Catering menu: how to present your packages and prices

What people hiring a caterer are looking for

A couple getting married, a family celebrating a christening or the person organising their company’s summer party. They all need the same things:

• A clear price per head, to multiply by the number of guests.
• What each option includes: food, drinks, staff, crockery and glassware, set-up.
• The terms: minimum numbers, travel, deposit, deadlines.
• A document they can forward to their partner, their family or their boss.

If your proposal answers all that in one or two pages, you’ll save half the back-and-forth emails.

Organise your offer by format

The clearest way is to group by type of service, from simplest to most complete:

1. Drinks reception: what’s served while guests arrive, and for how long.
2. Canapé or bowl food menu: the whole event standing, with cold and hot pieces. Give the length: “1 hr 30”.
3. Sit-down menu: starter, main, dessert, wine and coffee.
4. Extras: open bar, evening buffet, children’s menu, a cheese table, a hog roast or a grazing table.

Within each format, two or three tiers with their own names (“The Oak”, “The Willow”) work better than “Menu 1” and “Menu 2”: they’re easy to remember and to mention on the phone.

Each package, with what it includes

Each option is a line on the menu with its price per head and a description that leaves no doubt:

• For canapés: the pieces in the selection, or how many cold, hot and sweet pieces per person.
• For the sit-down menu: the starter, the main (and whether guests choose between two), the dessert and which wines are included.
• For drinks: what’s included and for how long.

Anything that applies to the whole section goes in its note, once: “Price per head · Drinks included”.

Price per head and terms

The price is always per head, and whatever changes from one event to another goes in the footnote:

• VAT: included if you sell to private clients; if you quote businesses ex VAT, say so.
• Minimum numbers, and what happens below them.
• Staff, crockery and set-up: if they’re included, say so; it’s the first thing clients compare.
• Travel: included up to a certain distance, or charged extra.
• Children’s menu, with its price and the age it applies up to.
• Deposit and deadlines: how much is paid on booking and when the final numbers are confirmed.

Prices per head, including VAT · Minimum 30 guests · Staff, crockery and set-up included

In the US, catering quotes usually add sales tax and often a service charge on top of the per-person price. Show both clearly, and say whether the service charge goes to the staff. The guide to menu labelling rules sums up how to show prices.

Allergens in catering

In the UK, caterers are covered by the same allergen rules as restaurants: you must give information on the 14 allergens in the food you serve. On a catering menu, each line is a package with many dishes, so:

• On the summary menu, mark for each package the allergens in all its dishes, with the key at the bottom.
• In the detail of each package, allergens dish by dish. It’s what a client with an allergic guest will ask for.
• For the kitchen and the day of the event, an allergen matrix with all your recipes.
• Ask for guests’ allergies and intolerances with the final numbers, with name and table.

Watch the ones that come up most in canapés: crustaceans and molluscs in seafood bites, sesame and soybeans in Asian-style pieces and breads, sulphites in pickles, dried fruit and wine, and tree nuts on the dessert table.

From quote to menu card

Once the client chooses their menu, offer them menu cards for the tables. In MenuDesign it’s a separate document: start a menu card, type the chosen dishes, add the couple’s or guest of honour’s names and the date, and download it as a DL card or three per sheet. A detail that costs little and that clients remember. There are ideas in the guide to the wedding menu card.

Formats and sending

• PDF on A4 to send by email or messaging. You send it yourself: MenuDesign doesn’t send anything on its own.
• PNG or JPG image for your website or social media.
• A3 if you go to wedding fairs or events and want to put your offer up on the stand.
• Other languages: if you work with international clients, MenuDesign can add a second language under each dish. Read the translation guide.

Design

The template uses the Editorial style, like a magazine: serious and current. For corporate clients, Swiss, with its grid and rigour, conveys order. If you mostly do weddings, Sobremesa is more elegant. Put your logo in the header and your contact details at the bottom.

Make it with MenuDesign

Open the catering menu template, change the packages, prices per head and terms, mark the allergens and download the PDF. If you also have a function room, the guide to group and party menus covers your group offer. Free, no sign-up.