Stuck on the fence, on one hand I understand that a organizer of an event want to do everything to ensure a flawless event... so tasting the food seems logical. On the other hand it is so not practical from a caterers side, there is no correlations between feeding 2-4 and 200-400 and the effort and time in one does not equate to the same pricing of the other. What I would say is that if you do tasting charge for the complete tasting labor and food.
Not a fan as a general rule. But they are part of the business. The key is to set boundaries so you remain in charge. Limit the attendees. Too many people make it difficult to find out what the bride a groom are looking for.
Charge for your tastings. You'd be surprised by the number of tire kickers who disappear. We do individual tastings, but some caterers do group tastings a couple times a year. As for charging you can either deduct it from their final bill if they book or keep it regardless.
Tastings are important but it is really not about the food.
The food you make is the food you make and the client will either like it or not like it.
The value of the tasting is the chance to meet the clients and "get to know each other". It is surprising how much more they like the food more when they like you.
Be yourself because that is what they will expect to be dealing with if they hire you.
Be comfortable and be willing to not only listen but to make changes.
I explain that before I became a caterer I went to a major hospital and had my ego removed so there is nothing that they can say that will hurt my feelings.
When a client is comfortable, they take down the wall between you and them and everything can then be accomplished.
So I am a caterer who owns the venue,no outside caterers are allowed. Its a little different for us. For a while there I had everyone asking for tastings, oh such and such does it......I did a few and it turned into dinner for the family and no bookings. So my solution was we only do tastings for our booked couples if they need help deciding on changes they may want to make to their menu. It is done with only the foods we have available at the time of tasting. They get a short list of what is available and they chose three, the tasting is for the contract holder and 1 guests. Normally the Bride and Groom. I do very few, we have been in business for 26 years so that right there is normally the proof in the pudding.
We provide a free tasting as an incentive to get our foot in the door, we are still relatively new to the Catering side & we rely mostly on Thumbtack to book our events!
We have booked over 300 events in 4yrs from them!
We only buy food for events we have booked so we are never sitting on a ton of product!
We send each potential customer what we call a Mock Menu, from this each customer Can pare their menu down to a potential final menu, they are aloud to try 3-5 items from this final menu either apps,entrees, or sides
This really helps us interact & we book, about 80% of the tastings
That is definitely my favorite part of my job. Especially if you're confident in your product. Also, I get to know the couple personally and have a feel of what they expect at their wedding.
When we first started out catering almost 30 years ago we rarely did tasting's. With the arrival of the cooking channels and reality TV we started doing many more of them. Now we do a tasting for almost every large event. To weed out "tire kickers" we charge for them if we feel that they are simply trying to take advantage of our generosity. In these cases if the client books we credit the cost of the tasting towards the total bill. Hope this helps!!
We only do tastings for weddings. It truly depends on the occasion and on the size of the bill. We charge a fee to make sure that we only serve serious potential customers and then that fee is fully credited towards their balance once they book. We don't to tasting events because we feel people will just come for "free food". When other clients ask, I tell them we only do tastings for weddings. That they can look at our reviews and pictures.
Tastings is a necessary evil lol. We will only do a tasting if we have a menu in place and the client is interested in booking our services. We charge $250 for two people but if they book our services then it is free of charge. In over 20 years I have found everyone would like a free tasting but that is not why we are in business so charge for your services your worth it.
OMG! Let me chime in on this one! We cater about 65 weddings a year. They all want to do a tasting. Then, they want to bring everyone. If you have signed a contract with me, I am very pleased to do a tasting for you. You as a client deserve to taste what you are purchasing. No tastings on Saturday, because I am catering 2 weddings. So, that means a lot of Sunday after Church tastings.
Then, they have not signed a contract with me and they want to come in an taste Filet Mignon, Grilled Snapper with a cream sauce and about 10 different hard to make apps. Really?
I think I have been blessed with tastings. New did a tasting that i did not do the wedding. Thank you, Jesus.
I think that the tasting can be fun and nice. We only do tastings with an appointment and private. You get to truly know your client during a tasting and you know how to serve them. A tasting should be a selling tool, just make sure your client can afford you before a tasting.
