Product Description

Essential information and how-to advice from the best in the business
Catering Like a Pro is a must-have resource for anyone thinking about starting a catering business. Packed with recipes and exciting new ideas for creating theme events and dramatic experiences, it explains the catering industry from the bottom up. This revised and expanded edition covers everything necessary to get started, including real-world advice on contracts, hiring help, managing events, and sample forms and invoices. A handy list of resources—from equipment and ingredients to legal and business directories—helps make it easy to get up and running smoothly. Interviews with some of the best star caterers in the business offer inspiration and valuable tips for those new to the game.

Francine Halvorsen (New York, NY) is a professional culinary writer, consultant and artist who has traveled and lived all over the world. She considers herself lucky to be invited to share meals at some of the best tables everywhere. A graduate of Columbia University, she is the author of Catering Like a Pro, The Food and Cooking of China and Eating Around the World in Your Neighborhood, all published by John Wiley & Sons.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3474 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Ingram
Designed for first-time caterers as well as seasoned pros, this book contains worksheets, menus, and recipes that help streamline the paperwork, organize each event, and ensure profitability along the way. A comprehensive resource section lists who to call for a wide variety of supplies, services, and crucial information. 10 photos.

From the Back Cover
Everything you need to get your catering business up and running

"A solid foundation for anyone looking to begin a career in catering."
–Dr. John J. Bowen, President, Johnson & Wales University

"Very informative, with great tips from experienced chefs."
–Alain Sailhac

"I wish I’d had Catering Like a Pro 25 years ago, when I began my career. I would have made fewer mistakes (and more money)."
–Henry Meer

This complete, up-to-date guide to the art of catering presents all the proven business advice you need to put profits and success on your menu. It’s packed with practical guidance on event planning, cooking, sanitation, and business practices, as well as wisdom–and recipes–from the biggest stars in catering. You’ll find indispensable advice from François Dinot, Director of L’Académie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Maryland, who has catered many high-level government events in Washington, D.C.; Liz Newmark, President of Great Performances, one of New York’s premier caterers; and Jacques Pépin, award-winning cookbook author and Dean of Special Programs at The French Culinary Institute in New York City. And there’s more:

• Complete, step-by-step details and reliable resources for every aspect of the catering business
• Directories, references, and online resources for convenient access to everything from insurance to software to wine
• More than 200 surefire recipes
• Planning and budgeting aids, checklists, and charts; menus and menu worksheets for diverse events; job expense analysis and pricing guides; client interview outlines; and more

About the Author
FRANCINE HALVORSEN is a graduate of Columbia University and President of Studio Foods, which develops new food products for the gourmet consumer market. Well known for her stylish catering and distinctive events, she has also coached numerous start-up food entrepreneurs.

Customer Reviews

good for a beginner
I think this was an excellent book for a person starting to plan a catering business--minus the large recipe section. It tells you exactly what to expect in this business, and includes helpful sample forms (i.e.billing, invoice) that will surely come in handy. In addition, Halvorsen includes helpful lists for restaurant schools,wholesale markets,kitchen suppliers, etc. for many cities throughout the US. Definitely worth the book price and recommended for someone who is starting out or even thinking of starting a business in the industry because she tells it like it is!

a very good intro to professional catering
When I bought this book we had been catering for awhile on a very small scale. Halvorsen does a excellent job of presenting catering as it really is, hard work, long hours and requires exceptional people and mgt. skills. She offers sound suggestions to help those on a shoe string budget choose wisely and avoid major catering pitfalls. The invoices and forms she uses as examples are more than adequate for anyone to use in their own fledgling business. For a basic book she covers alot of material in a general way leaving you with a outline of the areas you WANT to do more indepth research about. The only problem area for me with this book is the recipe section. I would rather have had a resource list that I could have pulled material from to find recipes elsewhere and had Halvorsen use those pages to cover advertising, taxes, bookeeping and so on in greater detail. Well worth the books purchase price.