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My First Catering Job

Posted on August 21, 2020August 22, 2020 By Alexandra Wong No Comments on My First Catering Job

What my first catering job taught me about organizational efficiency

A few weeks ago, I uploaded a recipe post for a roasted peppers potato salad.

The first comment was from Rachel Ang, who declared she loves potato salad. Our banter went on for a bit, until she posted this jaw-dropper: “That looks delicious! I was just telling my husband I want to order the potato salad from you. Will ping you offline.”

Turns out Rachel was not kidding.

Offline, she explained that she was throwing a dinner party for the coming Saturday. Would I be able to cater for 7 adults?

Gulp. I’d never cooked for more than 4 people in my life, but I did not want to turn down this opportunity. There was one snag: hubs and I had planned to drive back to Ipoh on the morning of her dinner party day.

Could I deliver the salad first thing in the morning, before we drove to Ipoh?

No problem, she said.

… and with that, I landed my first catering gig. I wanted to shout out my joy from the rooftops. How hard could it be, selling a tub of potato salad for 7 adults?

Turns out, not as easy as I thought. Here are three lessons I will remind myself of, before taking on my next catering job.

1. Be flexible in your planning – you need to be ready to pivot when necessary

Only Heinz would do for this finicky caterer

I had originally made my salad with Heinz Seriously Good mayonnaise because I loved the balance of umami and creaminess. I was dead set on getting it, even though I knew it was not a commonly available ingredient. My own bottle of Heinz had run out so I had to buy a new one.

As I had a meeting near Jaya Grocer in Pearl Shopping Gallery, I started hunting there. To my dismay, they didn’t stock Heinz but they did have Hellman’s, another premium brand. However, I had never tried Hellman’s so I didn’t want to take a chance. (Sorry, the local brands of mayonnaise can’t cut it).

Since I refused to “lower my standards”, I had to find it elsewhere. I went to De Market, which is where I previously got my bottle of Heinz. Alas, they didn’t have it either. The only acceptable option was another premium brand … and that meant Hellman’s .. which also meant a THIRD trip to get one miserable bottle of mayonnaise!

That evening, my ever-accommodating hubby drove me to Pearl Shopping Gallery after work. I almost wanted to cry from frustration as I factored the additional costs from petrol, parking not to mention time lost – all because I refused to settle for second choice.

This is why caterers and restaurateurs always have alternative suppliers and ingredients, I realized.

2. Your pricing model needs to factor in more than just the obvious costs

As my customer was a friend I trusted, I did not talk price upfront. Truth was, I had no idea how to price my food!

My initial instinct was to add up the costs of my ingredients and slap on an extra 20-30 bucks for labour. Sounds reasonable, right? It might have worked – IF I was efficient.

This inexperienced “caterer” had no idea what she was getting into

Unfortunately, I was far from efficient because of my inexperience. I probably ended up spending EIGHT whopping hours on the job, running in between supermarkets to get the ingredients I wanted and prepping the items, which consumed more time than I anticipated (see no 3).

I also didn’t factor in hidden costs such as electricity, gas, petrol, and packaging. Luckily we ordered delivery a lot during MCO so we had spare plastic containers to store the salad and the condiments!

But yeah, pricing is an art in itself.

3. For optimum efficiency, you have to understand your resources thoroughly

Prepping the peppers and potatoes was far more challenging than I expected. Before this, It never occurred to me that they might behave differently because I was prepping them many hours before they would be eaten – and their characteristics might change.

After roasting, the skins of bell peppers come off easily

For example, I decided to cook the peppers a day earlier because they required some prep work. Roasting peppers is not as straightforward as instructions sound in recipes. After roasting them in the oven, you have to let them cool, remove the skins, scrape the seeds out and chop them.

Roast em, chop em, deseed them before they’re ready for use

After doing all that, I stored them in a container in the fridge. Sorted!

… Or so I thought.

An hour later, I checked in on my peppers. To my horror, a pool of liquid had formed in the container! That’s when it hit me, peppers have high liquid content so roasting them would induce them to leach their juices.

