Catering is quoted per person, and that is where the trouble starts. You cost the food on one plate, add a percentage and send the quote. What gets left out is what weighs most: staff hours, the van there and back, disposables, and your own hours shopping, prepping, setting up and cleaning down. Plate by plate they are invisible. Together they can eat most of what you thought you were making.
Where the money goes on a catering job
- Staff. Kitchen help, servers, someone on the buffet. You pay them by the day or by the hour, whether 30 guests turn up or 50.
- Transport. The van or car with the hot boxes, fuel, parking, and the trip back.
- Disposables and hire. Plates, cutlery, napkins, chafing dishes, linen.
- Your hours. The wholesaler run, the prep the day before, the event and the clean-up. If you do not charge for them, you are working for free.
- Portions. At a buffet people serve themselves, and leftovers rarely get sold again.
The guide on how to price a catering order has the full method. Here is what matters most if events are your business.
Worked example: lunch for 60 people
A company asks you for a working lunch for 60. You quoted $18 a head because the food comes to $6.50 a plate.
| Item | Whole event | Per person |
|---|---|---|
| Food (ingredients) | $390.00 | $6.50 |
| Disposables | $48.00 | $0.80 |
| 2 staff × 6 h × $18 | $216.00 | $3.60 |
| Van, fuel and parking | $90.00 | $1.50 |
| Your hours: 8 h × $24 | $192.00 | $3.20 |
| Loaded cost | $936.00 | $15.60 |
- What you charge: 60 × $18 = $1,080.00
- What you keep: 1,080 − 936 = $144.00
- Real margin: 144 ÷ 1,080 = 13.3%
You thought you were making $11.50 a head (18 − 6.50). You are making $2.40 (18 − 15.60), and that is after paying yourself $24 an hour.
For a 40% margin, divide the loaded cost by 0.60: 15.60 ÷ 0.60 = $26.00 a head. If the venue is far away, quote transport as its own line instead of hiding it in the per-person price. If you are unsure whether you are adding a markup or setting a margin, read markup vs margin first.
These prices are before any sales tax. Check your local tax rules, or ask an accountant, for what to add on top.
The numbers that matter most
Loaded cost per person. Not food cost per person: the loaded cost, with staff, transport, disposables and your hours. Staff and transport cost about the same for 25 guests as for 50, so smaller events carry more cost per head. Recost every time the guest count changes.
Grams per person. Weigh what you serve of each dish at two or three events and write it into the recipe. Ten grams too much protein per plate, across 60 plates, is 600 g you did not charge for. The guide on portion control shows how to measure it, and the one on scaling a recipe shows how to go from 10 portions to 60 without the cost drifting.
Real hours per event. Record the hours every person worked, you included, from shopping to clean-up. That gives you a labour cost based on facts, not memory.
Leftovers. Weigh or count what comes back to your kitchen after each event. The guide on measuring the cost of food waste helps you put a number on it.
Deposit and payment terms. You buy before the event and sometimes get paid weeks after. Ask for a deposit that covers at least the ingredients. Companies often pay on invoice with terms; the guide on corporate and bulk orders covers how to quote them and what terms to ask for.
How to keep track
Use one sheet per event: guest count, menu, receipts, hours per person, transport, leftovers and what you were paid. When it is done, compare the real cost per person with the one you quoted. After three or four events you have your own cost per head for each type of menu.
Keep receipts or photograph them the same day. Wholesale prices move from week to week, and a quote built on prices from two months ago can come up short.
Do it with the calculator
The food cost calculator costs one recipe at a time and saves nothing, so note the result or copy the link before you close it. For an event you can treat the whole menu as one recipe: put the guest count as units, everything you buy as ingredients, disposables per person as packaging, your own minutes as labour, and staff and transport as other costs per batch. It gives you the cost per person and the price you need for your margin.