EP5 Working with the catering team at your next gala
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Impact Unleashed, the nonprofit edition, where we dive deep into the untapped potential of nonprofits and their remarkable ability to create a lasting impact. I'm your host, Sara Mayer. Let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hello, everyone. I'm super excited about this episode. As you may or may not know, I have planned numerous galas, dinner fundraisers for nonprofits. And as we continue our event series, one of the biggest things that I get asked is how do we ensure that evening goes really well? Most events of this nature, like a gala, have a reception in the foyer or are held in a lobby and they kind of corral people outside of the ballroom or maybe a tent if you're outside.
Sara Mayer: And I've seen some really upscale events in tents. [00:01:00] Many times they corral people out there. There's a bar, there's an auction, maybe a raffle or anything like that. And we're not going to talk about auction and raffles today. Cause I have an entire episode about auction raffles, different fuzz, fundraising opportunities that you can do at an event to raise money.
Sara Mayer: We're going to specifically talk about what happens in the room and. I will say I'm going to frame it from the lens of what needs to be worked out with your catering company for the food. We will talk about all the other event components as well, because I know that you guys are dying to know about those event components.
Sara Mayer: But one of the things that is most overlooked when we're Organizers organize a gala is working with your catering company to ensure that it goes well. Many of you may or may not know the caterer has a lot to do when it comes to an event. If it's an [00:02:00] event at a hotel, they have a banquet team, very different than if it's offsite.
Sara Mayer: So First, I'll talk about the banquet team events. Now they have a regular rhythm. They have staff that are probably there almost every event. They also have fixed things like the dish area, the prep area, the food area. They have a lot of supplies that are already there. And they have people that are usually the Person who works that event.
Sara Mayer: So they have a more structured standard staff because that staff is always going to the same venue. They have a routine and they know how things go. And I'm going to caution you about this a little bit, because while there is a lot of experience that comes with that team, you also have to remember they're doing things cookie cutter.
Sara Mayer: And ensuring that you and the catering team are on the same page is really important. [00:03:00] So I'm going to pause there to talk about the banquet team. And then we're going to talk about all dinner type service or food type service during your gala. Then you have, maybe you have rented a, I've done events where it's like at a museum and they have a tent outside or they have rented a space and.
Sara Mayer: It's not a banquet or a hotel where the staff is always at that place. And so one thing to remember is that there is a higher rental cost for that because your catering team is going to be With you're going to have to rent all the stuff for them. They're going to rent stuff for them as well. And they're going to bring some stuff probably from their shop.
Sara Mayer: So if they're cooking on site, there's a big expense for them to rent all that equipment to cook on site. And so it's really important. are thinking about your venue location, that you understand that just because you're not paying a huge [00:04:00] venue fee, doesn't mean that you're going to save as much money just being outside.
Sara Mayer: So you really need to think about that budget. And remember the catering team is going to be bringing all this stuff in and they are going to need to set up a kitchen. They are going to need to set up. a place for their breakdown so that they are able to function. And so many times that requires more setup prep time.
Sara Mayer: So it's really important when you are deciding your venue, you think about the times that you have and you work with your catering team early. Especially if you're going to bring them from, if you're at a site where they're not normally operating out of, and that's really important because so many times I've seen people set up fake spaces and they don't give the catering team enough room, or they don't think about the fact that a truck has to come in and load out and they're on this grass and then there's no way for them to [00:05:00] load out because.
Sara Mayer: You're blocking the load out. So that leaves people sitting there for hours, waiting to load out that are on the clock on the bill. So it's really important. Tip number one, include your catering team early when you're making these key decisions, include them early, make sure you understand what they truly need and what's all involved now, remember they're going to cater to you, especially the load in load out thing.
Sara Mayer: But you could ask have we left you enough space to load out? Have we left you enough space to cook? Have we provide, are there enough table spaces for you to lay out the food as you want it? What would make this job easier for you and most cost effective? And so those are really important things to have early, those conversations.
Sara Mayer: So number one, involve your caterer early. Understand what it is [00:06:00] going to take for them to produce your event and Make sure that they have all the equipment they need. So number two, what equipment do you need to make this a successful event? And then I always like to ask my caterer, what would make this easier for you?
