CATERING THEORY Essays

CATERING (UNITS 1 AND 2)
Areas of study:
The industry – food and drink
Job roles, employment opportunities and relevant training
Health, safety and hygiene
Food preparation, cooking and presentation
Nutrition and menu planning
Costing and portion control
Specialist equipment
Communication and record keeping
Environmental considerations
1. The industry - food and drink
Types of establishments that provide food and drink
Commercial catering – they sell food and drink to make a profit. For example, a restaurant, take away or B&B
Non-commercial catering – don’t need to make a profit. For example, a prison canteen or hospital cafeteria
Residential catering – provide accommodation for their customers as well as serving food and drink. For example a bed and breakfast or hotel
Non-residential catering – don’t provide accommodation for customers for example a café
Contract caterers – provide food and drink at places where it’s not usually provided. The food provided depends on the event. For example fish and chips for a bingo night at the village hall or a five-course banquet for a charity ball. Contract caterers are also used at public events, such as a burger van at a music festival. The caterers either cook the food beforehand or they cook it at the venues. Advantages include: the caterers organise the menu and the food, they serve and feed the guests and clear up everything afterwards. This means the customer can enjoy the event and not worry about the food.
The type of services available in different establishments to include
Self-service – customers serve food to themselves. Advantages: don’t need a lot of staff, customers don’t have to queue for food, customers can take as much as they want. Disadvantages: hard to know how much food to provide for the customers
Fast food – in a fast food outlet, food is being cooked all the time. Customers order at a counter and are given their food straight away. Advantages: don’t need skilled staff, can serve a lot of customers quickly, easy for customers to get whilst out and about. Disadvantages: need expensive specialist equipment, such as fryers, expensive rent for high street outlets, limited menu options.
Cafeteria – customers are served readymade food at a counter. Advantages: don’t need many staff, or skilled staff, can serve a lot of customers quickly. Disadvantages: food has to be kept hot, customers have to queue
Take-away – customers order food at a counter and wait for it to be cooked. Customers take their food to eat elsewhere. Some take-aways deliver food, such as pizzas, to customers’ homes. Advantages: don’t need space to seat customers, don’t need staff to serve customers. Disadvantages: need very expensive specialist equipment, such as pizza ovens. May need to employ staff to deliver food.Buffet – each customer pays a fixed price and takes their food from a buffet table. Waiters can be employed to serve drinks and refill dishes. Advantages: don’t need a lot of staff, food can be both hot and cold, customers have a wide choice of food. Disadvantages: need a lot of space to set out food, hard to work out portion sizes – can provide too much of one food and too little of another
Plate service – when the presentation of a meal is done by the chef, the plates are then brought out to the customers by a waiter. Advantages: easy to control the size of each portion, presentation of each dish will be similar. Disadvantages: presenting the food uses the chefs time.
Waited service – when waiters and waitresses take customers’ orders and deliver the food. It’s used in places such as restaurants, cafes and hotels, or at large functions such as wedding receptions. Advantages: can serve lots of people quickly, provides a personal service, customers have a wide choice of food. Disadvantages: expensive to employ waiting staff, specialised equipment needed for serving, such as trolleys.
Automatic vending – vending machines are found in places where customers

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