Start Catering From Your Restaurant: 7 Steps to More Revenue

Catering is the only revenue stream you can start today without renting, renovating, or staffing a single extra square foot during your normal service.

While the average full-service restaurant has to get by on a net margin of barely 2 to 6%, catering typically runs on 7 to 15% margin — sometimes up to 25% for an efficient operation. No per-event rent, no empty tables, no front-of-house staff standing around waiting for guests: the same kitchen, the same craftsmanship, but a completely different cost structure. Restaurants with an active catering programme saw their revenue grow by an average of 5.1% in recent years, against 3.3% for the sector as a whole — and catering also attracts new guests: research on corporate catering shows that a majority of people who first order through work later come back to that same restaurant on their own time.

But catering isn't a matter of "just packing up a few extra portions". Priced wrong, understaffed, or without a contract, a catering job can end up costing you more than it earns. This guide walks you through 7 concrete steps for setting up catering from your existing restaurant: from the business model to landing your first clients.

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Step 1: Understand why catering can be so profitable

Before you draft a single menu, it's important to understand where catering's margin advantage actually comes from — so you don't give it straight back away when pricing:

• No extra property cost per event: your kitchen and core equipment are already there; catering revenue doesn't carry any extra rent or depreciation
• Higher average order value: a catering order is typically a multiple of a regular takeaway or delivery order, with fewer tables to serve per euro of revenue
• A separate customer channel: corporate catering consistently attracts new guests who didn't know your restaurant before — with a demonstrable share who later come back to dine with you privately
• Predictable, planned volumes: unlike the unpredictability of walk-ins, catering is booked in advance, which makes purchasing and staff scheduling much easier

That higher margin isn't automatic — it only happens if you treat catering as a separate part of your business, with its own menu, its own prices and its own cost calculation. Anyone who just resells the restaurant menu at a discount loses that advantage immediately.

Step 2: Choose the catering model that fits your kitchen

Not every restaurant needs to jump straight into fully staffed events. There are three models with an increasing level of staffing, equipment and risk:

• Drop-off catering: you deliver the food in sealed containers, with no staff on site. Lowest cost, lowest margin per event, ideal for getting started and testing demand
• Buffet catering with setup: you deliver and set up a buffet (chafing dishes, plates, cutlery), usually with limited staff on hand to keep it topped up
• Fully staffed catering: your own staff on site for setup, service and breakdown — the highest margin per guest, but also the highest staffing and liability burden

Start with the model closest to your existing operation — usually drop-off or a simple buffet — and only expand into fully staffed events once your first jobs run smoothly and profitably.

Step 3: Build a separate catering menu

Converting your regular menu one-to-one into a catering menu is the fastest way to lose your margin. A good catering menu is smaller, holds up better in transport, and is easier to scale than your everyday menu:

• Choose dishes that hold up well after transport and while being kept warm or cold — avoid fried items or dishes that lose their texture within minutes of being cooked
• Limit the number of options: fewer SKUs means more predictable purchasing, less mise en place, and less room for error on the day itself
• Test recipes at scale beforehand — a sauce or dessert that's perfect for 8 covers behaves differently at 80. Split large quantities into multiple batches rather than scaling everything up in one go
• For a buffet, plan for roughly 500 to 600 grams of food per guest, with 6 to 8 bites per person for a canapé reception during the first two hours, plus a 10 to 15% extra volume buffer — guests simply serve themselves more generously than they would at a plated meal
• Clearly label allergens and dietary options per dish on every buffet — see our guide to allergen management for restaurants for the right approach to self-service

Apply the same discipline as with your regular menu: use menu engineering principles to design your catering menu to be just as profitable as your best table menu.

Step 4: Price your catering correctly — not your menu with a discount

The most common mistake restaurants make when starting catering: they pass on their existing menu prices with a small discount "because it's bulk anyway". That ignores the extra costs catering inevitably brings with it.

• Build up from your food cost. Just as with your regular menu, aim for 28 to 35% food cost relative to the selling price
• Count labour in full — not just the hours on site, but also prep, travel time, setup and breakdown. Combined, these costs often add up to 25 to 35% of an event's revenue for caterers, making them the single biggest "silent" margin killer
• Factor in transport, disposables and rental equipment — chafing dishes, insulated transport boxes and extra cutlery aren't free extras
• Apply a cost-plus margin of 25 to 40% on top of your full cost price (food + labour + equipment), rising to 40–50% for heavily personalised events
• Work with a minimum order value (often the equivalent of €100 to €250). Without a minimum, a small order doesn't contribute to your fixed cost per trip — the route, admin and prep cost just as much for a small job as for a large one

Finally, factor your overhead explicitly into your pricing: spread your monthly fixed costs across the number of catering events you plan, so every event automatically contributes to your overhead instead of only covering your variable costs.