Sara Mayer: So I'm going to talk through some things. I've worked with many caterers from a gala perspective, from an event perspective, and I'm just going to talk through some of my pet peeves or things that I would do and why. So first off, if you are having a fundraiser. And your program is jam packed, which many of them are.
Sara Mayer: You're probably going to have people there for two, two and a half hours. When you get into, once they're in the dinner service or the, the event part, you could be doing a lunch. So I keep saying dinner, but once they're in that part, Two, two and a half hours is the sweet spot. So if you open the doors at seven, eight, nine, [00:07:00] 10 is three hours.
Sara Mayer: That's too long. Even if you open the doors at six 30, seven 38 39 30, depending on the day people want to get home. So you really only have their attention for about three hours. Now, from a catering perspective. Serving times vary, but let's start off with this. So before you even get to the event, when you're picking the menu, keep it simple.
Sara Mayer: Please keep it simple. Please keep it simple. I have worked for many caterers, and I can tell you that I have been to galas where there are six menu choices. It didn't start out that way, but it ended up that way. So the more choices, options, things you have, the fancier the food that you have, the more dietary restrictions you have.
Sara Mayer: So keep it simple when picking your menu. [00:08:00] So for example, you may love love, love the very fancy chicken with the very fancy sauce that's dipped in the very fancy thing. And it may be great to you. However, it has soy sauce. And so some people don't eat soy sauce and some people are gluten free and some people are this, and some people are that, and some, the more simple menu you can have the better.
Sara Mayer: So I worked in event for an example, charity. They had three options. They had a beef, they had a chicken, which was breaded, very important. Don't pick the breaded chicken. They picked a breaded chicken and guess what happens? It's not gluten free. And it was also dipped in soy sauce. And then they had a fish, which was a salmon, which had soy sauce on it.
Sara Mayer: So they had two menu options with soy sauce. So the beef, if I don't eat beef and I'm gluten free, Oh, and the beef had potatoes on it. [00:09:00] And some people don't eat potatoes. So you have so many dietary restrictions. So keep it simple. So they had really three choices for guests. Three, the beef, the salmon, and the chicken.
Sara Mayer: The chicken was breaded, remember? But because some people couldn't have the breading, the caterer also had to have a chicken with no breading. Because some people also can't or won't have soy sauce. That had to be There had to be an option of the fish without soy sauce. And then because some people were gluten free and they didn't want potatoes with their beef, they now had a beef option without potatoes.
Sara Mayer: And then of course you had people who don't eat fish, chicken, or beef. So they ended up with a vegetarian pasta. So now we have seven menu options. And so this gala had 500 people. The organizers had to find out from [00:10:00] 500 people, if anybody was allergic to this, but what they did that didn't work was. They didn't publish the menu.
Sara Mayer: So I'm going to talk about that in a second. So they had seven menu options. When you walk up to a table of 11 and you have a possible of seven or table of 10, and you have a possible of seven options, your table service time, the time it's going to take for the caterers to drop that food goes up exponentially.
Sara Mayer: So normally I like to estimate that it's two minutes per table. So in this case, they had about 20. Oh, 500. They had about 50 tables. So two minutes per table. You're talking about two hours to drop all those plates with seven menu options. Two minutes is actually slow. One minute probably could be a lot faster, but with seven menu options, there's no way you're going to do that without seven minutes.[00:11:00]
Sara Mayer: Without two minutes. So anyway, just know that how many menu options you have really does change how long it's going to take them to get in and out of the room for dinner. Okay, so that's on the planning part. You're thinking about the menu. All right. Let's talk about the guests really quick. It is when you pick the menu, it is really important that you don't, I I think it's a lot easier, make, save yourself some time when you have 500 people, you do not need to know about 500 people's allergies.
Sara Mayer: You don't need to know that I'm allergic to latex or Susie's allergic to cherries because you're not putting latex or cherries on the plate. Okay. So what. The best practice to do is to pick your menu and publish it when people buy their tickets or tables and then ask them, is there anything on the menu [00:12:00] that you're allergic to that we need to be aware of?
