Whatever type of social event you’re organising, catering plays an important role in its success. Food is, after all, something that brings people together, that showcases an area’s culture and heritage and a biological need. Simply put, we all love to eat. In this post, we’ve put together a list of reasons why it is so important to offer a quality catering service at your event followed by some ideas of how to make your catering something to remember. Have a scroll.
An opportunity to showcase local cuisine
First, it is worth highlighting that event catering is an excellent opportunity to show off the local cuisine. The Costa del Sol’s gastronomy - which combines the flavours of the sea and the mountains - is one of the destination’s many draws. It would be a shame not to treat your guests to this exquisite treat at your conference, incentive, meeting or similar event, wouldn’t it?
There are countless local dishes that you could serve to your international guests. How about some bienmesabe to sweeten up the morning coffee break at your next conference? Or some ajoblanco served in little cups? Shine the spotlight on the cuisine of each area of the Costa del Sol through your catering.
From gourmet to street food, the options are limitless
One of the biggest benefits of event catering is that the menus can be tailored to your event, guaranteeing that the options served are suitable for the type of gathering you are organising. For instance, if you’re planning a cultural event, you might want to think about serving gourmet cuisine whereas if you’re organising a conference, traditional canapés might be a better choice.
What your catering will look like depends on the type of event you’re organising. This also applies to the decision of whether to serve alcoholic drinks or not. If your event is a periodic business meeting seeking to encourage relationship building between members of the team, for instance, wine and beer will be somewhat on the backburner.
Sharing experiences around food
Indeed, there’s no better way to get people to come together and socialise than by serving some delicious bites of food in a relaxed environment. As a general rule, caterers serve their menus on tables of differing heights, around which the guests can mingle as they help themselves to something to eat.
This set-up enables guests to share experiences around food. Does the idea appeal to you? The MICE sector in the Costa del Sol offers you the opportunity to treat your guests to delicious moments that they’ll be talking about for weeks and months to come.
Catering ideas for events
And now we’ve got to the bit that you’ve been looking forward to: some ideas and tips that will help make the catering at your event a resounding success.
- Think about the type of event and tailor the catering to the expectations of your guests.
- If yours is a formal event, you could opt for classic catering with canapés, a lunch on high tables and even waiter service for drinks.
- If, instead, you’re organising an informal social event, you might want to think about serving street food-inspired bites to eat such as mini burgers or even food boxes so your guests can help themselves.
- Having a selection of sweet treats and live cooking is always a hit. For instance, you could have waiters slicing ham or freshly baked cookies served straight out of the oven.
- Give your guests the opportunity to rate the catering experience from 1 to 5. What did they think about it? What would they change? Their feedback will help you to improve.
- And finally, a piece of advice that applies to everyone: for the best results, entrust the planning of your catering to the experts by hiring the services of a company that specialises in catering.
The Costa del Sol has an incredibly busy event calendar. And now that you’ve read all about the wonderful gastronomy you can enjoy at conferences, incentives and similar events, we’re sure that you’ll be keen to book yourself a trip.
