Menus as marketing

A catering menu is often the first thing a client reads and the document they forward to everyone else who decides. Learn how to structure sample menus that sell, name dishes so clients can picture them, engineer the menu for margin, and show per-person prices that are all-in and honest.

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Menus as marketing.

Clients rarely choose a caterer from a tasting alone.

They choose a shortlist from menus, often before they ever speak to you, and the menu is what they forward to a partner, a parent or a manager.

What a catering menu has to do.

A restaurant menu sells one meal to a person who is already sitting down.

A catering menu does harder work.

Build sample menus by event type.

Instead of one master menu, publish three to five sample menus, each built for a common event.

Each one should be complete enough to book from, with room for changes.

Name dishes so clients can picture them.

Menu descriptions should be specific, short and honest.

They help a client imagine the event, and they set expectations your kitchen must meet.

Worked example: engineering the menu for margin.

Juniper Table, a fictional catering company in Toronto's east end used here as an illustration, offers eight mains for weddings.

The owner sorts them on two measures from last year: how often each was chosen, and the contribution per plate, which is the price per plate minus the food cost.

Show the price clearly.

Clients compare caterers on per-person price, so make yours easy to compare honestly.

State what the price includes: food, service staff, set-up, rentals, delivery and clean-up, or which of those are extra.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Structure sample menus by event type so that clients can choose quickly and confidently
• Use a simple popularity and margin grid to decide which dishes to feature, reprice or drop
• Present per-person prices and dietary information clearly, accurately and in line with all-in pricing

Clients rarely choose a caterer from a tasting alone. They choose a shortlist from menus, often before they ever speak to you, and the menu is what they forward to a partner, a parent or a manager. A menu is not a list of what your kitchen can make. It is a sales document that tells the client what their event will feel like, what it will cost and whether you can feed every guest well.

What a catering menu has to do

A restaurant menu sells one meal to a person who is already sitting down. A catering menu does harder work. It has to answer five questions for a client who may be months away from the event.

1. Is this caterer right for my kind of event? A wedding, an office lunch and a backyard graduation party need different menus, service styles and price points.
2. What will my guests experience? Plated, family style, stations, buffet or passed canapés, and roughly how long service takes.
3. Can they feed everyone? Vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher-style, gluten-free and allergy needs, stated plainly.
4. What will it cost? A per-person price or range, with what is included.
5. What happens next? How to check a date, book a tasting and confirm numbers.

Most catering menus answer only the second question, in a long list of dishes with no prices and no context. Clients then email to ask the other four, and many do not bother.

Build sample menus by event type

Instead of one master menu, publish three to five sample menus, each built for a common event. Each one should be complete enough to book from, with room for changes.

Write a one-line introduction for each, such as a three-course wedding dinner for 80 to 200 guests, served family style, with two mains and a vegetarian main. That line sorts clients before they read a single dish.

Name dishes so clients can picture them

Menu descriptions should be specific, short and honest. They help a client imagine the event, and they set expectations your kitchen must meet.

• Lead with the main ingredient. Braised beef short rib, not Chef’s signature main.
• Add one or two details that matter. The cooking method, a sauce or a garnish: with red wine jus and horseradish mash.
• Name sources only when true and verifiable. Ontario lamb or Niagara peaches are strong selling points, but only if you can show the invoice every time you serve the dish.
• Mark dietary options consistently. Use the same short labels on every menu, with a key, and say what each label means.
• Avoid adjectives that promise nothing. Delicious, mouth-watering and gourmet appear on every competitor’s menu.

Worked example: engineering the menu for margin

Juniper Table, a fictional catering company in Toronto’s east end used here as an illustration, offers eight mains for weddings. The owner sorts them on two measures from last year: how often each was chosen, and the contribution per plate, which is the price per plate minus the food cost.

The grid gives four kinds of dish. Popular and profitable dishes, here the chicken, short rib and risotto, are your stars: feature them first on sample menus and in photos. Popular but less profitable dishes, like the salmon, need a small price rise or a cheaper garnish. Profitable but unpopular dishes need better descriptions or photos. The tenderloin is expensive, rarely chosen and ties up costly stock; it becomes a premium upgrade rather than a standard choice.

