Catering Blog

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CATERING SALES & EVENT ACCOUNT MANAGER

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CATERING SALES & EVENT ACCOUNT MANAGER

Are you looking for an opportunity to create and sell special events, weddings and meetings? Aspen Catering is looking for you! We’ve been serving the entire Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex since 1997 and offer a casual environment, proven superior customer service, abundant repeat and new business and are looking for an experience catering sales manager to join our team.

Job Overview

  • Sell offsite caterings for corporate meetings and special events, social organizations, schools and individuals by managing inquiries from existing and past client, prospects and approved venues and fielding referrals.
  • Provide quality customer service to all assigned prospects, clients, vendors, and staff.

Responsibilities

  • Respond to customer inquiries promptly to secure group reservations.
  • Maintain a fresh knowledge of market trends and competition
  • Recommend menu selections, set-ups and other catering services to prospects and clients
  • Complete weekly productivity reports.
  • Recommend menu selections, set-ups and other catering services to prospects and clients
  • Generate and provide accurate Sales Quotes/Orders for events/orders and communicate them quickly
  • Prepare Sales Quotes/Orders, necessary Agreements for all catering requests using established timelines.  
  • Document all specified details concerning events on Sales Orders and complete all documents necessary including Floor Plans, Packing Slips and Game Plans where necessary.
  • Confirm and communicate deposit and billing arrangements with clients
  • Arrange for all related amenities with approved outside vendors negotiating for best price for clients.
  • Communicate with Management and catering operations staff Sales Order details which may include: room set up and other event services to ensure event is successful

Compensation:

Base salary starting at $40,000 plus commission, paid vacation and personal time off based on tenure, bonuses, and some remote work is possible.

Qualifications:

Minimum of 4-5 years of previous catering sales or food service-related special event experience in a catering environment with proven expertise in selling and up-selling social and corporate events.

  • Basic Education Requirement – Associate’s Degree
  • Possess a strong knowledge of catering operations including food, beverage, wine and spirits and catering service options.
  • Experience in a position that required constant multi-tasking with shifting priorities within a fast-paced environment.
  • Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
  • Ability to generate catering quotes, contracts, sales orders and other necessary paperwork
  • Proficient in Excel, Outlook and other traditional office software
  • Excellent oral and written communications demonstrating strong interpersonal skills- Effectively communicate with prospect, clients, employees and outside vendors.
  • Proven strong problem-solving skills; adaptable and can think on your feet
  • Desire for learning; enthusiastic; excellent listener; assertive; persuasive; have positive attitude and no fear of doing business over the phone
  • Ability to stand longer periods of time, when necessary, in order to successfully perform essential job functions.  
  • Able to work evenings, weekends, and some holidays, when needed

Required: Valid Texas Driver’s License; Automobile Insurance; Food Manager/Handler’s permit upon hiring

               

Email mail your resume to Pam@AspenCatering.com or mail to:

Aspen Catering, 3501 Ira E Woods, Ste 110, Grapevine, TX 76051

No phone calls please.

The Catering Insider August 2023

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Meeting Planning Pro Tip and New Happenings Inside Aspen Catering

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Fried Chicken Salad…just for you….just for summer

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Golden fried chicken tenders on fresh salad greens with diced tomato, hard cooked egg and plenty of cheddar cheese. Served with honey mustard dressing.

Order as a box lunch and we’ll include a dinner roll and chocolate chip cookies or, add to any sandwich or wrap trays to offer your guests even more variety. You’ll be glad you did.

Get your free quote or order now!

Just in time for summer…and just for you!

aspen catering best catering

Light and refreshing summer meals perfect for your next lunch or dinner gathering.

Get your free quote here!

How To Set A Proper Dinner Table

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party table settingConfused about how to set a proper dinner table?

Here are some details to get your table perfectly set!

Your menu, level of formality and the number of courses being served all help determine the proper table setting for your meal. The more formal the meal and the more formal the place setting means the more utensils will be needed. So how do you arrange everything for a formal meal?

