Special Church Catering

[Plowboy]

I was asked by our church today to do a special catering on April 1. We attend a small contemporary church that was just chartered last year. A major goal for this year is to achieve 150 regular members. We are about 100 right now. This event is in support of that goal.

The idea is to have a meal after church that Sunday catered by me. In the promotions they'll use our comp team name and logo. They think that people will come out to see what competition quality Q is like. <no pressure :icon_blush:> Told them that we could go a step further and do a small cooking demonstration at the meal. Maybe how to prep and cook ribs or something like that. Need to think about what I'll do.

I owe them a menu. They are hoping to feed 200. I'll do it for free and consider my costs in our regular tithe and offering. Here's what I am thinking so far...

Brisket
Pulled Pork
Chicken
Cole Slaw
Potato Salad
???? - Suggestions?

Adds on EDIT:
Beans
Brownies (Sam's has a great fudge brownie)
Kids: Hot Dogs, Sloppy Joes or Meatballs (wife thought of that one)

 

[thirdeye]

I help out with a barbecue my buddy throws every year to kick-off fair and rodeo week. We serve lamb, pulled pork, brisket, beans, chips, salads, desserts like cookies and brownies, soda and beer to about 300.

One thing he does is have a lot of kids food, not that they don't like barbecue, but kids are...well kids. A huge Nesco with sloppy joe mix and another one with hot dogs always gets eaten.

 

[tkuehn5410]

I help out with a wild game dinner in Bandera Texas for a Lutheran church and they serve 300-500 and they fry some of the wild deer and smoke the better-tasting wild game portions - aka backstraps and sirlons. I belive the people enjoy a well-marinated or well-cooked piece of meat(too hard to prep for 300 doing gourmet with the 5 people helping with the event) as opposed to thesteaks t hey get from tgi fridays.

We do as much weight in desserts as we do in meat because people love desserts and thats what brings em back - we ask for everyone in the congregation to bring 2 pies.

 

[tumpedover]

I owe them a menu. They are hoping to feed 200. I'll do it for free and consider my costs in our regular tithe and offering. Here's what I am thinking so far...

Brisket
Pulled Pork
Chicken
Cole Slaw
Potato Salad
????

Adds on EDIT:
Beans
Brownies (Sam's has a great fudge brownie)

Hey Todd,
I'm not sure if this post was for suggestions or not but here are a couple anyway.....
one thing I always consider, is that when serving chicken along with Brisket and Pulled pork....the chicken doesn't go as fast....What I started doing was buying whole fryers and cutting them in to 8 pieces instead of 6 (cut breast halves in half)....especially when doing 3 meats...that's a lot of meat and the people that like white meat will appreciate not having a 1lb peice of chicken on their plate along with the other meat ...just something to consider....
Also 3 sides is alot....If I were you I would pick the two that you think will go over best and do that.
I odn't know if you do much catering, but if you serve 1/4lb of pork and 1/4lb of beef and a piece of chicken your talking about alot of meat on one plate! Even for my kinda appetite:wink:....I know everyone won't eat all three meats but it's still pretty safe to say most will have a little of each. I did a dinner for 200 back in Dec. and with that plan I still had a good bit of meat left over..It was a pretty good mix of men and women and almost everyone took all three meats....Women included.......

Oh yeah....the hot dog thing for the kids is a must!!!

 

[Plowboy]

Thanks, John. What we don't put out for brisket and pulled pork can get sold later. I'll have some of our sponsors there so I'll send some home with them. We can also send some to the local food bank in the name of the church.

Beans, Potato Salad and Slaw are staple BBQ sides around here. I find that people expect all three. The slaw costs about nothing to make and we get a good potato salad real cheap.


Note to local Brethren: I'm thinking about having a few different types of smokers in the parking lot for people to look at. I'll bring my 075 and Kingfisher. If anyone wants to help with this event or show off their smoker, let me know. This is a great event for the church, but it also promotes BBQ, too. I'm going to talk to a friend of mine that has a Traeger pink pig and see if I can have that for a couple of weeks to have at the church. We'll fire it up that morning and have smoke rolling out its snoot.

