Chapter 9. Catering service
Lead-in
1 What is catering service?
2 What should be included into this notion?
3 Where do people usually prefer to eat while traveling?
4 What do they choose: traditional or exotic food?
5 Can you advise any restaurant in your city?
Discussion
Look at the photos and discuss with your partner the facts that make a good restaurant. Enumerate as many points as you can. Can you say that the given restaurants are attractive for visitors? Why or why not?
Taco Bell's current restaurant design Tom's Restaurant, a restaurant in New York
Text 1. Catering service
Study the text and find the answers to the given questions:
1 What is food service industry?
2 Who is a caterer?
3 How is the food cooked?
4 What are the responsibilities of an event caterer?
5 Does nicely prepared food influence our feelings? How?
Vocabulary
1 catering – поставка, снабжение
2 remote – далекий, отдаленный
3 buffet – "шведский стол"
4 on site – на месте
5 to set up – подготавливать
6 hors d'oeuvre – закуска
7 to take charge of – взять на себя заботу; осуществлять контроль
8 memorable – запоминающийся
9 ambiance – окружение; обстановка, среда
10 flat price – единая цена
11 long hours – удлиненный рабочий день
12 comprehensive – полный
13 rental pickup – сбор арендной платы
14 vegan – строгий вегетарианец
15 verbiage – формулировка
Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site. Event ranges from box-lunch drop-off to full-service catering. Caterers and their staff are part of the food service industry. When most people refer to a "caterer", they are referring to an event caterer who serves food with waiting staff at dining tables or sets up a self-serve buffet. The food may be prepared on site, i.e., made completely at the event, or the caterer may choose to bring prepared food and put the finishing touches on once it arrives. The event caterer staff are not responsible for preparing the food but often help set up the dining area. This service is typically provided at banquets, conventions, and weddings. Any event where all who attend are provided with food and drinks or sometimes only hors d'oeuvres is often called a catered event.
Many events require working with an entire theme or color scheme. A catering company or specialist is expected to know how to prepare food and to make it attractive. As such, certain catering companies have moved toward a full-service business model commonly associated with event planners. They take charge of not only food preparation but also decorations, such as table settings and lighting. The trend is towards satisfying all the clients senses with food as a focal point. With the correct atmosphere, professional event caterers with experience can make an event special and memorable. Beautifully prepared food alone can appeal to the senses of taste, smell, and sight - perhaps even touch, but the decorations and ambiance can play a significant part in a successfully catered event.
Catering is often sold on a per-person basis, meaning that there is a flat price for each additional person. However, things like lighting and fire permits are not scaled with the guest count, so per-person pricing is not always appropriate. It is necessary to keep the cost of the food and supplies below a price margin in order to make a profit on the catering. As many others in the food service industry, caterers and their staff work long hours. It is not uncommon for them to work on holidays or 7 days a week during holiday event seasons.
A comprehensive, formal full-service catering proposal is likely to include the following elements:
- Time-line matters: rental arrival time, staff arrival time, bar open time, meal serve time, bar close time, rental pickup, out-of-venue time. Each of these factors affects the catering price. For example, a rental quote for an "anytime" weekday delivery is usually much more economical than an "exact-time" delivery.
- General menu considerations: Clients may have specific dietary or religious needs to consider. These include Halal, Kosher, Vegetarian, Vegan and food allergy requests. Increasingly clients are interested in food sustainability and food safety.
- Hors d'oeuvres: it should be clear if these are passed or stationary. Most caterers agree that three or four passed items are appropriate for the one-hour period prior to a meal.
- Meal.
- Rentals: May include tables, chairs, dance floor, plants, tabletop (china, flatware, glassware, linens, chargers), bar glassware, serving equipment, salt/peppers, etc. It should be clear whether table and chair setup and take-down is included. Most rental companies do not automatically include setup and take-down in the rental charges.
- Labor: Verbiage varies from caterer to caterer, but generally speaking, an event will have a Lead/Captain/Event Manager, a Chef, perhaps a Sous Chef or Kitchen Assistant, Wait staff and Bartenders. The labor on a plated dinner is generally much higher than the labor on a buffet, because a plated dinner involves double the china, and usually a minimum of three served courses, plus served coffee. Simply put, there's a lot more to do. To do it properly requires roughly 10 to 20% more staff. On a large event, this can be substantial, especially if overtime or doubletime applies.
- Service Charge
- Sales Tax
Some quotes will include lighting, fire permits, draping, florals, valet and coat check.