Guest Space

The spacing of all of these items matter. The typical formal place setting requires about 15” per guests to allow enough elbow room at the table.  The actual plate should be 1” from the edge of the table, and the bottom of all the utensils should line up with the plate bottom.

Utensils

Utensils are placed so that the more outward utensils are used first. For the left side of the setting, if you’re having a seafood appetizer, that fork would be the furthest out, salad fork would be placed next to that and then the dinner fork would be closest to the actual place where plate will go. The dinner fork should be 1” away from the plate area. On the right side of the setting, if you’re offering soup, then a soup spoon would be the furthest out, then a teaspoon and then the dinner knife is closest to the actual place where the plate would be with the knife blade facing the plate. The dinner knife should be 1” from the plate area.

Dessert spoons and forks are placed directly above the area where the plates go so they’re easily accessible once dessert is served. The spoon handle should face right and the fork handle should face left. Coffee cups and saucers can be placed on the table if you so choose, placing it the right of the spoon however those are typically not placed until dessert is served.

If you’re using a Bread and Butter plate, then  that should be placed on the left side, arranged above the forks with the butter knife placed on the plate at an angle with the blade facing the edge of the table.

Glasses

The water glass should be placed as the most inside glass with the wine glass placed to the right and about 1” below the water glass.

Napkins

Napkins can be placed in the center of the place setting or to the left of the most outside fork. They can be simply folded or you can get creative with a fancy folded design. See how here.

To start actually setting the table:

If you’re using a charger,  place that centered in from of where each guest will sit 1” from the table edge. If you’re not using a charger, use the dinner plate on which the main meal will be served.

Place the Dinner Fork 1” to the left of that charger or plate with the bottom of the fork lined up with the bottom edge of the charger or plate. Measure 1”to the left the Dinner Fork, and place the Salad Fork with the bottom lining up with the Dinner Fork. If you’re using  a seafood fork, that would be placed 1” to the left of the Salad Fork with the bottom of it lining up with the other utensils.

Measure 1” to the right of the charger or plate and place the Dinner Knife with the blade facing the charger or plate and so that the bottom is lined up with the bottom edge of the plate. Measure 1” to the right and place the Spoon so the bottom of the spoon is aligned with the bottom of the Dinner Knife.

Place the wine glass about 3” from the Dinner Spoon and to the right a wee bit. The second wine glass would be placed to the left of the first wine glass and slightly higher. The Water glass goes about 3” to the left of the second wine glass and slightly higher so that when all are placed they’re angled as shown here:

holiday table setting

And now you’ve set the table in grand style!

Happy Entertaining!

Appetizers are All Aboard!

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Appetizers all set for a train ride!

Taking a pre-dinner train ride means you have to have some appetizers to nibble during the ride. We were asked to prepare these custom boxes – one for each passenger, individually sealed and ready for their eating pleasure.

Since there isn’t much room on a train, and no actual dining table, we created these hand held appetizer boxes with a collection of treats passengers could easily eat while holding a beverage. One to two bites and no utensils needed either! And, to minimize moving about on the train, each passenger appetizer box included a hand towelette to avoid any rush to the rest room for hand washing.

Minimal trash is a must on a train, we chose menu items that were easy to eat, required no heating and packed in boxes that, once emptied, could easily be stacked and stowed in one small trash bag. Here’s how we made them:

How to Build a GREAT Salad

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Building a great salad is easy to do.
Get the freshest ingredients you can buy, mix and match lettuces, veggies, fruits, nuts, cheeses and other salad items and start building your perfect lunch or dinner today.
Here is more information on the most popular salad ingredients to consider adding to salad today.

