Warren Leamard and Erin Henry came to speak to the class about their experiences in

catering. Much of what they had to say was self-evident, of course. Catering certainly involves

creativity, whether that be through a color wheel, table layout, or dish design. A less obvious

fact was Mr. Leamard’s information on the money to be made in the catering business. This is

not exactly surprising, but it does make me think about the odd position that catering companies

occupy — they have something of a monopoly on people who need large quantities of prepared

food but have no time to cook, but offer a savings compared to restaurants. I wonder if there

may be an opening for a catering company that cuts typical profits in half in order to be

competitive.

I was gratified to hear from Ms. Henry that she or her fellow chef will check some sort of

produce log or database to find out what is a good choice. This is an important element in

catering, but not one to which non-caterers usually have access, as far as I know. It seems to

pay to give caterers room to design menus themselves.

Both speakers put emphasis on what they do or would do for a customer — e.g.,

wheeling a hot box across a painful track of plywood, or fetching ice from across one of Key

West’s many deserts — which I find comforting as a potential future customer of catering

services, but I am unsure what the takeaway is meant to be for the class. I suppose that the

adage that “the customer is always right” may be more true for catering than it is in other

contexts, but I believe that that opinion is less popular now. Especially given the stories we have

heard about negotiating artist contracts and other aspects of event management, there seem to

be many situations in which customers take any opportunity to arrange things in their favor. At

the same time, there has been a theme through many of our speakers of maintaining

relationships with people and the utility that can bring to business.