This article tells it like it really is. Some of the scenarios have been changed a little to protect the reputation of the vendor but be rest assured that these are real experiences that Nigerian vendors have encountered in the hands of Clients.


Confessions of an Event Caterer: 'Help Us Tell your Squad and Your Mother-in- laws to Chill'

Event catering is a difficult and exciting job at the same time because you are responsible for a lot and you have to work with different people.

“In my 13 years of catering for events, I have come across different types of clients. I came into the catering industry because of my love for the kitchen little did I know that catering is more than just cooking and serving food. Today, I’d be sharing some of my deepest confession and struggles as a caterer in Nigeria for both individual parties and corporate events.


We are not magicians

It can be very annoying when your clients think that you are a magician and can perform the magic of providing extra food when they one they book for is exhausted. It baffles me when they think we have extra food stuck somewhere or we have the power to turn water into food and drinks like Jesus
did several years ago at the wedding of Cana in Galilee.

This insufficient food is usually due to poor planning and indecisiveness on the part of the client, especially during weddings. You ask them how many people you are catering for, they tell you 200 guests but on the day of the event, you find 500 people seated and waiting to be served.

There was a particular client that I can never forget. She was christened her child and wanted us to cater for 100 people at the cost of N250 per plate. She wanted this N250 meal to contain Rice, Chicken, Moimoi and coleslaw. In my head, how am I supposed to achieve this with N250? After many bargains, we settled for N300 per plate for 100 guests. On the day of the event, you won’t believe that there were more than 300 guests seated waiting patiently to be served party jollof rice.

Plus when we say there’s no meat again just believe us because either of these two things has happened to the meat;
It's either the meat is truly finished or
The cabals of the event have taken the meat away to somewhere unknown
When the cabals have taken the meats away, what are we supposed to do to salvage the situation?


Compliments boost our morale

I don’t even know how to talk about this but it is as simple as the subheading indicates. We need that little “Thank you and well done you did a great Job!” That kind of words go a long way in helping to massage our ego after everyone in the event has altered them. It is not a crime to say thank you. I understand the bit that you paid me for my services and I’m only doing my job but we caterer would appreciate it if you genuinely said thank you to us for catering for your event. I remember a scenario where I catered for a lady’s party. After the event she called to say thank you, you could hear the genuine excitement and gratitude in her voice and this made me so happy that when she requested I baked a cake for her child’s birthday I did it with a discount of 10% and she, in turn, brought more customers for me. You see eventually that at the end, it was a win-win scenario for both my client and me.

We actually want you to have an opinion

I don’t know if it’s only me that has worked with clients that don’t know what they want exactly. They keep making you go back and forth. Please help us to help you by stating exactly what type of food you want and the estimated number of guests that you’d be expecting. I know that there are other clients that are over opinionated and won’t take your advice because they feel that they are wealthy, they, therefore, know more than you. But the opinionated clients are kind of still better than that the ones that don’t know for certain what they want to achieve with their event.

There was a case of a lady that asked me to cater for her brand launching event but didn’t know what exactly should be served at such event. After much back and forth deliberation, she settled for rice and I went ahead to purchase all of the ingredients that would be necessary, you won’t believe that she called me a day to the event saying that she wanted to change the food to small chops because her friends suggested it that eating rice at such event wasn’t posh.

I tried explaining to her that I had already made provision for rice and the process is already on-going. She started making a scene and I just had to look for how to convert rice to small chops (If you know what I mean)

Please Tell your Squad to Chill

This is not common with corporate events as in the corporate world, everyone just has a thing for forming so there is usually no internal squad directly and redirecting the flow of food.

When I cater for events like wedding receptions or birthday parties, we always have the issue of getting Mother-in- laws, aunties and Mothers to relax and not meddle with the affairs of serving food. They have a special way of scattering the tactics you and your team have put in place to make sure that food gets to everyone. They keep coming to the caterer corner to say some set of people haven’t gotten food at all and they end up scattering the whole process.

There was a particular wedding that it was very obvious that the Mother of the groom and bride were not in good terms so they kind of made sure that one felt inferior to the other. Each came to me to give orders on how the food should be served. After several quiet power tussles, they eventually let it lose and raised their voices on each other. After about five minutes of mouth fighting, they settled their fight by leaving with the coolers of food. Tell me how I’m supposed to continue serving guests when the cabals have taken the food away?

You see being a caterer in this Nigeria is not an easy one and as I become deeply rooted in this industry, I’ve learnt to listen more and be patient because that is the only way to break the ice and be known.

Are you an Caterer? then kindly share your experience...

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