House 2 House Catering

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  • Catering From Your Home

    When starting out in the catering world, it is likely that you will be offering this service from your own home. So, today we are going to share with you some of our tips when you are catering from your home.

    Step 1 – Organise Your Kitchen
    Before you even begin offering a catering service from your home, you want to organise your current kitchen. You want to work out your storage situation. Know exactly where food will be going that is for your home life. As well as where your ingredients will be going that you need for your catering service. The organisation in your kitchen is most important when running a catering business from your home.

    Step 2 – Cleanliness
    When you are working as a caterer from your home, you will need to have your kitchen inspected to ensure it is safe for food. This means your kitchen needs to be extremely clean. Before you book in for your inspection, make sure you have cleaned every aspect of your kitchen to be able to show a clean and safe area for work.

    Step 3 – Packaging
    One aspect that home caterers tend to forget is the packaging. You do need to have packaging for your goods. If you are someone who is catering for events, this can be fairly large. You need to ensure you have somewhere practical to store this and remember to use it.

    These are just a few of the steps that you need to take to ensure you are able to cater effectively from your home. It is important to remember catering from your home is no different to using a large warehouse. You still need to follow the same regulations as safety is always the number one priority especially in the food industry.

  • Starting Out In Catering – Here’s What You Need To Know

    Working in catering is the dream for some people. Whether this is catering full events, or providing people with food-related gifts to suit their needs, the options in the catering industry are endless. But, today we are going to share with you what you need to know when starting out in the catering world.

    When you are starting your own catering career, there are many things that you will need to consider. The first and most important is your food license. When working with food you need to ensure that you have your own food license and a hygiene rating to display. This ensures that you are safe to be selling any food-related products from your premises.

    You will also need to decide what kind of catering you want to invest yourself into. Do you want to be someone who caters meals for events? Someone who provides the sweet treats? Or someone who is making bespoke gifts that people can share with friends and family? Whichever option you choose you need to complete research into what you will need tool wise to begin with.

    With any catering business, you will need to know what food you are using. Research where you can source your ingredients to create your products. This will help you to discover what your pricing needs to be and how much profit you can make.

    With any business, the starting point is research. Before you even come up with your business name and idea, you need to research. Research everything you can think of, speak to other people in the industry and get your head right in the game from the first step. The last thing you want to do is miss a vital piece of information right at the beginning.

  • Designing the Right Kitchen for you

    A kitchen is a very subjective thing and the perfect kitchen will vary from person to person. If you would like to design a commercial kitchen, then this might have very different appliances, and a different layout, to a domestic kitchen. The ideal kitchen will be a personal choice that you need to arrive at along with your kitchen designer.

    Before getting a kitchen, commercial or domestic, designer, think about what is important to you and how you will need to use your kitchen. For example, will you need a commercial extractor fan? Will you need extensive preparation surfaces? How will you choose to have your kitchen laid out, so that there is a good balance of work surfaces, storage, and cooking facilities? These are all very important points that will need to be discussed in conjunction with your kitchen designer so that you can get the most out of your kitchen.

  • Taking Responsibility for Hygiene in your Kitchen

    Hygiene is your ultimate responsibility in your commercial kitchen and you need to take responsibility for everything that happens in there. If there is catering equipment that hasn’t been sterilised, if you have pests or some kind of infestation, or if you don’t clean surfaces as much as you should, then this is all your responsibility.

    It’s important that you keep any objects that aren’t from your kitchen away from food preparation areas. For example, if a customer wants to take food home with them and they have brought their own container, it is usually required that they pack the food themselves at their table. This avoids you having potentially dirty containers in your kitchen that could have all manner of bugs and diseases. You can’t be too vigilant when it comes to protecting and cleaning your kitchen and making sure that hygiene is at the forefront, all of the time.

  • Catering Hire for Restaurants

    Restaurants will often have more equipment in house than general caterers, as they are based in one spot only. However, there might be times when a restaurant doesn’t quite have everything required, especially if you are working with outside caterers who are coming onto your premises. Rather than investing in new equipment, it is much more cost effective for you to hire in catering equipment.

    Many catering equipment suppliers will be happy to help you out. They can advise you on what you might need, talk about prices (especially if you are hiring in bulk – there are often good deals to be had) and deliver your equipment to you on site. If you have any queries, a good catering equipment supplier will be able to talk you through everything. As a restaurant owner, make sure you are completely happy with the quality and that it meets your strict standards.

  • Renting Catering Equipment – What You Need to Know

    Renting catering equipment is an essential part of your work in catering. You will inevitably need to rent out equipment from time to time, especially if you are working somewhere that doesn’t have its own equipment to hand. The equipment you rent could be anything from a stove to a set of serving equipment, depending on what is needed.

    It’s best if you can find a reliable supplier who will be able to provide everything you need, all in one place. One you have established a relationship with a particular supplier, make sure to maintain it, so you know they will be quick to respond if there is something that you need.

    Find a supplier who rents equipment out by the day – it is usually not worth paying by the hour. It’s also good if you can find a supplier who has everything that you need in one place, so you can get all your equipment directly from them.

  • Gastronorm Pans for your Catering Business

    As a caterer, you will know how much you rely on the equipment you use in your work. No more so than with gastronorm pans, which are a key component of so many of the things you do. With their steel construction and practical shape, they will underpin so many of the processes that happen within your catering kitchen.

    A good gastronorm pan will work in various context, whether you put it in a bain marie or you are using it to store food. It can be used for cooking, as well as for storing and serving food, and keeping it at temperature if necessary. Many caterers will have reams of these pans in their kitchens, to serve various occasions.

    Buy your gastronorm pans with lids, so you know they will fit perfectly. This will keep food effectively and will make sure all food is stored correctly. Buy them from reputable catering suppliers.

  • Baking Equipment for Catering

    Baking is a popular hobby, what with all the programmes that are now on television and baking becoming more mainstream. However, if you work as a professional cook and want to bake, the circumstances are going to be very different because:

    • You have time pressures
    • You need to make bigger batches
    • You don’t have the opportunity to get it wrong – you are selling this food

    The right equipment helps your baking to be a success. Think about investing in:

    • New tins. Tins should be replaced regularly, and you should buy ones that are big enough to accommodate larger batches.
    • A cake mixer. For mixing dough, you simply cannot get better results than with a cake mixer. Use a handheld whisk if this isn’t something you can purchase.
    • An oven thermometer. If you cook on different sites regularly, you will be using different ovens all the time. You need to make sure they are showing the correct temperature, or your cakes, cookies and sweets could burn.

  • Working with an Events Planner

    Working in the catering and events industry, you are going to need some good contacts in order to get the best work. It’s competitive – everyone will be going after similar jobs in your marketplace. Having a close working relationship with an events planner will really help.

    Much of the work in this industry comes from referrals and word of mouth – people will tell theit friends if they have had a particularly good wedding buffet, or if they have had excellent service when looking for someone to cater a party last minute. This is how you will grow your business and get more work.

    If you are affiliated with an events manager, they can do some of this hard work for you, passing on your details to their clients. It’s important you have a website and/ or brochure so when people want to find out more about you, they have somewhere to go.