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Caterer's Lament

FM Former Member
I catered an event today at a private school. I was told last week that event would run from 11-8pm. I was told today that it would run 11-3:30pm. I was told that I would have volunteer help. Big difference in needed cooking capacity/recovery time for fryers, not to mention needed help to handle time compression. Anyway it went well. Food was good though I fell behind on hush puppys for a bit at lunch time. I only have two hands you know.

Oh, and the parental "volunteer help" actually turned out to be 6 boys aged 8-10yo.

Started with ~150lbs of pulled pork(post cooked), 100lbs fried whiting(pre cooked), 120lbs boiled potatoes, 100lbs slaw, and about 1 million hush puppys(80lbs HP mix to be exact).

Ended with ~10lbs whiting, ~1gal HP mix, 2qts slaw left over(my dinner tomorrow).

I did this for food cost because I am friends with several teachers at the school. I did this by myself. I ache all over. I feel like I got run over by a truck. I am too old to BBQ, and quite possible too dumb.
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R ribdogMember
Trust me that Tom knows all too well. Especially when he and Barabara came over last weekend to help Dr. BBQ and myself cook for a baseball youth training camp(200 kids) and then for about 120 people after the charity baseball game later on. We have done this for six years now but it does not get any easier. Guess we are going to have to find some younger volunteers next year and have us act in a supervisory position. Big Grin

Live and learn.
FM Former Member
Every couple of years I get pulled into one of these type events, all for a good cause, and get bitten by the same bugs every time, i.e.: no help, way too many people, way too little planning on the organizers part, etc. I then swear I'll never do another one again, then a couple of years later....... I guess the memory is the first thing to go.

I guess my greatest lament when I originally posted yesterday was that I was told when the volunteer servers didn't show up on time, the organizer essentially pointed a finger at me, even though I had been told that I did not need to supply help. That kinda stings when the BEST I could have hoped for from this charity event was scoring some good will points with the community, then find that I was being blamed for the organizers failures.
FM Former Member
That last part is the sad part.

People who don't cater, think it's as easy as cooking at home. Just keep NOTES (helps with the memory) and next year, when they ask you back, and they will, you can remind them that the young volunteers they provided weren't good enough and THEY blamed you. Then they can either provide sufficient volunteers or just magically you have another event that weekend and can't help.

I get plenty of request like this to cater, for free, for a "good cause" but don't do the ones like what happened to you.

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