{"id":197,"date":"2012-04-14T19:47:44","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T19:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/?p=197"},"modified":"2012-04-14T21:29:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T21:29:00","slug":"because-we-make-it-look-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/14\/because-we-make-it-look-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Because we make it look easy…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"After<\/a>

After plating for 250<\/p><\/div>\n

Off-premise catering is hard work, especially weddings.\u00a0 Please don\u2019t misunderstand, I love my work.\u00a0 I have done quite a few things in this life to bring me to the place where I work for myself, doing something I love; preparing beautiful food for life\u2019s celebrations.\u00a0 There is nothing in the world like working with a couple to perfectly match food and presentation to their cultural heritages, personal tastes and aspirations for this special day.\u00a0 Often times, this means bringing the celebration to places where someone would not ordinarily go to enjoy a meal, which leads me to the point of this discussion.\u00a0 We, as caterers, recreate an incredible dining experience for each and every client, and we make it look easy.<\/p>\n

The wedding industry is a multi-million dollar machine today.\u00a0 Just take a glance at all the glossy magazines, blogs and websites that provide inspiration to the newly engaged bride-to-be.\u00a0 Catering is just on piece in the puzzle of planning and executing the \u201cperfect\u201d wedding celebration.\u00a0 Some of the talented professionals that come together to create a wedding are wedding planners and coordinators, caterers, floral designers, musicians, artists, videographers, photographers, entertainers and bakers.\u00a0 Today\u2019s bride must budget for all of these services in order to match the dream weddings as portrayed in the media.\u00a0 Each takes a slice of the pie both financially and emotionally.<\/p>\n

Caterers are magicians and miracle workers at heart.\u00a0 We often find our way to the business through being exceptional hosts; planning and executing parties of our own that make our guests feel loved and indulged, as if every element of the event was planned for them alone.\u00a0 We must be creative, but intuitive, quietly figuring out exactly what would delight our guests and clients.\u00a0 When we execute large and complex events, no one sees what goes on behind the scenes, before, after and during the party itself, to allow this magic to manifest.\u00a0 We make it look easy.<\/p>\n

One of my colleagues, Dine by Design, described what we do in a recent blog post (http:\/\/dinebydesign.squarespace.com\/imported-20111031231628\/2012\/2\/19\/why-it-costs-what-it-costs.html<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/a>) detailing a day in the life of an off-premise caterer.\u00a0 The underlying reality of this narrative is not only what we accomplish, but that we make it look easy.\u00a0 And by making it look easy, we make our value proposition very hard to sell.\u00a0 A floral designer can show photographs of intricate and exquisite d\u00e9cor, each component having specific, demonstrable value.\u00a0 No one can go to Costco or Traders Joe\u2019s and duplicate what they provide.\u00a0 Anyone who has tried to take photographs with their phone cannot deny what a professional photographer is worth.\u00a0 A good wedding coordinator knows every perfect venue, vendor and detail that is unique to their geography and speciality.\u00a0 No one is going to find those things using Google on a Saturday afternoon.\u00a0 Anyone who has gone to karaoke night knows the value of a professional musician and what that adds to their event.<\/p>\n

Caterers, on the other hand, compete on a different playing field.\u00a0 Food, quite often good food, is something many people enjoy on a daily basis.\u00a0 They can prepare it at home, buy it to take out, enjoy it in a restaurant, or sample it at a party when prepared by family and friends.\u00a0 On the surface, it seems like a pretty simple proposition.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say how many times, after presenting a menu that has taken hours to research and develop for a couple, I am confronted by the opinion that \u201c\u2026we could do this a lot cheaper ourselves.\u201d\u00a0 When we sell a proposal, we offer tastes of our food, many times at no charge (which is another topic altogether), photographs of our food, and testimonials from others who have enjoyed our food.\u00a0 We neglect to sell our prospective clients on what is required in order to integrate this food into their wedding celebration.\u00a0 Perhaps we need to show before and after photographs of the \u201cback of the house\u201d at their wedding site.\u00a0 Or of the prep cooks scooping and forming the 800+ mini crab cakes their guests will enjoy from the service staff\u2019s passing trays during cocktail hour.\u00a0 Heaven forbid we show them photographs of the towering racks of dishes and glassware in the dishwashing station, sorted and rinsed to go back to the rental company, long after the last guest has departed.<\/p>\n

Instead, we sell them on the beautiful photos and video (if we are lucky enough to get them during the event) of the finished product.\u00a0 Perfectly garnished trays of passed appetizers, bountiful and inviting buffets, fun and exciting chef stations and exquisite plates dropped magically in front of each of their guests by a smiling server.\u00a0 It is no wonder we have difficulty \u201cjustifying\u201d the cost of our services.<\/p>\n

I am not advocating that we take away the magic.\u00a0 I am suggesting that we do a more complete job of telling the story of what we do.\u00a0 The only picture a prospective bride gets of a caterer is that reflected in the wedding media.\u00a0 Since we usually represent one of the largest pieces of the budget pie, a lot of column inches are devoted to getting the best value out of your caterer.\u00a0 We as an industry must do our part to explain the complex package of products and services we provide.\u00a0 Only in this way will our prospective clients really understand the value of what they are purchasing.\u00a0 This also means resisting the temptation to give away what we do for free.\u00a0 Whether it is setting a fee for tastings (usually applied to the total event cost if booked), refusing to provide a no-cost overage guarantee, avoiding adding in items and services as an incentive to book with us rather than our competition and truly assigning a value in our own minds for the magic we perform.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t believe we are worth the money, how can we convince our clients?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be proud of what we do.\u00a0 A good magician is able to convey the complexity and difficulty of their performance without giving away their secrets.\u00a0 Today, I plan to challenge myself to tell the story of what I do in such a way that the prospective client is intrigued, curious and a little bit awed.\u00a0 To be sure, I will make it look amazing, fabulous and magical, but I will try not to make it look easy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Off-premise catering is hard work, especially weddings.\u00a0 Please don\u2019t misunderstand, I love my work.\u00a0 I have done quite a few things in this life to bring me to the place where I work for myself, doing something I love; preparing beautiful food for life\u2019s celebrations.\u00a0 There is nothing in the world like working with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,21,8,15,16],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203,"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assaggiare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}