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Catering Supplies and Equipment
The success of catering a buffet depends, in large part, on having all your catering equipment and supplies on-site and within easy reach. Each item in the list below serves a purpose on the buffet line and makes it easier for you to serve guests:
In addition, a catering service needs beverage dispensers, coffee makers, and coffee urns to provide hot and cold drinks to diners. For lunch and evening buffets, caterers may need a selection of bartender supplies and a portable bar. Food storage is essential for transporting food to buffet locations, and caterers also need the right flatware, dinnerware, and glassware. Many caterers prefer melamine dinnerware, which combines style with durability.
Ordering wholesale catering supplies through an established catering supply store such as Chefs’ Toys decreases the price of catering equipment. As with all commercial kitchen equipment, catering supplies vary in price depending on style, size, and capacity. Your most expensive equipment will likely be your chafing dishes, chafer griddles, heat lamps, coffee makers, and beverage dispensers.
Basic chafing dishes, such as the Ez-Stor 8 Qt. Full-Size Chafer or the Thunder Group SLAL03B Wok Chafer, cost $40 to $60. High-end chafing dishes, such as the Vollrath 49520 Maximillian Steel Chafer or the Spring 2372-6/36 Sauteuse Induction Buffet Server, run anywhere from $600 to $2,000 and make striking additions to any buffet.
Chafing griddles fall into the $140 to $220 price range. The American Metalcraft GS16 Griddle & Stand and American Metalcraft GS27 Full Size Iron Griddle are excellent examples of this type of catering equipment.
Heat lamps and holding stations keep foods hot on the buffet line and range in price from $80 to $150 for equipment like the budget-friendly Nemco 6000A-2B Freestanding 2 Bulb Infrared Heat Lamp to $1,000 or more.
High-end heat lamps and holding stations like the Vollrath 46670 Contoured Carving Station serve specific functions and add class and sophistication to your buffet.
Caterers often need to produce large volumes of coffee in short amounts of time. The best coffee machines for catering are portable and cost, on average, $350 to $500. The Grindmaster CPO-3RP-15A Portable Coffee Brewer or the Bunn 13300.0002 VP17-2 Low Profile Pourover Coffee Brewer are great additions to your catering supplies.
Your choice of beverages determines what kind of dispensers you need and in what volume. You can buy three-gallon dispensers like the Tablecraft H953 Beverage Dispenser for $40 to $60. Suppose you need to serve multiple cold beverage choices. You may need a larger-capacity dispenser like the Crathco D35-4 Classic Bubbler Premix Cold Beverage Dispenser, which falls into the $1,000 to $2,000 price range.
As any catering supply store can attest, some catering equipment brands are superior to others. When looking for catering supplies, watch for the following brands:
The cost of catering supplies is a large investment, but not one you’ll need to make often. The profit margin for an established catering business ranges from 7-8%, as overhead is typically lower than for restaurants. Typically, a startup catering company can expect to make $30,000 to $40,000 a year, while larger, more established caterers can make over $80,000.
Chefs’ Toys has all the catering equipment you need to take your catering business to the next level. For help from our food service professionals, complete the form on this page.
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