Juniper Table moved the tenderloin to an upgrade at $14 more per plate, rewrote the risotto description and raised the salmon by $3. If those changes hold through next year’s choices, the average contribution per wedding guest rises, and the menu becomes shorter and easier to choose from.

Run the same grid for bars and trucks. A mobile bar can sort its cocktails by how often they are ordered and the contribution per drink; a truck can sort its menu items the same way. A shorter menu also speeds service, which matters at a wedding with 180 guests waiting for dinner or a festival line of forty people. Review the grid at the end of every season, and remember that a dish clients love but that loses money is a gift you are giving every guest.

Show the price clearly

Clients compare caterers on per-person price, so make yours easy to compare honestly. State what the price includes: food, service staff, set-up, rentals, delivery and clean-up, or which of those are extra. If a service charge or administration fee applies to every booking, build it into the per-person price. Show a minimum guest count or minimum spend if you have one. Then a client can see the real cost, and you avoid the conversation where a quote comes in 25 percent above the price they saw online.

A menu page checklist

• Three to five sample menus, each with a one-line introduction
• An all-in per-person price or range on every menu, with HST stated separately
• A clear dietary key and an allergy statement explaining how you handle allergens
• Seasonal notes, such as which dishes change with the seasons
• Photos of the actual dishes, served at real events
• A downloadable PDF that prints cleanly, with your contact details on every page
• A button to check a date or book a tasting

In Canada and the GTA

All-in per-person prices. Since June 23, 2022, the Competition Act has treated drip pricing as a false or misleading representation. If your website or a sample menu shows a per-person price, that price must include every fixed mandatory charge, such as a service charge, admin fee, kitchen fee or delivery fee that applies to every booking. Only amounts imposed by law, such as HST at 13 percent in Ontario, may be added on top. The Competition Bureau says consumers should see the true total upfront, without scrolling or fine print, and that variable charges can also raise concerns. Genuinely optional extras, such as a late-night snack station or upgraded rentals, can be priced separately. See the Bureau’s drip pricing guidance.

Claims on menus. Words like Ontario-grown, organic, house-made, free-range, nut-free or gluten-free are representations to the public. Under the Competition Act, a representation that is false or misleading in a material respect is reviewable, and the general impression counts, not just the literal words. Use a claim only when it is true every time the dish is served, and keep the supplier invoices or recipes that prove it. Be especially careful with allergy-related wording. A kitchen that handles nuts should not call a dish nut-free; say what you do, such as prepared without nuts in a kitchen that handles nuts, and invite clients to discuss serious allergies directly.

Calorie labelling. Ontario’s Healthy Menu Choices Act requires food service premises with 20 or more locations in Ontario to display calories for standard food and drink items, with a contextual statement. Premises that operate for less than 60 days in a calendar year are exempt. Most independent caterers, bars and trucks are well below the 20-location threshold, but franchise operators should check Ontario’s menu labelling guide.

Food safety is part of the promise. Under Ontario’s Food Premises Regulation, food service premises must have at least one certified food handler on site during all hours of operation, as public health units such as Halton Region explain. Mentioning your certification and your local public health inspections on your menu page is a reasonable trust signal, provided you state it accurately.

Cultural and dietary expectations in the GTA. The GTA is one of the most diverse catering markets in the world. Many clients need halal, kosher-style, Jain, vegetarian or vegan options as a matter of course, not as an afterthought. If you offer certified halal or kosher food, say who certifies it and keep the certificate current; if you do not, avoid words that imply certification. A menu that shows you understand a community’s dishes and service customs, such as family-style platters at a Portuguese christening or a vegetarian menu without onion and garlic for a Jain family, earns referrals within that community.

Seasonality and pricing pressure. Ontario produce is at its best from late spring to early autumn, and much of the wedding season falls in the same months. Build seasonal sample menus and say when they change. Food costs in the GTA have risen sharply in recent years, so review menu prices at least once a year, and quote with a validity period for events far in the future, such as a price held for 60 days with a clear process if costs change before the event. Write that process into your contract. Clients appreciate the honesty more than a low price that changes later, and planners remember which caterers never surprised their clients.

Keep dated copies of every published menu, so you can show what a client saw when they booked.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the official source or a lawyer for your own situation.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet and complete it for your own business, using Lantern & Lane as the model where it helps. Keep it with your marketing plan. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)