What would you charge and how are my food amounts?

[alwaysgolf]

Catering my first wedding in a couple of months. The bride and mother of the bride requests the following for 60 guests:

Pulled Pork with Hawaiian Rolls
Chicken (spatchcocked)1-2 pieces per person.
Corn Salad (wife original recipe)
Cole Slaw
BBQ Beans
BBQ Sauce

Appetizers
Bacon wrapped chicken
Fruit Salad
Cheese Tray

No drinks, ice, or flatware. I estimate $950 tax included for the following amounts 15Lbs of pulled pork, 15 chickens, 15lbs of beans, .

Any other suggestions will be appreciated!

[marubozo]

Are you estimating $950 as your total costs, or is $950 what you plan on charging?

[alwaysgolf]

I plan on charging $950.

[marubozo]

Well, without knowing your actual costs it's hard to say if that's a good rate or not. Have you priced everything out, from every ounce of food to the rubs and sauces? If you have, and all the food comes in at around $320 or less, then $950 provides a good cushion and a nice little profit.

Basic rule of thumb is you want food costs to be around 30% or lower of the total price. That gives you enough margin to cover all the other expenses involved, such as transportation, fuel, insurance, and other indirect business expenses, plus paying you for your time.

Sometimes there are other circumstances at play that will require you to tweak your price, like extensive travel to the site, needing to pay somebody to work the event with you, or other special requests that you may need to calculate and add on. But as a general rule if you can stick to keeping food costs at around 30%, that's a good ballpark figure to start with.

[ger1027]

I agree with marubozo. My wife and I have calculated what the cost is to make a single box (in your case probably a plate). We took our cost and multiplied it by 3 and added a few extra cents to make it a normal number (6.75 instead of 6.67). This brings it closer to 30% of your cost. Sometimes with catered events you can and should charge a little more to cover the extra time you would be serving or delivering the food. The combination of the sauce, injection, wood, rub and propane/charcoal costs us about 36-40 cents per pound for brisket and pulled pork. Boston butts generally don't lose too much weight, I usually add an additional 50 cents per pound for pulled pork to my cost to be safe (when I pull it I remove the fat cap). Chicken doesn't lose a whole lot either. Your food amounts look good if they are your finished weight. With your sides you generally want to plan on about 1/4 pound of meat per person and a Hawaiian Roll (I'm thinking slider sized?) will hold about 2 oz.

Best of luck!