I carefully drained as much liquid as I could, and popped the peppers back into the fridge.

A couple of hours later, I opened the fridge to check on my peppers and saw that they had leached more liquid. More frantic draining ensued. This happened a few more times before the peppers seemed to stabilise.

… but for how long?

I had never roasted peppers and left them overnight before. If they continued leaching liquid, it would make the dressing watery and ruin my salad.

Worried about my peppers, I couldn’t sleep and finally gave up trying to. At 5am, I shuffled into the kitchen to check on my peppers. Thankfully, they had stopped leaching liquid. Now on to the last item.

Boiling potatoes

By right, the potatoes should be a piece of cake. Drop them into water, let them boil for 35-40 minutes, peel them they are cool enough to handle and cube them.

… but I should have guessed something would come up. So far, it had been one speed bump after another.

While mixing the potato cubes with the dressing, I noticed that some of the potatoes started crumbling a little. Crap. Another realization hit me: the potatoes were still hot so they would continue cooking in their steam. With 12 hours to go before they would be eaten, the potatoes might soften and crumble too much if incorrectly handled.

There was nothing I could do about it now, but be extra delicate in handling the potatoes to ensure minimum breakage.

Easy does it; we’re crumbly when warm

By the time I’d packed and delivered the salad, I was a sweaty high strung pool of mess. I slept all the way during the two-hour drive to Ipoh.

You know what came to mind, though, after going through this whole salad saga?

Catering is like a running a large organization.

For it to thrive, the leader has to understand every element in it, its unique traits and how it interacts with the other elements. Take what I learned about peppers for instance – after roasting, they behave differently 15 minutes, and one hour later. And for an organization to work in sync, you need a mission and vision that binds all these elements together. In cooking, we call this the recipe 🙂 #oktalkingcrapagain

One thing for sure, I’ve developed a whole level of respect for caterers.

Which begs the million-dollar: would I do it again?

Definitely 🙂

Since I’ve found out where the pitfalls are, I know how to dodge them. Call me a masochist – I like taking on challenges that push my boundaries 🙂

Also, it definitely helps that my first catering job has a happy ending. This is Rachel’s feedback:

“I absolutely love your potato salad ❤ The crunchy shallots work surprisingly well with the salad. I can eat it all day. Will definitely order again and recommend to my friends!”

Wow!!!

I am now contemplating making other simple stuff like pasta, granola, etc. Look out for my next announcement to “open for order”.

Yes, I like to live dangerously 🙂

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Recipe Rating




Who’s Ipohbunny, lah?

Welcome!

I’m Alexandra Wong, a self-taught Malaysian home cook on a mission to simplify and healthify recipes using affordable quality ingredients. I am a writer by profession, mostly known for my feelgood stories about people, travel and food.

ipohbunny

I make this granola Every Single Week. Its that go I make this granola Every Single Week. Its that good 😉 #granola #homemade #homemadegranola #cookwithipohbunny #granolarecipe #oats #wholefoods
"How's my burger?" "The flavour is quite good." "How's my burger?"

"The flavour is quite good."

Hubs' feedback stopped there, so I knew something was not right.

Know what I found out? That he and I have fundamentally very different concepts of what a good burger should be.

Having spent many years in the UK and US, his idea of a proper burger is a patty of mostly ground quality meat. Having grown up in Ipoh eating roadside budget burgers, my idea of a good burger is a moist patty that's much more tender inside because it's been stuffed with something called panade.

No, I didn't know what panade was either, until I Googled it up. Panade is bread soaked with milk, which you add to the meat to form a burger. The panade adds that oh so desirable moistness and juiciness to the burger. Yes, it won't taste as meat-dense as the meat-only burger patties that hubs is used to in the UK and US, but that's the taste I am used to. In fact, I find those meat-only burgers in high-end restaurants too beefy and meaty.

