Catering packing list: what goes in the van, and what comes back
Catering almost never goes wrong on the food. It goes wrong on the two serving spoons, the fuel for the chafing dishes, the gas bottle — and on the four chafers left standing in the hall on the way home. Say how many guests, how you serve and what is on the menu: the packing list and the timeline fall out of it. Print the sheet and tick it off at the van.
How to build your packing list
- 1
Say how many guests and how you serve
Plated, buffet, canapés, barbecue or drop-off. That one choice decides half the list: a drop-off carries no plates and no chafing dishes, a plated dinner carries both.
- 2
Put your menu in
Per dish: which course, does it travel hot, cold or at room temperature, and do you finish it in your own kitchen or on site. The quantities fall out — plates per guest per course, chafers per hot dish, burners per dish finished on site.
- 3
Print the sheet and tick it off at the van
One A4 with the timeline, the menu and the packing list in blocks, with a box for out and a box for back. Everything that is yours carries the second box.
What every line on the list is counted against
Nobody counts a hundred and eighty plates for a three-course dinner for sixty — they count sixty, and find out at the hall. So every line is counted against something in your menu rather than against a guess.
| Block | What is in it | Counted per | Comes back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food and transport | Hot box · Cool box · Ice packs · Gastronorm pans with lids · Roll of cling film · Roll of foil · Date labels | Per hot dish · Per cold dish · Per dish · Per job | Some of it |
| Keeping it hot | Chafing dish with burner · Fuel cans · Lighter · Probe thermometer | Per hot dish · Per job | Some of it |
| Cooking on site | Gas burner · Gas bottle · Pan or plancha · Bottle of oil · Chopping board · Knife roll | Per dish finished on site · Per job | All of it |
| Serving | Serving spoons · Tongs · Sauce ladle · Trays | Per dish · Per hot dish · Per guest | All of it |
| Crockery and table | Plates · Cutlery (knife and fork) · Napkins · Glasses · Table cloths · Buffet risers | Per guest per plated course · Per guest · Per job | Some of it |
| Kitchen sundries | Empty crates · Roll of blue paper · Roll of bin bags · Hand sanitiser · Cleaning cloths · Pen and tape | Per job | Some of it |
| Safety | First aid kit · Fire blanket · Disposable gloves · Allergen sheet for the menu | Per job | Some of it |
The words on this sheet
Five terms that come back on every job outside the building.
- Packing list
- The list of everything that leaves the building for a job outside it: the food, the kit that keeps it hot, the crockery and the tools. Not the menu — the menu is one block on that list.
- Off-premise catering
- A job you run at an address that is not yours: a hall, an office, a garden. Everything you take for granted in your own kitchen has to travel.
- Hold time
- How long you consider it responsible for hot food to be out of the kitchen: drive time plus set-up. That figure lives in your own HACCP plan, not in this tool.
- Chafing dish
- The heated pan a dish stands in to stay hot on a buffet, with fuel underneath. Two fuel cans per pan per service is the honest reckoning.
- Bring-back column
- The second column on the packing list: what is yours and therefore has to be loaded again. It is the column that stops four hundred euros of kit staying behind in a hall.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to bring to a catering job?
Seven blocks: the food and its transport containers, the hot-holding kit, the cooking kit if you finish anything on site, the serving kit, the crockery, the kitchen sundries and the safety kit. Exactly what you need falls out of your menu — a cold buffet needs no chafing dishes, a drop-off needs no plates.
How many plates do I take?
One per guest per course that lands on a plate, plus a spare share. A three-course menu for sixty guests is a hundred and eighty plates, not sixty — that is the most common arithmetic mistake in catering, and the reason this tool reads the courses off your menu instead of asking you to type a number.
What time do I have to leave?
The tool counts backwards from the serving time: minus the set-up, minus the drive, minus the loading, minus the last hour in your kitchen. Move the serving time and the whole morning moves with it — which is exactly what a run sheet that counts forwards cannot do.
How long may hot food be on the road?
That is your own figure and it lives in your HACCP plan; what is legally allowed differs per country and per inspectorate. Type it into the settings and the tool says whether your drive plus set-up goes over it, and by how much.
Is this the same as the group booking run sheet?
No. That run sheet plans a party that happens in your own building: the arrival time, the speech, the courses. This sheet plans what leaves the building and what has to come back. On a mixed job you use them side by side.
Why a separate column for what comes back?
Because it is the most expensive mistake catering can make. The food is gone, everybody is tired, and the chafing dishes, the containers and the tongs stay in the hall. Everything that is yours gets a second box on the sheet, and that box is ticked before you drive away.
This is a house document, not a statement of law. How long you may hold hot food, what has to be recorded and what an off-premise catering activity requires differ per country and per inspectorate — the hold time in this tool is your OWN figure, and always follow your own HACCP procedures.