Become a Caterer and Own Your Own Catering Business
by Lisa Jenkins
The catering business offers a very different and interesting side to cooking than you
would find when working in a conventional restaurant kitchen or hotel. Catering jobs are
exciting as you will be working in wonderful venues, in an unconventional kitchen setting
and creating magical food for weddings, birthday and anniversary parties, and even film
and TV sets.
You can either get a job at a catering company or start your own catering company after
you have gained the necessary experience and capital. If you enjoy preparing interesting
starters and meals for specific functions, then the catering industry is just for you. If
you open your own catering company, you will be the head chef, and in charge of everything
on the business side as well as running the entire kitchen. You will hire a team of chef,
kitchen staff, and food preparation workers.
Besides being talented at preparing delicious meals and interesting cuisine for various
events, you may feel that you want more out of your executive chef job than just cooking.
As an executive chef you get to experience the best of all worlds in the catering
industry, restaurant business, hotel industry and others. You will have a combined
knowledge and background to appeal to investors and banks for loans to start your catering
business. You will know exactly what will work and what won't for a catering company,
being a chef yourself, instead of opening it with no cooking know how.
The chefs in the catering industry are basically the same for a restaurant or a hotel,
but you will also need to assist each other when things get stressful and chaotic in the
kitchen, or make-shift kitchen. Everyone works as a team in a catering company, as you
might not have specific dedicated stations as in a conventional kitchen. The executive
chef jobs will require you to have to have an impeccable sense of timing, because you will
need to have everything prepared for many guests just before they need to be served, and
not let the food stand too long.
You will also have to know about food proportions and the exact amounts of food and
ingredients you will need to purchase for each event. You need to know a lot of finances
and budgeting. The catering management side of things can get stressful and it might be
a good idea to hire someone to be specifically in charge of the accounts and bookings.
The catering management will also involve working with event planners and wedding
coordinators, dealing with clients and function venues, managing the chefs, ordering and
buying ingredients, keeping the equipment and tools maintained, and setting up stations at
various venues. If you want to start off working as a demi chef, sous chef, commis chef,
pastry chef, or any other kind of chef, staff, or food preparation worker for a catering
company, you will find that the best paying ones are those that deal in weddings, and on
film sets.
To get the best kind of experience in the catering industry, you should try to
find jobs at catering companies that are just starting out, or looking specifically for
new chefs. You can also apprentice or offer your services for a cheaper rate if you want
to start out at a large company.
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