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Catering TipsBy PJ

Catering – Better than restaurant food delivery

What’s better than restaurant food delivery? Catering!

Restaurant food delivery or catering – which is better? A Catering service is providing food and beverage service to off-site locations like venues, party halls, private residences or offices. They also cater different types of events like Business Catering, Special Event Catering and Wedding Catering. Depending on the catering company’s menu and culinary abilities, they can and may provide breakfast catering menus, banquet menus and/or wedding reception menus.

The Actual Delivery

A caterer will tell you a food delivery is not the same as a catered one. Most caters will deliver your order, unpack all your menu items, place settings and whatever else was ordered and set it up for you. A restaurant more than likely will deliver your food in bags or boxes, leaving you to unpack it and set it up. Restaurants may use their own food delivery personnel, or a hired delivery company, but caterers typically use their own staff to transport and deliver food, using insulated food carriers or other special equipment.

Types of Food Deliveryrestaurant food delivery

Business meeting catering can be upscale with china, flatware and glassware, complete with wait staff, or, more of a working lunch with a hot lunch buffet set up for guests to serve themselves. When time is limited and guests need to “work through lunch,” box lunches can also be a great corporate catered meal.

Most restaurants won’t have the ability to provide different levels of service, that professional caterers can. You can opt different types of delivery service with wait staff and bartenders, or a drop-off, set up (for guests to help themselves) and then a return trip to clean it up.

Special Event Food Delivery

Caterers are also in the business of providing an experience that coincides with the type of event you’re having, restaurants probably can’t.  For special occasions like grand openings, anniversaries, ribbon cuttings and wedding receptions, it’s a caterer’s responsibility to gather all the details of your event, suggest suitable catering menu items, prepare, provide, deliver and set up all of your food and beverage and any needed serving equipment. In some cases they will add décor to enhance the overall event. Special Event, Party Catering and Wedding Catering can also be formal, casual or designed with a theme in mind. Restaurant food delivery probably can’t do all that.

Serving Your Food Delivery

plated catering serviceThe actual serving of your menu depends on the service you want, and these types of events typically include wait staff to monitor the food and beverage and to serve your guests. If you’re offering cocktails or other alcoholic beverages, professional bartenders can be provided by most catering companies. Restaurant food delivery most likely will not include all of that.

Food Delivery Menus

Caterers also have menus for all occasions and all budgets from economical to extravagant. So, if you’re looking for places that deliver food, restaurants are one option; but caterers are your best one. They’ll simply have it all!

Ready to order your next food delivery?
Catering TipsBy PJ

Catering with Egg Dishes

Catering with Egg Dishes

Catering with egg dishes can include menu items like quiche, frittatas or omelets. But, what really is the difference between these? They all use eggs and have some sort of other ingredients like vegetables, meats and cheeses mixed in or added and that’s about where the similarity ends. All of these provide a great way to use up left overs that may have otherwise been thrown away.

Catering with egg dishesQuiche

Quiche is an oven baked, savory, custard-based pie with a pastry or potato crust with meats, vegetables and cheese blended in the egg mixture before baking. The custard portion is made from eggs and some sort of dairy. Cream is the best; however, you can use milk or half and half, which is what creates the richness of a quiche. For a 9 inch pie, a perfect ratio for the custard would be 3 large eggs (6 ounces) to 1 ½ cup (12 oz.) dairy. Too many eggs will make the quiche rubbery. Simply blend the egg and cream, add the fillings and pour into the prepared crust or put the filling into the pie shell, pour the egg mixture over the filling and bake at 350-375 for 30-40 minutes or until there is still a little bit of wobble to the pie otherwise it will be dry and over cooked. Let it sit about 5 minutes before cutting. Quiche can be served warm or room temperature as a buffet item or plated breakfast.

Frittatascatering with egg dishes

These are started in a frying pan, most commonly a cast iron frying pan, and one that is oven-safe because the frittata will end up in the oven. If you don’t have a frying pan, you can use on oven-safe dish. For a 12-egg frittata, use about a 10” dish with deep sides. Like quiche, these have egg and some sort of dairy, either milk, sour cream, yogurt or some sort of full-fat dairy lightly beaten with the egg.  The other ingredients are then mixed into the egg mixture and cooked in the skillet until set and then transferred into the oven to finish. If you’re adding cheese, shredded cheddar, gruyere or fontina will add a creamy melted cheese to every bite; ricotta or feta will provide bursts of flavor and Romano or parmesan provides a nice nutty flavor.

The trick to making a frittata is to cook, sauté or heat the other ingredients being used prior to starting the egg portion since those may not get hot enough or cooked enough otherwise. Frittatas bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350° or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean with no runny egg visible. These can be served warm or room temperature on a buffet or as a plated meal.

Omelet
catering with eggs
photo by ingredibleegg.org

An omelet is more of a fluffy almost scrambled egg dish made on the stove top. The extra ingredients are heated in a separate pan, and once the egg is set (kind of like a pan cake) the hot ingredients are placed in the center of the omelet and then the omelet is folded over those ingredients creating an “envelope” around the filling. A good ratio to use when making an omelet is 2 eggs to ¼ or 1/3 cup of filling. The filling can be meat, vegetables or cheese but none should be too chunky since an omelet is a bit delicate. The other differences with an omelet are these are usually made one serving at a time where quiche and frittatas serve a group, and, these are served hot right out of the skillet and can be a great action station at any catered breakfast.

Want help with your breakfast or brunch?