Anyway, here's how I made my burger

1. Cut up one slice bread into cubes. Add a 2 tbs milk to soak bread and crumble with fingers until it's mashed up like puree. This is your panade.
2. Dice up half a yellow onion finely. The acidity of the onion tenderises the meat.
3. Mix onion and panade with 250g minced beef ( you can add more if you want a beefier taste), salt, pepper, and enough egg to bind. Add egg slowly because you don't want too much liquid.
4. Shape into patties and panfry on both sides. Serve! :)

#homemadeburger #burger #hamburger #beefpatty #cookwithipohbunny #ipohbunnyrecipes #Malaysianhomecook #foodporn #meatlover #burgerrecipes
Wahhhh! Didn't expect so many of you to ask me for Wahhhh! Didn't expect so many of you to ask me for my chicken char siew recipe. Either I took a damn good photo, or .. you guys really really want to eat chicken char siew lol.

Ok, I can't take credit for the recipe because I compared and picked bits and pieces off recipes by other people. Most of the ingredients are quite predictable - hoisin sauce, soy sauces, honey/sugar, 5-spice powder - but the one thing taht surprised me was the addition of lam yue or fermented red beancurd. I read that it lends a distinct umami that can't be replicated by other ingredients. Well, I just happened to have a bottle, so I put it in. 

This isn't perfect, but I'm jotting it down for future references.
1) Mix together 2 tbs hoisin sauce, 1 tbs light soy sauce, 1 tbs dark soy sauce, 1 tbs honey/agave, white sugar to taste, and a pinch of five-spice powder. I didn't measure, just agak2 only so please bear this in mind!
2) Add 1-2 cubes of fermented red beancurd along with a tsp of the sauce it's submerged in. Mix everything together and taste if it's sweet/savoury enough.
3) Marinate your chicken chop in the sauce for several hours.
4) Pan fry on both sides. Done!

Important notes:
1) This is one of the most variable sauces around. By that I mean, some people like it sweet, some less so. I say, just taste the sauce before you marinate your chicken and adjust accordingly. I don't like too sweet so I reduced the sugar.
2) Which may be why my chicken didnt' char siew in the oven, although I tried grilling it at 200 C, basting it with the sauce several times, etc. Maybe not enough sugar to caramelise properly, so i ended up pan-frying the chicken in my nonstick sauce pan. Kau tim!

#Chineserecipes #chickencharsiew #bbqchicken #Ipohbunnyyrecipes #cookwithipohbunny #chickenrecipes #chicken #Malaysianhomecook #Malaysianfoodblogger
Stir fried celery with roasted cashews ❤️ Ser Stir fried celery with roasted cashews ❤️

Seriously. One of the tastiest #vegan dishes you'll eat in your life - and so healthy! A restaurant favourite that can be easily recreated at home with just five ingredients, the crunchy freshness of just-cooked celery goes so well with the creamy cashew.

1. Remove the stringy outer layer of celery stems with a vegetable peeler.

2. Slice diagonally across each stem to get 
3/4 cm thick slices.

3. Heat up 1 tbs oil in non stick pan. Add celery and sear for 1 minute, before browning. Remove from pan. 

4. In same pan, add garlic (and more oil if needed) to saute. Add back celery.

5. Add 1 tbs (vegetarian) oyster sauce and 3-4 tbs water. Stir to mix the liquids.

6. Cover with a lid and steam for a few minutes till your desired doneness. The time will depend on how crunchy you want your celery. Less time, more crunchy. Just eat a piece of the celery to decide.

7. Toss in roasted cashews, stir to mix and dish up!

#veganchinesefood #vegetarian #plantbased #plantbasedrecipes #celery #Chinesecooking #cookwithipohbunny #ipohbunnyrecipes #Malaysianhomecook #vegetarianrecipes
This salted egg bittergourd is so gorgeous!! 1. S This salted egg bittergourd is so gorgeous!!