Sara Mayer: Because if people know what the menu is, then they are able to tell you what they can't have. Rather than finding out all these things and having to sift through them, They've already seen the menu. So save your time on that and keep it simple. Do a beef or a chicken and then do a vegetarian option. Try not to make a lot of choices for dinner.
Sara Mayer: Go crazy on desserts or appetizers, because then there's a choice whether they want them or not, whereas keep the dinner meal simple. So when picking your menu please keep the dinner menu simple, because that will keep your program time, that will keep the servers out of the program, out of the chaos.
Sara Mayer: A lot sooner, and I'm going to make a statement here and I know a lot of nonprofits don't [00:13:00] like this, but we need a caterers need to know they need to have place cards. If you want to have less interruption during your program, when the guests. Pick their menu option, give, have them have a place card and put a little chicken or beef on there or make them different colors that are very obvious when it's dark.
Sara Mayer: Sometimes people will pick a Navy and a lighter blue, but they're too close together. So you can't really tell which is which, but let them have place cards. And so many. Many nonprofits will say, I don't want to do place cards because then people have to check in, go the wedding route, put them on a wall, maybe make it your logo.
Sara Mayer: And then if you look up wedding place cards, you can make it a picture and then it has their names. And then on the back, it says their table and what their food choices. So Save time for the caterers by having place cards. [00:14:00] That's really an important step when you're planning a gala, because then what can happen is somebody can walk in with their two plates, chicken and beef or whatever you have.
Sara Mayer: They can see, Oh, Bob, you have beef and slide it in without saying a word. If you don't have place cards, what actually happens is People will walk up to your table and say, I'm looking for, if you know what Bob has beef, I'm looking for Bob, they're going to be writing down, where is Bob sitting that takes time.
Sara Mayer: And it also requires your guests to get in the ballroom and get seated really quickly. And your server is interrupting your program, trying to figure out where all these people are sitting. When you have place cards, all they need to do is walk up to Bob. Bob, can you put your place card right here? Yeah.
Sara Mayer: Okay. It's a super easy, quick thing. And then people start to catch on around the table. So she doesn't, the server doesn't need [00:15:00] to talk to all 12 people. Once Bob and Susie put their cards out, the other people catch on. So they're not interrupting the program, trying to figure out where people are sitting.
Sara Mayer: And then the other interruption, if you don't have place cards, is once the food comes, then they're going to be figuring out Okay, Bob, move seats. So I thought Bob was sitting here. He's over here now. It saves interruption in your program. So Yes, it takes a little time. It's a mail merge out of Excel. Have people tell you what their choices are, mail merge, and do a little place card.
Sara Mayer: You can even just put them on the table to pick them up when they come. It doesn't mean you have to have people check in, but place cards truly help your servers. Truly help your servers. And I know some people are like, Oh, I don't the little chicken on there. Doesn't matter. But if somebody sees a little chicken on their place card and they really can't have chicken, they're going to tell the server right [00:16:00] away and they're going to take care of that.
Sara Mayer: So I think it's so important to think about how do we create moments or do things in advance to cut down our time that we're actually dropping food. Alright, that's a little bit about the menu. Now, I really love an appetizer pass during The cocktail hour or an appetizer buffet or a dessert buffet.
Sara Mayer: I don't suggest that you actually do an appetizer in the room. Some people will do like a soup and then a salad, or they'll do some type of appetizer drop, save the money, walk the appetizers through the room. or do something like a appetizer display, like a buffet type thing that they can go to. Same thing for dessert.
Sara Mayer: Have the desserts be a buffet. Don't have those plates be dropped. So when you think about dinner service, you're going to walk into the room. That's your [00:17:00] wow moment. The last thing you want people doing are servers walking around you. Asking people where they're sitting, making sure they're in the right place, figuring out the menu.
Sara Mayer: I don't suggest having salads run to the floor. I suggest you have preset salads because your wow moment needs to be focused on the stage. That's your intro. That's your welcome. That's your wow. You do not want servers talking to people. All you want them do, all you want them doing is pouring wine. If people want wine, and that can be a pointing project, it can be pretty silent.
