Catering concepts for caterers: the main types at a glance

From an elaborate wedding dinner to a quick bite at a festival, caterers work with very different catering concepts, often without a name attached to any of them. Yet the approach differs quite a bit per concept, in planning, staffing and pricing. In this article we set out the main catering concepts, with concrete examples from practice.

What exactly are catering concepts?

A catering concept is the way you organise your service: who you're serving, how the food is served, and what atmosphere goes with it. In catering you usually don't stick to one fixed concept, you switch between concepts depending on the job. A wedding calls for something completely different from an office lunch or a festival stall, even though both say "catering" on the invoice.

Knowing which concept a job falls under helps you plan more sharply straight away: how much staff you need, what equipment you bring, and how you build the price. Below are the concepts you'll run into most often as a caterer.

The main catering concepts

These six types cover most of the events that come up in an average catering year. Most caterers run three or four of them side by side.

Wedding catering

For the couple, a wedding is often a once-in-a-lifetime event, and it shows in everything: the requests are personal, the menu is put together with care, and the timing has to be right to the minute. There's little room to fix anything, because there's no second chance. We wrote before about how many canapés to plan per guest at a wedding.

Corporate catering

Businesses don't book you for a one-off party, they book you for recurring lunches, meetings and team outings. The expectations are different too: reliability and an invoice that adds up matter more than a spectacular menu. An office that orders from you three times a week mainly cares about fixed delivery times and a price per person that doesn't shift every month.

Food truck and chip van concepts

At festivals, markets and corporate events you work from a mobile setup, often with a limited menu and a fast pace. Permits, power and keeping the queue moving at peak times matter more here than at a plated dinner. We've set out what to watch out for when taking a mobile chip van on the road, and what's involved in a festival with your food truck.

Funeral catering

You rarely plan a funeral far in advance, and the tone is completely different from a festive event: discreet, flexible and understated. Still, just like with other concepts, it comes down to good preparation at short notice. You can read more about this in catering for a funeral: what should you look out for as a caterer?.

Banqueting

For large, formal dinners at a single fixed venue such as a hotel or conference centre, you're talking banqueting. The concept revolves around a tight schedule, a fixed layout, and service that runs smoothly for a large number of guests at once. In what is banqueting, and how does it differ from catering we go deeper into when you'll run into this concept.

Service styles: buffet, walking dinner and plated service

Besides the type of job, the service style also shapes how an event runs. At a buffet guests build their own plate at a fixed serving point, at walking dinner guests walk around between spread-out serving points instead, and with plated service your team brings every course to a fixed table. The same wedding or corporate job can look completely different depending on which style you choose.

Also a reception is its own concept in this list: shorter than a drinks reception, tied to a specific occasion, with canapés that accompany the drinking rather than replacing a meal.

Why the distinction pays off

Mixing up concepts in your planning is a common mistake: a team used to plated service doesn't automatically handle the pace a festival stall demands. By naming which concept a job is upfront, you line up your staff, equipment and pricing accordingly, instead of finding out afterwards that the staffing was wrong.

It also pays off in how you communicate with the client. Someone booking a corporate lunch expects a different approach from someone planning a wedding. By making that distinction clear in your quote and on your website, you build the right trust straight away.

And it affects your pricing. Two events with the same number of guests, a festival day and a banqueting dinner, have a completely different cost structure, so one standard rate per person will never cover both. Build a separate structure per concept, and you'll also see which concept your business actually runs on.

Frequently asked questions

Should I specialise in one catering concept as a caterer?

Not necessarily. Many caterers actually work with several concepts side by side, such as weddings and corporate catering. What matters is that you're clear per job which concept applies, so your planning and pricing hold up.

What's the difference between a catering concept and a service style?

A catering concept describes the type of job, such as wedding catering or corporate catering. A service style is about the way you serve within that concept, for instance plated service, buffet or walking dinner.

Does the price structure change per catering concept?

Yes. Corporate catering often runs on fixed rates per person and recurring arrangements, while weddings and large jobs call for more custom work and a more detailed quote.

Can one catering business also take on banqueting jobs?

Yes, especially for larger groups. Some caterers even work structurally with an event venue or hotel as a regular banqueting partner.

Which catering concept suits a festival?

A food truck or chip van concept: a limited menu, a fast pace, and everything from a mobile setup. Permits, power and keeping the queue moving decide your day, where with wedding or banqueting catering the timing of the menu leads.

Catermonkey keeps track per job of which concept it is, with its own price structure, kitchen lists and staffing. That way you don't accidentally approach a wedding with the costing of a corporate lunch.

Try it for free