Step 5: Sort out contracts, deposits and insurance

Every experienced caterer has at least one story about a client who cancelled last-minute after ingredients had already been bought and staff scheduled. A written contract isn't bureaucracy — it's what prevents you from being left with unpaid costs:

• A deadline for the final guest count: usually 7 to 10 days ahead. After that deadline, you invoice that number, even if fewer guests show up — reductions after the deadline no longer count, but increases can often still be accommodated for a surcharge
• A phased cancellation policy: a declining refund percentage as the event gets closer, with the deposit always non-refundable. The Benelux hospitality sector already has a widely used reference framework for group cancellations in KHN's Uniform Hospitality Terms (UVH)
• A deposit of 25 to 50% on confirmation, with the balance due alongside the deadline for the guest count — treat that deposit as a liability on your books, not as revenue, until the event has taken place
• A force majeure clause and a clear description of exactly what setup and breakdown cover, so you don't end up with scope creep where "small extras" go unbilled
• Get properly insured: your standard policy usually doesn't cover an off-site location. Extend your public liability cover to catering outside your restaurant — some hospitality trade associations offer members a free extension for a limited number of catering events per year — and check your restaurant insurance for product liability and transport cover
• Respect the HACCP cold chain and hot chain during transport (in Belgium the rule is: cold below 7°C, hot above 60°C) — every minute on the road counts towards the time food spends in the danger zone, so always allow generous transport time

Step 6: Organise logistics, transport and staffing

What works on paper can still fall apart on site due to poor planning. The most common operational pitfall is underestimating travel and setup time — a route that shows 25 minutes on the map can easily run long in traffic, leaving food sitting too long in the transport box or staff rushing through setup.

• Staffing ratio: plan for roughly 1 server per 8 guests for served or plated service, and 1 per 20 to 30 guests for a buffet — with at least 1 extra pair of hands per 3 chafing dishes to keep the buffet topped up smoothly
• Invest in the right core equipment: insulated transport boxes that hold warm or cold temperature for several hours without power, chafing dishes, and enough spare capacity. Rent rarely used equipment instead of buying everything outright
• Always plan a site visit in advance for an unfamiliar venue: check kitchen facilities, power supply, parking and loading access, and the available setup window
• Build a fixed packing checklist that you double-check both before departure and after the event — extension cords, spare parts and first-aid supplies are the items most often forgotten
• Factor setup and breakdown time explicitly into your staff scheduling and your pricing — otherwise those hours quietly disappear from your margin calculation

Step 7: Find and win over your first catering clients

You'll rarely find your first catering clients through your regular restaurant marketing — it's a separate audience with a different buying process:

• Optimise your Google Business Profile with the catering category and attributes: businesses and individuals actively search here for local caterers
• Build a dedicated catering page or section on your website with menus, price indications and a clear enquiry button — dedicated catering pages convert noticeably better than a generic contact page
• Lean into referrals: one satisfied corporate client often leads to several new enquiries from partner businesses — ask for them explicitly after a successful event
• Consider a (paid) tasting for larger jobs, with the cost credited against the final deposit if the client books — this filters out non-committal enquiries
• Set realistic minimum lead times: small orders can typically be taken 48 to 72 hours ahead, corporate events typically a few weeks to months ahead, and large or seasonal events should go into the calendar as early as possible
• Process structured enquiries through the same system you use to manage group bookings and events, so catering requests don't get lost among loose phone calls and emails

Common mistakes when starting catering from a restaurant

Most catering losses don't happen during the event itself, but in the weeks before it — in the pricing, the planning and the contract:

• Passing on menu prices with a discount instead of costing catering separately on food, labour, transport and equipment
• Not using a minimum order value, so small jobs don't cover your fixed cost per trip
• Not counting travel time, setup and breakdown in staff hours and pricing — often the biggest silent margin killer in catering
• Not agreeing a deadline for the final guest count, resulting in food waste and missed revenue
• Understaffing on site, which leads to slow service and a worse guest experience — right when you're trying to win over new clients
• Working without a written contract, based on a verbal agreement or a brief email exchange
• Not testing recipes at scale beforehand, so taste, texture or timing come out differently at 80 covers than at 8

Conclusion: catering as a system, not a side hustle

Catering that stays profitable doesn't happen by accident — it's the result of a separate menu, correct pricing, a watertight contract and realistic staff scheduling. Restaurants that follow these 7 steps build catering into a structural, often margin-boosting revenue stream alongside their table service, rather than an improvisation that runs on luck.

Start small: begin with drop-off catering for a handful of regular clients, build a separate menu and correct price list, and only expand into fully staffed events once your process runs smoothly. Combine this with a healthy view of your cash flow, and track your margin per event using the same metrics as the rest of your business, like RevPASH and other restaurant KPIs.