A caterer is busy on the dates customers choose, not the dates you would pick. Here is how to build a core team, a trusted pool of temporary hands and a central kitchen that runs to a plan.
A caterer cooks for weddings, corporate lunches, parties, canteen contracts and festival gatherings, usually from a central kitchen and often for several events on the same date. Work arrives in lumps. An order is confirmed, the menu is fixed, quantities are worked out, and then a kitchen crew prepares, packs and dispatches while a service crew travels to the venue to set up, serve and clear. Cooks and head chefs hold the recipes and the taste that customers remember, and a regular core team is joined by waiters, helpers, loaders and drivers who are brought in for the day. Many of those hands work for more than one caterer in the same season. See also HR for food and beverage. What makes HR different here is that the workforce is rebuilt for every event. Who is on the crew list, who has been briefed on hygiene, who is paid and when, and who is trusted to lead a service counter are decisions repeated all season, so a firm that keeps a simple record of its people and writes down how an event crew is formed spends the peak serving food and not chasing names.
Who does the work
Demand follows the customer's calendar
Auspicious dates and holiday weekends pile several events onto one day, and the next week may be quiet.
Temporary crews are a list in someone's phone
The captain knows who to call, and when he leaves the firm loses the contacts and the quality that came with them.
No-shows on the event morning
A crew that is three short at the venue cannot be fixed by the kitchen, and the customer remembers the service, not the food.
Hygiene habits depend on who is watching
Handwashing, cap and glove use, storage and cooling are followed in the central kitchen and slip at a venue with no supervisor.
Long days and late finishes
Prep starts before dawn for a late dinner service, travel home is unplanned and overtime is settled by memory.
Recipes live in a few heads
Quantities and tastings are carried by the senior cooks, so a departure changes the food.
Pay for event staff is argued after the event
Day rates, food allowance, transport and settlement dates are agreed verbally, and complaints arrive when a payment is late.
Form each event crew from a written plan
Menu, headcount, roles, reporting time and who leads, issued before the day. The workforce plan shows how to size a core team against the busiest dates.
Keep a register of event staff
Name, identity, contact, skills, past events and how they performed, so reliable people can be called back and weak ones are not. The employee information management holds it.
Brief and sign off food handling
A short briefing before each event and a record of who attended, with a senior person at every venue. The health, safety and wellbeing work covers the routine.
Write down how events are paid
Day rate, meals, travel, late-night allowance and the date of settlement, told to people before they accept. The compensation strategy sets the principles.
Plan the long day
Reporting times, breaks, transport home after a late finish and rest before the next event.
Capture the recipes and the standard
Written quantities, plating and tasting notes, and a junior cook paired with each senior so the standard outlasts one person.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
A plan that sizes a core team and a pool of temporary hands against your busiest dates.
A simple way to find, check and bring back dependable cooks, captains and servers.
Food handling routines and briefings that hold at a venue as well as in the kitchen.
Clear reporting times, breaks and rest around long event days.
Every engagement starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes. Start with the free HR Health Check, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in food and beverage, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Same-day hires, a health clearance filed in a drawer, and an outlet where the shift lead decided everything. How food and beverage businesses run HR for kitchens and outlets where the frontline changes constantly and the records cannot.
Read the articleHiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
Read the articleCandidates who accept and never arrive are usually lost in the silence between offer and joining. What actually causes it, and a contact plan that closes the gap.
Read the articleA laminated notice, an annual drill, and an incident register with three entries in two years. What workplace health and safety looks like when it is real.
Read the articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Confirm the crew a few days ahead, keep a few names beyond the number you need, and tell people clearly where to report, when and for what pay. A reliable register matters more than a long phone contact list.
Ask your captains and cooks for people they trust, note how each person did at the event, and bring the good ones back first. Over a season you build a pool that you know.
Identity, contact, skills, the events worked, any food handling briefing attended and how payment was made. Confirm with a qualified professional what you must keep for the arrangement you use.
Brief the crew before each event, put one senior person in charge of food handling there and use a short checklist for storage, cooling and serving. A routine holds when the owner is not present.
Agree the day rate, meals, travel and late-night allowance before the event, put it in writing and settle on the date you promised. Late payment is the quickest way to lose a good pool.
Write down quantities and methods, pair each senior cook with a junior and recognise the people who teach. Confirm any restrictive terms with a qualified professional.
Big enough to run the central kitchen and lead every event in a normal week, with the peak met by trained temporary staff. Look at last season's bookings by month before deciding.
With a free HR Health Check, which scores six areas of your HR and ranks the fixes.
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