Caterers Are Special People

Caterers Are Special People

Catering professionals are lucky. I’ll say it again, caterers are lucky. Why? Simple answer. Their profession is laced with an amazing number of challenges. In addition to these challenges, caterers are presented with constant crisis situations that permit them to use their creativity and skills to neutralize or solve these problems. Caterers love to find solutions.

Unlike the “normal” population, caterers live on the edge when it comes to their businesses. They never know what the next phone call will bring. “Hi, this is Mrs. Smith, I need to add 45 more people to today’s order” can pop up without any warning.

During a normal business day, a caterer might face five to 10 special crisis situations. Missing bartenders, bad weather, late vendor deliveries, menu changes, broken equipment, health inspectors, early arrival of guests, delivery errors and accidents, just to name a few.

Most caterers don’t have fixed hours that they work. It all depends on what’s happening. There is nothing 9-to-5 in the life of a caterer. Can you imagine catching the 7:22 train or the 8:15 bus every weekday morning? I can’t. Please don’t get me wrong: While everyone’s job can be important and worthwhile, I’m thinking that the 9-to-5 flow must be rather dull from an adventure or crisis point of view. For caterers there is very little sameness and repetition in their daily activities.

Imagine a caterer simply saying to a client, “It’s five minutes to 5 and we are closing, so I’ll need to take care of this tomorrow.” Or, “I’m sorry Mrs. Jones, the long stemmed strawberries haven’t come in yet, so we’ll need to cancel them from your contracted menu.” Or, “Mr. Rose, your contract states that guests are arriving at 7; there’s nothing I can do to be ready by 6:30 instead.”

And what about weekends? The 9-to-5 crowd usually gets weekends off. Not caterers. They are on-call whenever they are needed. They miss holidays with their own families, special birthdays and football games because they need to handle an event or solve a problem. But caterers accept this because most have chosen to be dedicated 110 percent to their customers and careers. Caterers don’t get much praise for what they do.

But caterers are okay with all of this because they do what they do to please themselves, as well as satisfy their clients. They enjoy being on-call and facing daily challenges. In fact, most caterers consider themselves lucky because of the excitement in their lives and wouldn’t have it any other way. They understand that their profession requires sacrifices. They realize that what they do is worthwhile for themselves and their clients.
The world is lucky that caterers exist. They make it a better place.

~Written by Micheal Roman(Catersource)