Two different examples of how to price a catering job, and things to consider to make sure you are charging appropriately and not losing money.
When it comes to how to price a catering job, Personal Chefs do it differently than big catering companies. The number one most important thing to consider is your niche or your style of cooking and your ideal clientele.
The per person cost of a delivered Tex-Mex lunch in disposable aluminum pans is very different than an elegant seated lunch for a ladies club consisting of multiple plated courses.
And they should be priced accordingly.
A lot of people bandy about the “1:3 Rule”. This is the rule that your food costs should be 1/3 of your price.
This isn’t a perfect rule, nor is it universally applicable BUT it’s a good general place to start until you have a few jobs under your belt and are comfortable with coming up with pricing.
One of the assumptions of this rule is that you have overhead like a lease and staff. Not so for Personal Chefs.
Another thing to consider is that the larger the job, the more your food cost PER PERSON will go down because you can purchase in bulk.
Here’s how to price a small catering job using the 1:3 Rule:
Dinner Party for 8
Menu:
- Simple green salad with Champagne Vinaigrette
- Chicken with Sherry Mushroom Sauce, Smashed Potatoes, and Garlicky Green Beans
- Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce
Food costs: salad $12, entrée $ 39, sides $11, dessert $20
Total Food Costs: $82
Using the 1:3 Rule since the cost is $10.20 per person, you should charge $30.60 per person, or $244.80.
That’s why I don’t use this rule when I’m calculating pricing.
After food costs, I would only make $162. That means I didn’t price this catering right.
After at least an hour back and forth with the client, an hour to shop, and two hours on site not to mention drive time this wouldn’t be worth my time. I’ve been a Personal Chef for over 12 years though. This might have been worth it when I was starting out.
The time to profit ratio is also one of the reasons why I prefer regular weekly chef services as opposed to small casual event catering.
Another way to calculate catering pricing is to go off your hourly rate. If you know a small dinner party will take you four hours, and your hourly rate is $60, you would just add on the food cost and then give that as a quote to the client.
Be careful with this system though. If someone came to you and wanted dinner for 8 for this menu:
Spring Greens with Candied Pecans, Dried Cherries, and Chèvre
Beef Wellington, Potatoes Dauphinoise, Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
Cream Puffs Filled with Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream & Browned Butter Caramel Sauce
Not only are the food costs higher, but this menu is more labor intensive so it will take you more time.
So while the 1:3 Rule is a good place to start, always consider your hourly rate too so that you can price your catering right to make a profit.
Remember, it will always take you longer than you think it will when you’re starting out.
And even if it’s only four hours of work, you are giving up a whole booking date to this event so you need to make sure however much money you’re going to make will be worth your while.
Have you done some small event catering already? Leave me a comment and tell me how it went and if you were happy with your pricing.
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Hi Chef Shelley! Thank you for creating this blog post. It gave me some great information and things to marinated on. I am new to the private chef and catering business as of November 2020 officially. Pricing has been one of the biggest operating struggles for me as I am a self taught chef. I do catering, private services and now getting into meal planning. However I feel like I may be losing money specifically with the meal planning. I realized I did not charge an hourly rate nor any labor charge and I’ve already provided the service. So much losses but I’m learning and improving. Thank you so much again!
It’s awesome that this article talked about how dinner requires more work, therefore it will take you longer to prepare and the food costs more. This is beneficial for me after realizing that I should just book a personal chef gig for my father’s event yesterday night. I’ll make sure that he reads this article so he can have insights about how personal chefs do the pricing.
Hello Chef
I’m Catering a Wedding of 30, with my Sues Chef.
My friend the Bride to be wants to buy everything, which is fine. Charging her for Prep, Cook Dish up and Clean up. It’s a back yard wedding not sure what to charge now with me not purchasing all supplies. I’d like to charge for gas and a motel it’s very far.
Thank you
That’s a decision you definitely need to make before you give your friend the bride your price. Which should be far enough in advance that she can make a decision.
Hi Chef Shelly,
After I’ve priced my food and everything and I determine how much time it’s going to take to do the event how do I add my rate/overhead into the quote for the client? Do I just add it as services and fees or is there another way to list it?
You can list it as a separate line, or include it in a per person rate, or just give them one flat rate. Whatever is easiest for you and clearest for the client.
Hi.
I’m from Harare, Zimbabwe and I enjoyed reading your blog.
I’m a Chef & caterer and pricing is always a challenge especially for those on a budget.
Apparently 1:3/1:3.5 are universally applicable as we use that here as well, of course adjustable up or down depending on the number of people and more importantly MENU.
Thanks very much for your insight.
Joseph
Chef Shelley, I am just starting out. Mostly friends. I am doing small bites, mostly charcuterie and appetizers. It’s so hard to figure pricing and coming up with a menu. I like to sit with people and ask what they want and then give them ideas. This is the hardest part, the food is easy!
Chef Shelley I’ve been event planning and catering for years I’ve found that pricing has always been a problem I going to try your formula thank you for sharing
Another thing you can do is work up menus with pricing ahead of time. This will get most of the work done, then you can just tweak a little for the client’s specifics.
Hello Chef. I am Kay from Trinidad. I appreciate your blog very much.
I’m looking for a catering project master sheet that will be able to show what the client was charged minus all expenses equals to the profit for that particular event. Do you use something like that?
Hi Kay, great to have you here. That sounds like something that you’ll need to create as it would be so different for every business and their different food. As you said though, it should just be three columns: what you charge – what it cost = what you made. Good luck!