There should be little confusion or hassle when hiring a caterer. With all of the other things to do when planning a wedding or party, hiring a caterer should be a simple event performed near the start of the planning process. Taste testings are very definitely encouraged. After all, this is the only trial run that you will get before enjoying the meal at your event. To keep everything running smoothly, remember these eight simple tidbits when taste testing options from your local caterer.
Eight Simple Tips For Your Taste Testing Events
1 – Often it is a representative of the chef that presents the food. If this is the case at your taste testing event, ask if it is possible to pay your compliments to the chef. This positive feedback will be well received by the chef and likely work in your favor later.
2 – Bring others along who will be helpful in selecting the proper foods. Your wedding consultant or party planner can offer helpful tips during this process. Your mother, maid of honor, groom and others very close to you are also able to offer constructive advice during the sampling.
3 – There will be many options when sampling foods from a caterer so remember to pace yourself to enjoy each of them. A small bite or two is all that is necessary to enjoy the tastes of the dish.
4 – Discuss particular preferences with your wedding caterer or party caterer. If you have a favorite food or type of food, feel free to discuss foods with these particular ingredients that will be included in the meals. This information will be very helpful for the caterer to note later in the planning stages.
5 – Discuss alternative ingredient options with your caterer. If you like something but want it to be “vegetarian friendly,” simply ask your caterer if this is possible.
6 – Look for signs of quality foods and other ingredients. Catering is not limited to the expensive or the inexpensive tastes. You want the best for your guests regardless of the budget so look for signs of freshness and quality when talking with your wedding caterer or party caterer.
7 — Ask your caterer to present the food to you the way it is to be presented at the wedding reception or party. If it is to be served buffet style over warmers, ask to try the food in this manner. If it is a passed tray reception, ask your caterer if it is possible to sample the food this way. This will help gauge how the food will taste at the reception as well.
8 – Though it does not necessarily pertain to the quality of the food, it is important to take note of the attentiveness of the wait staff. Pay attention to how the front end (servers) and kitchen (chef) communicate with one another. Do things move fluidly or in a disorganized manner? This tip is particularly important if you plan to hire the caterer’s wait staff.
It is good to know that one should check if vegetarian food is a possibility for your desired caterer. Finding if ingredients can be slightly changed and recipes slightly altered to meet health conditions would be helpful. Another thing to consider would be to find how busy the service is. It would be best not to have to rush your guests into eating because the catering service has someone else to be.
I am planning on going taste testing at a couple of catering companies for our upcoming wedding. I love eating, so it’s a very good thing that I read your article about how to properly taste test catered foods. I’ll make sure I’ll only take one bite or so, so that I’m not too full.
I like your tip to talk to the catering company about possible alternative ingredients for things like vegetarian and peanut-allergy friendly options. My fiance and I are trying to figure out what catering service we will use for our wedding and so we were wondering what we should be looking for or asking the candidates about. Since there are a few members of my family that are allergic to peanuts, I will make sure to talk to each company we consider to make sure that they will be able to create options for our food without nuts in it.
My daughter is about to get married and we’re in charge of finding the food service and we aren’t sure what to look for. I liked that you had said that it can important to bring others along to make sure they can offer tips on the food when testing everything. I’ll have to start looking around for a catering service and hopefully I’ll be able to test a few and I’ll have to bring my future son in law with me!
My fiancee and I have finally set our wedding date for this June and have now begun the planning process. Because of this, your comment about pacing yourself when choosing a caterer really made sense to me. I agree that you would only need a small bite of each different food to know if you like it or not. When my husband and I go taste testing to find a caterer, we’ll have to remember your advice and pace ourselves.
My wife and I are hosting an event and we’re looking for a way that we can handle feeding everyone. I liked that you had mentioned that it can be important to taste the foods prior to make sure it’s something you and your guests will enjoy. We’ll have to start looking around at contract food services in the area, and we’ll be making sure they have a taste that everyone will like.
I like that you talked about choosing a company that can adapt perfectly to your specific schedule. My older sister is looking to hire catering services for a party she’s looking to throw. I’ll be sure to talk to her about finding a company that can handle her situation.
It’s great that you want to get involved!
My fiance and I are in the process of planning our wedding. I thought some of the tips you gave about how we should choose a caterer were really helpful. We’ll make sure we bring some people along for the sampling so we can get second opinions about the taste and quality of food.
I really like how you said to pay attention to the little things like the attentiveness of the wait staff and how they communicate with each other. It’s important to my wife and I that we hire a good service for our semi-annual party that we hold. We love to hire a caterer usually and getting top quality service is really important to us.
You have shared really useful information ! N ice article ..
My fiance and I are looking into hiring a caterer for our wedding. I like how you suggest taking people along with us to taste food from a caterer. A second or third opinion never hurts, so we’ll definitely keep this tip in mind once we decide on a caterer to taste food from.
I do like that the article strongly recommends pacing yourself when doing the taste test. As is pointed out, the caterer will likely have a lot of food for you to try out. You’ll want to make sure that you can taste a wide array of their offerings before deciding whether or not they are the right choice for your wedding’s needs.
I totally agree when you said that we should be aware of the quality of the ingredients to ensure that the food will be fresh for the guests. I will keep that in mind when I start looking for a catering company that we will hire to ensure that the food will be nice for the party. It will be for the 16th birthday party of my daughter which will have at least 100 guests since she has lots of friends and our relatives as well.