When you think about how to make your catering business successful, you have specific goals in mind: making customers happy, building a solid client base and showing a profit. Consider the power of fresh produce to help you hit those important targets.
Sourced from dependable vendors, vegetables deliver real value to both the consumer and accounting sides of your business. Fresh produce expands your range for keeping customers satisfied while it holds down food costs. It’s an ideal ingredient for growing catering operations of all sizes.
Guidelines for Successful Catering: 7 Produce Sourcing Tips
Your capabilities for planning, preparing and serving always get better when you source the best from the best. As you weigh your choices among vendors, look for suppliers of fresh produce who deliver quality, value and inspiration.
1. Let Your Source Cater To You
A produce grower and supplier with an established record of excellence is an important asset to your catering business. You want to work with a company that goes that extra distance and gets to know your unique operation. When a supplier caters to your specific needs, you’re assured of a dependable source of premium produce year-round.
2. Keep Your Reputation Fresh
By sourcing from a top-tier grower and shipper, you know that every vegetable dish you prepare starts with the finest produce available. From baby iceberg lettuce turkey tacos on a luncheon buffet to formal dinner salads with hearts of romaine, your reputation stays fresh. That’s the kind of catering that generates loyal clients.
3. Keep Growing Profits
Quality vegetables hold down food costs. Premium produce consistently preps with higher yields and less waste. Longer shelf life stretches tight food-cost dollars too. Don’t overlook the economy of developing plant-based menus that cater to customers with appetites for healthy choices. Fresh vegetables help you grow bigger profit margins.
4. Stay Inspired With Sourcing
Most guidelines for successful catering include pointers on becoming more inventive in the kitchen. Innovation is key to staying in front of the competition. Sourcing the best possible produce from a reliable vendor inspires your culinary talents. When you work with a rich palette of colors, textures, and tastes, inspiration is always on the menu.
5. Put Power Into Presentations
Develop a delicious dish, market its healthy qualities, and you enjoy customer compliments. Take that same plate, perfect its presentation, and you turn it into a memorable moment worth snapping, tweeting and sharing. Creativity results in wonderful veggie appetizers, sides and entrees. A polished presentation turns your carefully sourced produce into social media food stars.
6. Market Veggie-Centric Versatility
Often, customers ask for menu planning that accommodates special diets or caters to trending tastes. You’re perfectly positioned to handle all kinds of requests when you have a dependable produce source. By offering veggie-centric options, you can market your services as healthy, versatile alternatives to traditional catering operations.
7. Be Ready For Anything Anytime
By partnering with a supplier who offers premium produce sourcing year-round, you’re always ready to exceed your clients’ highest expectations. From springtime weddings to winter holiday parties, you have fresh ingredients for every season and delicious vegetable dishes for every occasion. That’s the kind of service that keeps your catering business fresh for years to come.
Sourcing the Very Best
As you develop different ideas for how to make your catering business successful, keep fresh produce high on your list of winning strategies. It appeals to consumers’ appetites for healthy choices, works well with budgets of all sizes and lets your culinary creativity shine.
We’re proud to be a dependable source for premium produce and a trusted partner to catering and food service operations of all sizes. As one of California’s most established growers and shippers, you can count on Hitchcock Farms to always make sure that you source the very best of the best.
