Italian Food Catering

Whenever it is time to find a cater to serve Italian food at your next event, you should know that different types of catering serving style will have an affect on the cost per person when catering. Within each style there will be options that can increase or decrease the cost per person. There are some important budgeting tips that you should take into consideration here if you want to save some money and cheaply cater your event or occasion.

Sit Down Meals

You should never assume that a sit down Italian meal is going to drain your budget. This is because your cost will be moderated by what your guests eat, what they are served and whether or not they are allowed to go back for seconds. By not allowing your guests to have seconds, you will make the amount of food that is consumed easier to manage. Another way in which you can save some money is by decreasing the number of courses that you actually serve. For instance, you can choose to serve either a soup or a salad but, if you want to keep the cost down, you wont want to serve both.

When you are planning to serve meat, then you should consider serving chicken because it is the most inexpensive protein. Beef is usually the most expensive protein but you can save money here too simply by serving Italian dishes like lasagna and pasta with sauce. If you have your heart set on serving seafood, then you should honestly give some thought to serving farm-raised salmon because it is not only the most appealing type of fish but it is also the most reasonably priced as well. For catered sit down meals, you also may choose to serve lamb, pork, vegetarian, or even a pasta dish, like eggplant Parmesan that doesnt have any meat.

Since there is more for the staff to do, you may find that a sit down catered event or occasion will have a higher price, but it can be offset by carefully choosing the courses for cheap, affordable Italian catering.

Buffets

While you can save on the price per person for an Italian catered occasion, because the cost of the extra wait staff that is needed for sit down meals, the food may end up costing more for less because people tend to eat more whenever there is a buffet. This is because they can return to the buffet, as often as they would like and you may need to order more food so that you dont run out of food, which can cut into your budget.

Of course, the actual cost is going to depend upon what you choose to serve for the menu. Take the time to compare the prices of the different options so that you can get the best deal for your budget.

Passed Tray

An option to keep the catered evet cheap is to hold the event between lunch and dinner and serve appetizers and hors doeuvre. If both cost and time are major considerations in your planning, then you may wish to have a passed-tray event. Such events consist entirely of cocktails and appetizers. This style is a lot less stressful and much more wallet-friendly. Usually this type of event will last for around two hours you will also be paying a lot less money for location, staffing, and other types of rental fees.