Essentials of Commercial Catering

Commercial catering has been around ever since people started celebrating personal events, especially weddings as a statement of their social standing. In societies where commercial catering is not prevalent, members contribute in preparing food, serving and cleaning. In urban culture, the job is entrusted to commercial caterers whose job covers right from fixing the menu to final cleaning.

The simple meaning of catering would be termed as “Make quality food and drink available at the party or wedding venue or social event”. While the meaning may be simple, the job is not that easy. The business of catering is lucrative but a demanding one. It invites a huge toll from the caterer in terms of investment, work force, time management and operating costs. The other key areas that any caterer should look after are customer satisfaction, building prestige and goodwill. A single dish gone badly can mar the prospects in catering business.

The chief contributing factor for success in catering rests in the number of commercial catering equipment one is prepared to invest in. This is quite different from commercial kitchen equipment used in restaurants where at any given time you have few people to serve. In catering, there is no limit to number of invitees, and guests have to be served “en masse” (i.e. all at the same time). In restaurants, food is usually served hot so they don’t need items such as food warmers or bain-marie (i.e. vessel of hot water in which cooking pans are slowly heated).

Since the quantity of cooked food is comparatively huge in catering, a caterer has to invest in dozens of custom-made commercial catering equipment. In addition to food warmers and bain-marie, caterers require specially designed furniture, huge pots and pans, industrial ovens and dishwashers, big refrigerators/ freezers, and a host of other items.

For those interested to start a catering business in Sydney and Melbourne metro areas, Australian Wellkart Pty Ltd can help with a range of custom-made commercial catering equipment and commercial kitchen equipment.