Your Options in Caterers and Catered Foods
Three Tips To Care For Your Restaurant Refrigeration
When you own a restaurant or any other sort of food business, you owe yourself the opportunity to take advantage of food service management. These services are provided by professionals who can do everything from helping you store your food to promoting your business. With this in mind, one of the greatest reasons you can get in touch with these contract food service management companies is to have them maintain and repair your food storage appliances — particularly, the commercial refrigerator. You can get the most of your food storage by following some of these steps below. #1: Add Longevity To Your Refrigerator By Watching The Temperature A common costly mistake make by refrigerator owners is keeping the refrigerator temperature too low. Many people like to know that their fridge is working by putting it on its coldest settings. This will work out in the short term, but will cause your refrigerator to expend too much energy and burn out over time. As a rule of thumb, you should maintain temperatures that range between 37 and 40 degrees inside of your refrigerator. If you want to maintain your freezer, it should stay at 0 degrees, for the best performance. #2: Take Great Care Of Your Coils When your refrigerator is not getting cool enough, sometimes this is due to the condenser coils being too clogged and dirty. Do yourself a favor and have these coils thoroughly cleaned twice every year. You can split these cleanings based on season, every spring and summer for instance, in order to make sure that you remember. When cleaning these coils, make sure that you use a long bristle brush, along with a vacuum cleaner, in order to suck up all of the debris that may cling to the coils over time. #3: Get A Maintenance Plan For Your Refrigerator From A Food Service Management Professional Professional maintenance is one of the best things for your refrigerator, especially since you use it for your business. In order to get the best out of your refrigerator maintenance, you will need to sign up for a plan that a professional can help you with. They will carry out periodic repairs throughout the life of your refrigerator, and will keep it in the best possible condition. This frequent maintenance plan lets you get the maximum out of your refrigerator, which will, in turn help you to keep it longer. Take these tips into account, so that you will get the best out of your refrigerator. For more information, talk to contract food service...
read moreBringing The Outdoor Wedding Indoors With Creative Food Choices On The Reception Menu
It is perfectly possible to dodge rain clouds and wind long enough to have a successful outdoor wedding ceremony, but the ceremony itself is not normally the longest part of a wedding at all. The reception can easily be an event that lasts for several hours and is usually better off indoors or under some type of shelter. Transitioning from an outdoor wedding to an indoor wedding reception may sound a little odd, but with the right touches, your guests will barely notice anything unusual about your wedding festivities at all. In fact, all it takes to inconspicuously transition from an outdoor wedding ceremony to an indoor reception hall is the right food choices on the menu. Outdoor Summertime Favorite: S’Mores If you’re planning an outdoor wedding in the summer, why not offer up something that every guest will recognize as an outdoor treat by creating a s’mores bar? Set aside a table and creatively cover it with an earth-colored tablecloth. Top it with several clean-burning cans of fuel and provide an assortment of yummy marshmallows, chocolate pieces, and graham crackers. Don’t forget to situate a bucket of roasting sticks or skewers so your guests can roast their marshmallows. A s’mores bar is an inexpensive addition to a wedding reception and can be as elaborate and gourmet as you choose with the addition of gourmet chocolate, flavored marshmallows, and various other tempting treats. With every bite of their s’more, your guests will feel like they are still at an outdoor event. Barbecue-Themed Foods Are Wedding Worthy If you really want to make your guests feel like they are enjoying the outdoors in spite of being inside a shelter, serve up barbecue-style menu choices at the wedding reception. Even though summer barbecue favorites like grilled chicken or fire-roasted veggies may have been unheard of at a wedding in the past, wedding food is a lot more flexible than what it once was, and barbecue-style menus at wedding receptions are actually fairly common. Achieving barbecue-style foods at a wedding is actually a lot less complicated than what you may think. The caterer can set up a grilling station outdoors and serve up delectable grilled favorites hot from the grill to your guests. With a little ingenuity, making the transition from an outdoor wedding ceremony to a reception indoors will be flawless. Be sure you mention your concerns to your chosen caterer when you are in the process of making plans to get more fun ideas. For more information, contact McHale’s Events & Catering or a similar...
read moreCatering Your Next Event: How To Save
If you’re planning a wedding, business event, or other get together, having food catered can help you save time and effort and allow you to focus on your guests. Catering for an event is nice, but the costs can add up quickly. Before you enlist the help of a caterer for your next gathering, consider these money saving tips. Shorten it Up If you want to serve food but also want to save money, shorten the time of your event when food will be served and eaten. If there is a guest speaker, do not serve food until the speaker is finished with their presentation. If you have a lot of other activities planned, make the food portion a focal point rather than part of the entire event. The less time your caterer and servers are on the clock, the less money you’re spending. This will also cut down on the amount of food served as people nosh throughout the event. Make it more formal and only serve food for a set amount of time. Lighten the Menu Full course lunches and dinners along with desserts and beverages can cost quite a bit of money. Since it takes caterers a lot of work and preparation to make more elaborate dishes, those costs are passed on to you. Have small finger foods and simple desserts like fruit instead of individually made cupcakes or other desserts. Appetizer sized foods will satisfy your guests without the extra cost it takes to serve full course meals. Simplify Dinner and Drink Ware Rather than have glassware for every beverage, serve everything to visitors in one glass. Disposable plates, cups, and napkins will certainly cost less than using china and fancy silverware. Caterers have to set the table, wash the dishes, and transport these items to and fro, but with disposable items, cleanup is easy and there’s a lot less to contend with. This simple change can really make a difference in your budget. You can also buy these items yourself rather than have the catering company provide it, which will also help you save. Keep an Eye On the Bar If alcohol is being served at your event, consider making mixed cocktails or sangria instead of serving individual beers or glasses of wine. Alcohol is one of the priciest parts of catering services, but by making larger batches of mixed drinks, you can shave off some cost. Another recommendation is to give each guest only a few “drink tickets” and then make the rest of their beverages cash bar only. Providing free alcohol to lots of guests is a surefire way to run up your total...