Best Salad Lettuce Choices

See pictures and all the details about them

Leaf Lettuce
Romaine
Iceberg
Boston
Bibb
Kale
Arugula
Spinach
Radicchio
Endive
Frisée

Most Common Vegetable Salad Ingredients

See how your favorites rank

Cucumbers
Carrots
Tomato – regular, cherry or grape tomatoes
Red Onion
Avocado
Bell peppers – any color or use several
Broccoli
Purple Cabbage
Celery
Cauliflower (keto friendly)
Portabello Mushrooms

Meats and Proteins
Best Cheeses To  Include
Other Fun Things to add

Bacon

Cheddar Croutons

Ham

Parmesan

Nuts – pecans, walnuts, almonds

Turkey

Swiss

Sunflower seeds

Chicken

Feta

Olives

Tuna Blue Cheese

Apples

Salmon

Strawberries

Hard Cooked Egg

Dried Cranberries

Shrimp

See how we made ours:

Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free and Keto Diet Catering

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Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free and Keto Diet Catering – what’s it all about?

And how do you cater these dietary restrictions?

Need help with your menu?

When creating a catering menu for a group of people, it’s best to ask your guests if there are any dietary restrictions that should be considered. The most popular menu requests are vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and the most recent menu request is keto friendly. Other limitations that affect catered menu planning are actual food allergies which should be treated very carefully and shared with any caterer you hire.

The most common allergies include milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, fish, soy and wheat.  And some people have uncommon but still very real reactions to certain ingredients like spices, mushrooms, garlic, food additives and even some food dyes.  Any and all information you collect about your guests’ special needs you should provide to your caterer and request they note those details on your menu.

vegetarian cateringVegetarian Catering Menus

Vegetarian menus are fairly common and easy to provide. Vegetarians don’t eat animals, but they do eat products that come from animals. There are 4 types of vegetarians:

Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat dairy products and eggs but avoid meat, poultry and seafood.

Ovo vegetarians eat eggs but no dairy, meat, poultry or seafood.

Pescatarian vegetarians, though in the vegetarian category, do eat fish and seafood but no meat or poultry.

Vegan Catering Menuscatering blog dallas

The best way to think about vegan menu items is this: if the food source has a “mom” they can’t eat it. Beef, chicken, fish and seafood all have or had a mom so they rely on fruits and vegetables as the staple in their diet. In order to incorporate necessary proteins (meats) add menu items that have soy, tofu, edamame, whole grains (quinoa and oats), beans, seeds (pumpkin, hemp and tahini) and nuts (almonds, cashews and peanut butter).

Gluten-Free Catering Menus

People with celiac disease, or those who have sensitivity to gluten, can have reactions ranging from slight to severe and their menu needs should be taken seriously while others opt to follow this diet for non-medical reasons. Gluten is actually a protein found in wheat, rye and barley and all of these must be avoided in any menu for guests on this diet. Certain food ingredients can also contain gluten like modified food starch, malt and maltodextrin which could be used in processed fruits and vegetables, salad dressings, gravies and sauces.  It’s best to have your caterer assist you in identifying suitable menu ideas for those on this diet because they should know what they can prepare to meet this demand.

catering blog produceKeto Friendly Catering Menus

This is becoming a very popular request for catered meals. A ketogenic diet is based on very low-carbohydrate and high fat diet meaning many fruits and vegetables can’t be used. Black berries, raspberries and strawberries are acceptable as are vegetables grown above ground like cauliflower, cabbage, avocado, spinach and kale. For the protein portion, beef, pork, fish or seafood are good options but avoid processed meats like sausages and cold cuts. Condiments like ketchup, BBQ sauce, jams and jellies should be avoided but mayonnaise, cream cheese, guacamole and butter is welcomed because of the high fat content. Here is a great visual guide to what can be eaten on this diet

Professional caterers are starting to indicate menu items for all these needs on their menus like this:

(G) throughout the menu are typically gluten free
(K) throughout the menu are typically Keto Friendly

Or, they might have a separate special menu they can give you to address these needs.

Dairy Free / Lactose Intolerant Catering Menus

Menus using milk, butter and other dairy related ingredient have to be modified since these people can’t digest the sugar in milk which is called lactose.  Silk Milk, Soy Milk and Lactose Free Milk are all common substitutes for traditional dairy milk.  Dairy free menu would use no dairy at all and substitute plant-based alternatives instead.

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