back from service time.
Write off-site SOPs. Packing lists, loading order, transport containers, hot holding and cold chain rules, setup times, service steps and pack-down. Written so your team can run an event without you there. See SOP development.
Train the team for events. Live counter cooks, service staff and supervisors trained on the SOPs, with checklists they use on the day. See staff training.
The numbers we watch
| Metric | Typical healthy range |
|---|---|
| Food cost per plate | 28–35% of the per-plate price |
| Margin by event type | Known before quoting |
| Over-production | Under 10% of plates planned |
| Hot food holding | Above 63°C |
| Cold food holding | Below 5°C |
How this fits the CulinaPro Method
For caterers, the most important stages are Understand, where we find which events actually make money, and Nurture, where SOPs and training let the business run more than one event a day without the founder at each one.
Services that fit Catering & Banquets
Catering & Banquets: questions owners ask
How should a caterer calculate per-plate cost?
Add up the recipe cost of every dish at the planned portion, then add trim and wastage, transport, on-site staff, equipment hire, fuel, disposables and a buffer for extra guests. Divide by confirmed covers. Many caterers forget everything after the recipe.
Why does food taste different when we cook for 400 instead of 40?
Recipes do not scale in a straight line. Spice, salt, reduction time and cooking vessel all behave differently at volume. We test and rewrite recipes at the batch sizes you actually cook.
How do we keep food safe at outdoor events?
With written cold chain and hot holding rules: temperatures, maximum holding times, transport containers and who checks what. We write these into off-site SOPs your team can follow without you.
Can you help us price wedding and corporate menus?
Yes. We build a costing model by event type so your team can price any menu quickly and know the margin before quoting.
Other industries
Tell us what is not working. We will tell you what to fix first.
A 30-minute discovery call, free, no pitch deck. You leave with two or three things to act on whether you hire us or not.
We do not publish prices. Every engagement is scoped to your business, so connect with us and we will quote after the call.