read more3 Ways To Save On Wedding Costs
Getting married is one of the most exciting times in your life. It is also one of the most stressful. It takes a lot of planning and preparation to make sure everything is done right. For those who are worried about the cost of getting married, there are plenty of different ways you can save money along the way. Not sure where to start? Here are some simple ways you can save on your wedding costs, while still getting the wedding of your dreams. Make your own wedding invitations. While many people assume that you have to go to a professional to get amazing wedding invitations, that isn’t the case. There are plenty of kits available at stores around the country that allow you to create custom wedding invitations using nothing more than your computer and home printer. All you need to do is choose the template you like the best, insert the specifics such as your names, date, time, location and parents’ names and print them out. The kit comes with stock card paper to get the same look and feel as professional wedding invitations for a fraction of the cost. Create your own wedding decorations. Decorations are one of the main components of your wedding. They highlight the colors you chose for your wedding party and make the location aesthetically appealing. Even though you might not think you have the skill and talent to create your own wedding decorations, it really isn’t as complicated as you might think. There are plenty of videos and books out there to walk you through some of the most exquisite decorations and arrangements you have ever seen. When you consider the cost of making your own decorations versus paying a professional, you will love the savings. Think about going with BBQ catering. Of course, every wedding reception requires food, and what better way to fill everyone’s stomachs than with some tasty BBQ catering? Instead of going with an expensive steak, lobster or fish entrée, you can choose from an assortment of tasty menu items from the BBQ caterer. Your costs will remain low, while everyone at the reception will remain full. The assortment of menu items is quite extensive, so you are sure to find something that everyone will love. Contact a company like Bassett Caterers to see what they offer. With the cost saving tips above, you can have the wedding you have always dreamed of without having to spend a fortune in the...
read moreHow To Open A Restaurant Without Going Broke
You wouldn’t guess it from watching restaurant reality shows, but you don’t have to have a million bucks to open your own place. With careful planning and a lot of ingenuity and elbow grease, you can open a restaurant on the cheap. Here’s three steps to get you started on your adventure. Decide Your Theme What kind of restaurant do you want? Whether it’s a casual taco stand, a diner, or an intimate affair, keep it simple. That means having a limited menu to start. Many successful restaurants are known for basically one thing. They have the best smoked ribs or an awesome fried chicken plate. They do one thing, and they do it well. When people want BBQ ribs, potato salad, baked beans, and corn bread, they come to you. A fine-dining restaurant that only offers one nightly set meal or a diner that is known for a homemade soup and sandwich each day means you have control over your inventory. When the grocery list is small, you save money. Think back to the restaurant rescue shows you’ve seen. Almost all of them are trying to be everything to everyone. They have huge, eight page menus, filled with everything from steaks to spaghetti to Mexican, and none of it is memorable. Stake your reputation and your restaurant on what you do best and where your passion lies. Choose Your Spot Look for a small joint. You can always upgrade later when the dough is rolling in. Some of the best restaurants are tiny, seating only 20 people. Pick a place that was a restaurant previously. New commercial refrigerators and broilers and fryers aren’t cheap, plus refrigerator and broiler repair can be expensive. It’s more cost effective to find a place already equipped with the basics. They can always be power washed, and the restaurant equipment guy can come in and repair anything that needs some maintenance. Clean up the existing chairs and tables. A coat of paint and some new fabric doesn’t cost a lot. Get your friends and family to help you in exchange for a meal or two down the road. Scour the thrift stores for some decorations. Write your menu on a chalkboard. Physical location is important, but not as important as you’d think. As long as there are people mulling around, they’ll give you at least one chance. It’s your job to get them back in the door. Market Yourself Don’t pay for expensive television ads when you can use social media. Make sure the outside of the building shows who you are and that you’re open. Have a logo made, design some flyers, and take them to every office building, factory, and house in the neighborhood. Hold an open-mic night and open the windows and door. Do whatever you have to do to let people know you’re there and excited to check you out. Opening a restaurant can be a risky venture, but if it’s always been your dream, you can do it without having to spend a ton if you make fiscally smart...
read moreAbout Me
Preparing and cooking food for a hundred people was not something that I was prepared to do. I didn't have the supplies, kitchen space or energy to even consider doing so. As I was talking with some friends trying to get them to help, we decided to start looking into some catering options instead of doing all of the work ourselves. I had no idea that there were so many types of caterers that prepared such a wide variety of foods. That is why I created my blog to help others considering using a catering service to prepare the food for their next party.