1. Slice bittergourd into two length wise. Scoop out white pith and seeds. 
2. Slice bittergourd thinly. Rub with salt and leave aside for 15 min to remove bitterness. Wash off salt.
3. Boil salted duck egg for 10 minutes. Scoop out egg yolk and mash finely.
4. Heat up 1-2 tbs oil and lightly fry bittergourd slices for 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
5. In same oil, add chopped garlic and mashed egg yolk. Cook until mixture starts to foam.
6. Add 1/4 cup water (or more) and stir to mix and create a sauce. May be a bit watery at this stage, so add water slowly.
7. Add a pinch of sugar.
8. Now add back bittergourd, toss through, cover with lid and cook over low flame to reduce sauce until it has thickened to your desired consistency. 
9. Serve with white rice :)

Psst if you want my steamed egg recipe, check out my YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkxFGOKXiJg 

#cookwithipohbunny #ipohbunnyrecipes #vegetarianrecipes #vegetarian #bittergourd #Chinesecooking #Malaysianhomecook
Zucchini puffs... Inspired by the incredibly creat Zucchini puffs... Inspired by the incredibly creative Chef @dan.giusti on @epicurious

Using @kawan_food roti malabar, egg, Zucchini and salt and pepper only.

Quick easy lunch :) 

#vegetarian #vegetariansnacks #cookwithipohbunny #ipohbunnyrecipes #puffpastry #vegetabletart
I smashed it!! My one and only #fudgybrownie rec I smashed it!!

My one and only #fudgybrownie recipe from now on. 

Cos it works

1/2 stick butter (60g)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
Pinch of salt
50-60g dark chocolate
1 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Melt butter and dark chocolate.
2. Mix in sugar until sugar melts.
3. Whip egg until pale and frothy. Add to cream mixture.
4. Fold in flour, saltand cocoa powder.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Done!!

#brownie #brownierecipe #cookwithipohbunny #ipohbunnyrecipes #desserts
Mita Bakery from Kuching @mitaofficialkch kononnya Mita Bakery from Kuching @mitaofficialkch kononnya legendary. At least according to hubby, who got this cake during his biz trip.

One bite of their famous butter cheese cake and I can understand why. Sooo fragrant and moist even after 3 days. Its buttery without being heavy, know what I mean? Good #baking kungfu, this. That addition of cheese gives it a subtle hint of umami that just takes this to another level. When you slice it, it looks like white sandwich bread because the crumb is quite dense, so interesting! 

Gonna eat this very sparingly.

#buttercake #eatcake #cake #kuchingfood #Sarawakfood #foodblogger #Malaysianfoodblogger
I love all sorts of cakes, but carrot cake is sacr I love all sorts of cakes, but carrot cake is sacred territory.

My mum used to make it. Her cakes were wondrously crumbly and moist, and filled with so many goodies (We Ipoh people call it "toh liu") that nothing sold outside has ever, ever come close. 

Until @grumpyoldman_bakes

I didn't plan on ordering his cake, honestly. But I'd had to rush back to Ipoh for an emergency, and after some very stressful days, I figured I deserve a cake. Cakes make everything better right?

I'd read him waxing lyrical about his carrot cake and against my better judgement, I decided to order one. Gulp, risky. But what's life without some risk?

He was so sweet and helpful in his interactions, and even tolerated my unnecessary rambling (I express to destress). 

When I popped the box lid open, I gasped at how pretty it was. The whole cake was covered in thick frosting and topped with fresh walnuts. 

And then I cut a slice for mum and was even more shocked. You could see the grated carrot and nuts - it was so generous portioned - but the proof was in the tasting. MUm's tasting, to be exact.

She took a  bite and smiled approvingly. "It's so moist inside!"

That is the HIGHEST compliment, in my opinion, one can ever pay a carrot cake. So many out there guilty of dry, pebbly abominations. 

I took a bite and immediately noticed how fresh it tasted. And, I realised, tears springing to my eyes, how close it was to Mum's version, which I last ate more than 20 years ago. 

Thank you Chris for awakening these wonderful memories. 

#carrotcake #grumpyoldmanbakes #ipohbaker #homebaker #ipohhomebaker
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