Answers (1-10)
Stuck on the fence, on one hand I understand that a organizer of an event want to do everything to ensure a flawless event... so tasting the food seems logical. On the other hand it is so not practical from a caterers side, there is no correlations between feeding 2-4 and 200-400 and the effort and time in one does not equate to the same pricing of the other. What I would say is that if you do tasting charge for the complete tasting labor and food.
Not a fan as a general rule. But they are part of the business. The key is to set boundaries so you remain in charge. Limit the attendees. Too many people make it difficult to find out what the bride a groom are looking for.
Charge for your tastings. You'd be surprised by the number of tire kickers who disappear. We do individual tastings, but some caterers do group tastings a couple times a year. As for charging you can either deduct it from their final bill if they book or keep it regardless.
Hope this helps.
Tastings are important but it is really not about the food.
The food you make is the food you make and the client will either like it or not like it.
The value of the tasting is the chance to meet the clients and "get to know each other". It is surprising how much more they like the food more when they like you.
Be yourself because that is what they will expect to be dealing with if they hire you.
Be comfortable and be willing to not only listen but to make changes.
I explain that before I became a caterer I went to a major hospital and had my ego removed so there is nothing that they can say that will hurt my feelings.
When a client is comfortable, they take down the wall between you and them and everything can then be accomplished.
So I am a caterer who owns the venue,no outside caterers are allowed. Its a little different for us. For a while there I had everyone asking for tastings, oh such and such does it......I did a few and it turned into dinner for the family and no bookings. So my solution was we only do tastings for our booked couples if they need help deciding on changes they may want to make to their menu. It is done with only the foods we have available at the time of tasting. They get a short list of what is available and they chose three, the tasting is for the contract holder and 1 guests. Normally the Bride and Groom. I do very few, we have been in business for 26 years so that right there is normally the proof in the pudding.
We provide a free tasting as an incentive to get our foot in the door, we are still relatively new to the Catering side & we rely mostly on Thumbtack to book our events!
We have booked over 300 events in 4yrs from them!
We only buy food for events we have booked so we are never sitting on a ton of product!
We send each potential customer what we call a Mock Menu, from this each customer Can pare their menu down to a potential final menu, they are aloud to try 3-5 items from this final menu either apps,entrees, or sides
This really helps us interact & we book, about 80% of the tastings
So far it’s definitely worth the effort!
That is definitely my favorite part of my job. Especially if you're confident in your product. Also, I get to know the couple personally and have a feel of what they expect at their wedding.
Anne
When we first started out catering almost 30 years ago we rarely did tasting's. With the arrival of the cooking channels and reality TV we started doing many more of them. Now we do a tasting for almost every large event. To weed out "tire kickers" we charge for them if we feel that they are simply trying to take advantage of our generosity. In these cases if the client books we credit the cost of the tasting towards the total bill. Hope this helps!!
We only do tastings for weddings. It truly depends on the occasion and on the size of the bill. We charge a fee to make sure that we only serve serious potential customers and then that fee is fully credited towards their balance once they book. We don't to tasting events because we feel people will just come for "free food". When other clients ask, I tell them we only do tastings for weddings. That they can look at our reviews and pictures.
Tastings is a necessary evil lol. We will only do a tasting if we have a menu in place and the client is interested in booking our services. We charge $250 for two people but if they book our services then it is free of charge. In over 20 years I have found everyone would like a free tasting but that is not why we are in business so charge for your services your worth it.
OMG! Let me chime in on this one! We cater about 65 weddings a year. They all want to do a tasting. Then, they want to bring everyone. If you have signed a contract with me, I am very pleased to do a tasting for you. You as a client deserve to taste what you are purchasing. No tastings on Saturday, because I am catering 2 weddings. So, that means a lot of Sunday after Church tastings.
Then, they have not signed a contract with me and they want to come in an taste Filet Mignon, Grilled Snapper with a cream sauce and about 10 different hard to make apps. Really?
I think I have been blessed with tastings. New did a tasting that i did not do the wedding. Thank you, Jesus.
I think that the tasting can be fun and nice. We only do tastings with an appointment and private. You get to truly know your client during a tasting and you know how to serve them. A tasting should be a selling tool, just make sure your client can afford you before a tasting.