Sara Mayer: You only want people pouring wine and dropping warm bread baskets, or bread baskets already dropped when they come in. So have preset salads. It keeps the people out of the room for as long as possible. Now, I am going to say one thing about this. Remember, the caterers are professionals. They can do it quietly.
Sara Mayer: And you don't want to tell the [00:18:00] caterers you can't be in the room for this, and you can't be in the room for that, and you can't be in the room for that. They have a job to do. So let them do that. But during the ask, when you're actually asking for money, should be the time you don't want anybody in the room clearing plates or dropping food.
Sara Mayer: So when you set your program, so have preset salads, pro tip, preset salads. Now, once you have preset salads, then what's going to need to happen is after the salads, after they eat the salads. You can communicate with your sir, with your catering staff. Do you want sweep clearing or do you want individual clearing?
Sara Mayer: And individual clearing is when, as soon as one person's done at the table, they're going to take each person's thing. So that person's going to come up multiple times to the table. I don't like that. I rather would have people wait till the whole table is finished, clear the whole table. So they come in and clear and then they leave.
Sara Mayer: It's a lot quicker. It's a lot less distracting. So have that [00:19:00] conversation with your caterer. Like I'd rather have you clear all at once rather than just. clear as you go. Okay. So after the salad, when dinner comes around, you want to make sure in the program that is a part that is either a break or a talk that you don't need full attention.
Sara Mayer: So it could be, something where somebody is giving out some unimportant awards or some break or something like that. I always like to remind people that their MC has a script and sometimes the MC will say and dinner is served, but the dinner is not coming out until 20 minutes later because you're ahead or maybe you're behind and dinner's already been served.
Sara Mayer: So the MC sometimes jump the gun on that because they're not aware of what's going on. So when dinner is served, they're going to serve the dinner. They're going to bring the plates out again, place cards [00:20:00] are your friend, and then they will let people eat and then they will clear at some point. And at this point, you're in the spot where you may be asking for money.
Sara Mayer: So if you're thinking about salads, if they're preset, they're going to give them about 20 minutes, eat their salad, and then you're going to have dinner. It's going to take two minutes to serve the dinner per person. Person, and then you have about 20 minutes to eat that you're about 40 minutes in now, maybe even 50.
Sara Mayer: And that's where you really need to think about in your program, making sure that ask, because they still have to clear the plates about an hour in making sure that at where that ask falls, you don't want people sitting with their dirty dinner on their plate while they're trying to raise their paddle and look in there.
Sara Mayer: If you have a program for the auction, you don't want that. You want all those dinner plates cleared before. So before the ask or the auction, so I want you to think about when that [00:21:00] ask is in your program. Have you allowed your catering company? That's why you need to work with them early to do everything they need to do to clear the salads.
Sara Mayer: Serve the dinner. Clear the dinner. Okay. That's super important. Super critical. And then the other thing to talk with your catering company about, and this drives me bananas, and you can talk about this because if you don't talk about it, they might not know. So sometimes what will happen is they don't clear the entire table at once and then they'll send One person proper etiquette is salt and pepper wouldn't be on the table for dessert, but they'll send one person around.
Sara Mayer: So they'll pick up the dinner plates and then they'll pick up the dinner fork and knives, which is great. But then they'll send one or two people around. One person will pick up the salt on a tray and it's like clink, clink clink, clink. And one person will pick up the pepper clink, clink clink.[00:22:00]
Sara Mayer: And then somebody will come around and pick up some other random thing that's on the table. Maybe the, if you had salad dressing bowls or butter or something clink, clink, clink, clink. Okay. So the salt and pepper can live on the table. Like it's not a priority and it's so distracting during the ask.
Sara Mayer: So give them the time to have the tables cleared. And then when it's, if they're not cleared by then it can stay on the table. It's. Fine. But during an ask, the last thing you want to do is somebody walking around clinking salt and pepper shakers. That is not essential to remove from the table. Okay. All right.
Sara Mayer: So after clearing, I always suggest a dessert buffet. Now I'm going to talk about drinks, two things.