Text work:
1. Find the equivalents in the text:
1 обед фабричного изготовления в упаковке
2 система полного обслуживания (“все включено”)
3 ресторанчик, работающий по системе "шведский стол"
4 выполнить завершающие “штрихи”
5 подготовить обеденную зону
6 сервировка столов и освещение
7 стоимость, рассчитанная на каждую персону
8 регламент по времени проведения мероприятия
9 особый рацион питания
10 стеклянная посуда
2. Give synonyms to the following words:
1 to provide
2 event
3 convention
4 ambiance
5 appropriate
6 profit
7 setup
8 Bartender
9 labor
10 substantial
3. Find antonyms to the following words:
1 full-service catering
2 prepared food
3 focal point
4 "exact-time" delivery
5 to include
4. Match the given words with definitions:
1 staff a) when there is no harmful effect for health from things that
people eat or drink
2 buffet b) a medical condition that causes certain people to react badly or
feel ill when they eat or come into contact with particular
substances
3 lighting с) all the workers employed in a business, considered as a group
4 allergy d) a meal at which guests serve themselves from a number of
dishes; the food provided for that
5 food safety e) illumination
5. Read and translate the following groups of words derived from a common root:
1 industry – industrious – industrialist – industrialization
2 prepare – prepared – preparation – preparing
3 satisfy – satisfying – satisfied – satisfaction
4 decorate – decorating – decorative – decoration
5 consider – considered – consideration – considerable – considerably
6. Answer the questions:
1 What is catering?
2 What are the main constituents of food service industry?
3 How can the food be cooked?
4 What is a catered event?
5 How is catering usually sold?
6 What does a formal full-service catering proposal include?
7 How can terms of delivery differ?
8 How is specific dietary or religious needs taken into account?
9 How many hors d'oeuvres are usually served for the one-hour period?
10 Is the labor on a plated dinner worse than the labor on a buffet?
7. Express your opinion on the following statements:
1 Most of people prefer full-service catering.
2 Such things as table settings and lighting are not important for clients.
3 Per-person pricing is not always appropriate.
Text 2. Restaurants
Scan the text and find the answers to the following questions:
1 What customers were the first restaurants made for?
2 How are different cuisines reflected in the menus?
3 Is there any dress code to visit restaurants?
A restaurant is a retail establishment that serves prepared food to customers. Service is generally for eating on premises, though the term has been used to describe take-out establishments and food delivery services. The term covers many types of venues and a diversity of styles of cuisine and service.
A restaurant owner is called a restaurateur; both words derive from the French verb restaurer, meaning to restore.
Restaurants catered to different styles of cuisine, price brackets, and religious requirements. Even within a single restaurant much choice was available, and people ordered what entree they wanted from written menus.
In the West, while inns and taverns were known from antiquity, these were establishments aimed at travellers, and in general locals would rarely eat there. Restaurants, as businesses dedicated to the serving of food, and where specific dishes are ordered by the guest and generally prepared according to this order, emerged only in the 18th century.
Restaurants became commonplace in France after the French Revolution broke up catering guilds and forced the aristocracy to flee, leaving a retinue of servants with the skills to cook excellent food; whilst at the same time numerous provincials arrived in Paris with no family to cook for them. Restaurants were the means by which these two could be brought together — and the French tradition of dining out was born.
Restaurants range from unpretentious lunching or dining places catering to people working nearby, with simple food served in simple settings at low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food and wines in a formal setting. In the former case, customers usually wear casual clothing. In the latter case, depending on culture and local traditions, customers might wear semi-casual, semi-formal, or even in rare cases formal wear.
Typically, customers sit at tables, their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food when it is ready, and the customers pay the bill before leaving. In finer restaurants there will be a host or hostess or even a maître d’hôtel to welcome customers and to seat them. Other staff waiting on customers include busboys and sommeliers.
Restaurants often specialize in certain types of food or present a certain unifying, and often entertaining, theme. For example, there are seafood restaurants, vegetarian restaurants or ethnic restaurants. Generally speaking, restaurants selling “local” food are simply called restaurants, while restaurants selling food of foreign origin are called accordingly, for example, a Chinese restaurant and a French restaurant.
Depending on local customs and the establishment, restaurants may or may not serve alcohol. Restaurants are often prohibited from selling alcohol without a meal by alcohol sale laws; such sale is considered to be activity for bars, which are meant to have more severe restrictions. Some restaurants are licensed to serve alcohol (“fully licensed”), and/or permit customers to “bring your own” alcohol (BYO / BYOB). In some places restaurant licenses may restrict service to beer, or wine and beer.
Nearly all major American newspapers employ restaurant critics and publish online dining guides for the cities they serve. A few papers maintain a reputation for thorough and thoughtful review of restaurants to the standard of the good published guides, but others provide more of a listings service.
More recently Internet sites have started up that publish both food critic reviews and popular reviews by the general public. This is a growing area and the market is still immature with no sites yet gaining dominant public or critical support. Several are gaining traction including, Zagot.com and Fodors.com. Their major competition comes from bloggers and search engines since search engines often favor active bloggers over large somewhat static websites.