 

[thillin]

Note to local Brethren: I'm thinking about having a few different types of smokers in the parking lot for people to look at. I'll bring my 075 and Kingfisher. If anyone wants to help with this event or show off their smoker, let me know. This is a great event for the church, but it also promotes BBQ, too. I'm going to talk to a friend of mine that has a Traeger pink pig and see if I can have that for a couple of weeks to have at the church. We'll fire it up that morning and have smoke rolling out it snoot.

Sounds like an invite for you guys that are local to Todd.

 

[Yakfishingfool]

What are the legal ramifications of catering like that? Do you need permits and licenses??? I was hoping to make a meal for my sons marching band duting their taining season. Not sure of the legal side of it though. Scott

 

[Plowboy]

What are the legal ramifications of catering like that? Do you need permits and licenses??? I was hoping to make a meal for my sons marching band duting their taining season. Not sure of the legal side of it though. Scott

There are a lot of good threads on this in Food Awareness board. Here's just one: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17793

For my event, I'll be doing it under the umbrella of the church. We have meals and pot lucks all of the time like any church. This is no different. I may have the church sign a waiver stating that they take responsibility. Serving to the public is a risk that you take. If it was just my church, I wouldn't care, but we'll have guests.

My BIL is a licensed and bonded caterer but in an adjacent county. If we do something together, we use his business name. We've talked about getting a license in my county, too. We haven't talked yet about this event.

For your marching band, I personally wouldn't worry about licensing if you aren't catering for money. There's risk anytime you provide food for someone other than yourself. You can't worry about the neighbors getting sick from the cookies you gave them for Christmas, IMHO. When you represent yourself as a business, well, then the stakes change.

 

[Yakfishingfool]

good points, thansk for the link. Scott

 

[HoDeDo]

I might be out for April 1st. Have a cousin's wedding, and I don't know if we are doing a sunday brunch/send-off yet. I'll touch base with you in a couple weeks and see how the schedules are synching up. If I'm only cooking on Sat. - then I'll drag whatever you want out there.

Sounds

 

[thillin]

I might be out for April 1st. Have a cousin's wedding, and I don't know if we are doing a sunday brunch/send-off yet. I'll touch base with you in a couple weeks and see how the schedules are synching up. If I'm only cooking on Sat. - then I'll drag whatever you want out there.

Sounds

Not sure if it's good to get married on April Fools Day.

 

[Plowboy]

Not sure if it's good to get married on April Fools Day.

That's my anniversary. :biggrin:


It actually worked out great since no one wants to be married on April Fools Day. The caterer, DJ, hall, church, photographer, florist, etc. were all available. :wink: ...and I'll always remember my anniversary date. April 1, 2000

No foolin.

 

[thillin]

About like mine and MrsThillin.. July 4! The downer was not a firework in the sky that evening. Upside we were in Jamaica and you can guess the rest...

 

[chad]

About like mine and MrsThillin.. July 4! The downer was not a firework in the sky that evening. Upside we were in Jamaica and you can guess the rest...

So, you got the special Jaimcan tatoo?:shock:

 

[Greendriver]

buying whole fryers and cutting them in to 8 pieces instead of 6 (cut breast halves in half)....especially when doing 3 meats...that's a lot of meat and the people that like white meat will appreciate not having a 1lb peice of chicken on their plate along with the other meat ...!!!

I'm not sure I'll be doing any catering anytime soon but I gotta remember this tip - good idea. I do usually wind up doing a big feed a couple time a year where that could come in handy. My Wife and her Mom always cut the breast halves in half before frying and they fry up way better that way and like you said, that may leave more room for a thigh if you like both white and dark (or at least that's what I do).

 

[HoDeDo]

Todd - Looks like that Sunday is clear for me. Let me know if you need/want any additional help. For some reason I thought you were going to NY for the cooking class that weekend....

 

[Puppyboy]

I see a lot of kids ruining their Sunday best.

Menu sounds pretty good. Maybe some green beans?