To Cater or Not to Cater

Haay...just hurdled the morning session of the 1st VISMIN meeting. Handling 150 people is quite a mean task! Jerry & I together with our assistants Marites & Louella were busily arranging our sandwiches (chicken salad, ham, tuna on wheat bread) and juices on the designated area. It was a business opportunity for us to cater for snacks. However, we were quite unprepared for the sheer number of people who were there to partake of the food. I worried that we might run out of sandwiches or juices even before the VIPs from Manila could get to the venue. But as GOD would have it, the exact opposite happened. To make the story short, snack time passed without any hitches. Not only did everybody get their fill, we also received compliments that the sandwiches were good!



On the other hand, lunch was a bit of an ordeal. Our supplier obviously did not take care of all the details. We ended up wiping each and every styro pack since these looked like they were in stock for a very long time. The least they could have done was to ensure that the packs were cleaned thoroughly before they put in the food. Heaven knows what germs or bacteria could be there with the chopsuey, sweet & sour fish, fried chicken and rice! The spoon & fork were placed inside the pack on top of the rice. They couldn't get any sloppier! No matter how I detested the idea of eating the food after seeing how "messy" the pack looked, yup, I had to eat my share. What do you know, the food tasted as bad as it was presented!



What were the lessons learned here? If Jerry & I were to go into the catering business, I would have to test the supplier prior to the event! Better yet, we should not be too complacent about cleanliness. We have to ensure the quality (taste & better ingredients) & cleanliness of the packed food by supplying the styro packs ourselves!