Catering, as a career, has become an attractive option with the increase in working population and people’s willingness to spend.

A good catering service begins with good contacts that you have. It’s best to start small till the word spreads around. Skills and qualifications required are minimum when one caters privately. Jimmy Palkhiwala, caterer and proprietor of Asean, an oriental restaurant says, “You do not need any qualifications or skills to start a catering service. You must be interested in food but it doesn’t matter if you can cook or not, since you can hire people.”

But a large professional catering unit that offers exotic cuisines needs a person with a management degree from a good university with five star training for 5-6 years. Shanti Kiran Bulla, proprietor RR restaurant, says, “We have to make big capital investment for the entire catering unit. Manpower is the most important aspect. One must have solid knowledge about how a kitchen works and about what sells in the market. It also helps to know how to mix and match a menu so that clients don’t feel cheated.”

To start with, food, trade and health licenses must be got. Trade license permits one to be in the trade; food license permits one to make food on a commercial basis, and health licence makes sure of personal hygiene. It also encompasses sanitation of the premises. A health inspector will check all the things in accordance. Also, one has to get neighbour consent and if the Corporation has any objection, it must be sorted out.

If you are starting small, a cook, a cooking range, stoves, and hot water boilers are all you need. But if it is on a slightly larger scale, it requires a minimum investment of about Rs 15 lakh. One should be equipped with adequate kitchen space and manpower to deal with more than three or four large orders at a time. Bulla says, “Kitchen design is very critical as the entire flow of cooking from the raw material to the finished product has to move systematically. What changes with cuisines is not the kitchen layout but the size of the burners, storages and other things. For instance, when you cook Chinese, you need a big wok and a big burner with blue flame. It’s necessary to also have a back splash since a lot of oil is used to make stir-fries. Also, you need a tap to cool off the vessel before you make the next dish.”

However, Palkhiwala says, “Setting up your kitchen depends on the menu. Once you have made your menu, you will know how to plan your kitchen layout. If you specialise in continental food, an oven and more workspace is needed. As for determining the menu, it depends on what one cooks or markets best. It’s important that one should be in this business for the genuine love of it, and not only just for the money.”

People in Bangalore have begun to appreciate Thai, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Indonesian cuisines. At corporate parties, Punjabi food is the current rage but South Indian meals are the most preferred for lunch.

Once you get started, a little advertising may be done. Listing or advertising in small dailies and classifieds is one of the best ways. A S Ravi Chandran, Captain, Noble House restaurant says, “We have a sales person who goes and markets at various offices. We have also tied up with drivers from 5 star hotels and other places who get a 15% off on the bill amount when they bring us a new customer. At an event, if a guest likes the food, we immediately give him our business card and a menu copy so he can get in touch with us. We get most of our clients through other client’s recommendations. We also do a good PR job by sending our clients bouquets and greetings cards on their birthdays.”

In the catering business, personal hygiene and sanitation of premises is high priority. Plates should be washed everyday and vessels and cutlery must be disinfected. Insecticides should be used in the kitchen to kill pests. Rats can be prevented from entering by boarding up entrances to the food storage area with steel mesh. All cleaning should be done with hot water and fumigation of the premises must be done.

Bulla says, “At RR we maintain strict standards. We make sure our employees are germ and worm free. Every six months, a routine check up of all our employees is done and we give them de-worming treatment tablets for surface and internal parts of the body. We also have random checks for nails and make sure they are clean-shaven. Caps are worn in kitchens so that hair doesn’t fall in the food. The kitchen is fumigated a twice a week.”
 

Chandran says, “When you take up a catering order from a company for the first time, the company official comes and examine the kitchen. So it’s best to keep the kitchen and premises in good shape.”

Caterers work on contract or agreements when they supply lunch or dinner to offices. An agreement charts out the amount of food required and the caterer’s charges.

But how does one estimate food quantity at an event or a party? Palkhiwala says, “This comes with experience. One cant be sure of the capacity of an individual as it differs from person to person. If the party has more women and children, food consumption might be little. If alcohol is being served, you generally prepare more food as people tend to eat more.”

Nobel House works on the ratio system where they determine food on a kg basis. If there’s an order for 10 people, then they use an average of 1 kg rice for a particular preparation. If they have an order for 100 people, they use 10 kg rice and another 5 kg to be safe.

Generally one can make 100% profit on the food. Sometimes one can make a 200% or even 300% profit when price of some food is low. Where costs are high, one has to cut down at least 50% of the cost price to suit the customer’s pocket. It’s equally important to be aware of what the competition is charging.

Issue BG45 Dec04

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