Sara Mayer: Don't close the bar. Do not close the bar for the dinner. Lots of people, even if you have wine service, so lots of [00:23:00] people do not drink wine. And what happens when you close the bar? Is that people who do not drink wine are either going to get a lot of drinks before and they're going to come in, they're going to have five drinks around, or they're not going to have any drinks.
Sara Mayer: And then there is a thing about people being not happy enough to give. And so don't close the bar, have a bar, at least one bar in the room during the dinner and people will take wine. Isn't it? If even if they won't drink it because that's the only option and then they leave the glasses like half full or everything.
Sara Mayer: So I suggest that if you are going to do wine at the table, you do in a white and you do a red and I always suggest you stay away from Chardonnay. And I will tell you because I'm a white drinker. People who don't drink wine. will pick a white, but they won't like a Chardonnay typically. And that's a big statement, but they won't like [00:24:00] a Chardonnay.
Sara Mayer: So go with something like a Pinot Grigio or something a little lighter so that they're not Picky because what happens is they don't drink wine, so they'll take a white and then they don't like it and then you have a full glass of wine sitting there. All right, so a little bit about drinks. I do not recommend a coffee service.
Sara Mayer: And I'll tell you why. For starters, it's a lot of noise in your ballroom. Somebody has to walk around. With cups and plates and ask people if they want coffee, put the cups and plates down. Then another person, because that person can't hold the cup and plate, another person has to walk around with the coffee, regular and decaf.
Sara Mayer: It's a big distraction in your room. And then you will have somebody who wants tea. And then that person is going to get a tea box, a lemon, a sugar thing, a honey thing. It's. A process. So I don't suggest you offer coffee. It's not worth the cost that you're going to pay for it. Many catering [00:25:00] companies charge per the gallon.
Sara Mayer: So you're paying for it. I had an event, 500 people. We serve five coffees, but they paid for enough coffee to make sure we had enough for everyone. What a waste of money, five coffees. And they were trying to do this coffee during the middle of the ask, because that was the time to do it. So don't serve coffee.
Sara Mayer: Stay away from lemonade and tea. It's also a waste of money and time. Leave the bar open, let people get Coke, sodas, stuff off the bar. It's way easier and they can get what they want rather than forcing them to have lemonade or tea, especially a choice. I can't tell you how many times somebody puts tea on the tables and they're, you're paying again for how much tea and many people do not drink it.
Sara Mayer: And then you have the one person who drinks a ton, let that be on the bar if they want it to be on the bar. But your goal is to minimize the distraction in the room. The [00:26:00] more choices people have to make, the more times the server has to tell 10 people at each table, like I have lemonade and tea. Do you want lemonade or tea?
Sara Mayer: Do you want this? the less focused they are on your program. So take the, make the dinner simple. Go crazy on appetizers and dessert. Great way to do dessert instead of dropping it on the table. Have a buffet, have it as they walk out. I've seen where they've had like mini Bundt cakes and bags that people can take to go have everybody get up and go to a reception in another room with dessert and that type of thing.
Sara Mayer: So the real goal, when you're planning a gala, you got to work with your caterer early. You need to figure out what's required. You need to keep the dinner service. Simple. Have place cards, give people the menu in advance so they can make informed decisions about their diet. You probably aren't going to be able to accommodate everybody, just [00:27:00] know that, but if you're aware, like some people are kosher and that requires a special meal, but if your caterer, if your guests know what the menu is and then your caterer knows what the guest's dietary needs are as specific to that menu, that's important.
Sara Mayer: All right. We just covered a lot for your program. I think that one thing to keep in mind is working with your caterer early and making sure they understand your expectations and also that you've talked through these things. Hopefully that's helpful. I look forward to seeing what you do at your next gala.
Thank you for tuning into this episode of Impact Unleashed, the nonprofit edition. I'm so excited you were here on this journey. If you haven't signed up for our newsletters and wonderful resources, please visit nonprofit impact unleashed. co again, that's [00:28:00] nonprofit impact unleashed. co I look forward to seeing you on our next episode.
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