Ripe Food and Events owner Joshua Riazi graduated from Providence’s Johnson & Wales University with a degree in Culinary Nutrition, and went on to cook in some of the country’s top restaurants. In this article, he explains the nuts and bolts of what should be included in a catering contract.
It is really important for you to get a contract with the caterer who you’re working with on an event, because that contract is going to be your legally binding record of what does and does not need to be done.
As far as what is included in the contract, you definitely want to know what the catering company’s cancellation policy is, and you want to make sure that there is a section in there that says that the company will live up to its agreement and everything that is contained within in.
Here at Ripe Food and Events, within our catering contract, for instance, we list the quantity of guests who are attending the event, the timing of the event, and the date of the event. Those are all important things to have in any contract.
Another thing that is important is that all of these figures are actually correct, because again, when you sign a contract, you are in a legally binding situation. So if anything were to happen, per se, you want to make sure that you would have yourself covered in that regard.
But definitely I think the cancellation policy is probably the biggest No. 1 thing you want to look at when signing a legally binding catering contract.
What the cancellation policy specifically is will depend on the company and the type of event you are putting on. But certainly you as the party host want to make sure that there is enough room in the contract to be able to change the number of anticipated guests, in case the number dramatically rises or drops a few weeks before the event. In that case, you wouldn’t want to be stuck paying for 100 people if only 75 were showing up for the dinner.
Here at Ripe Food and Events, we usually include a stipulation in the contract that states that clients can change their guest count up to three days prior to the event, so it is a set thing like that. And I think that gives people enough time to figure out exactly what is going on.
What you would not want to do is to sign a contract that forces you to set the total number of guests attending months out from the event, so that even two months before the event you still are not able to make any changes to the guest count. That would not be a good situation.
Finally, people should understand that they are not going to get out of signing a contract when working with a legitimate caterer. In fact, the contract protects both the client and the caterer, so they should want to sign one.
Until we get a signed contract back from a client, we do not do any real work on the project besides simple planning elements and getting the initial proposal together for the client. It is not until the client signs the contract that we are formally agreeing to work together on this event.
Nothing is really finalized until that contract is signed. And then normally, that is when we will the client for the deposit, too. The amount that the deposit is going to be will be listed in the contract, but here at our company we usually require a 50% deposit from clients that they are required to put down before we get started.
When you are planning a big event, contracts are part of the game and you should expect to be signing many of them. With your catering company specifically, though, it important to read that contract carefully and make sure that all of the cancellation rules and guest count policies seem fair before going ahead and signing on the dotted line.
