How to Start Catering From Your Restaurant: A Step-by-Step Guide

Here's how to start catering at your restaurant: pick one kind of catering to sell first, build a short menu that travels, price it per person with minimums and lead times, set up packaging and holding that keep food safe, confirm permits and insurance with your local health department and insurer, decide how buyers will order, plan delivery, run a test order, then go and find your first customers. You already have the kitchen, the staff, the suppliers and the guests, so you start well ahead of a new catering company. You will still spend money before the first order: on carriers and holding equipment, packaging, a catering page and staff time.

Each step below ends in something you can write down or hand to your team. Once orders are coming in, growing catering as a revenue channel is the next job.

What is catering? Catering is food prepared for a group and ordered ahead, then delivered, picked up or served somewhere other than your dining room: an office lunch, a training-day breakfast, a client meeting, a party. For a restaurant, it is a sales channel that runs on the kitchen you already have.

The ten steps at a glance

What starting catering costs

Adding catering to a restaurant is cheaper than starting a catering company, but it isn't free. Get prices for these before you commit, and decide which you need for the lane you pick in step 1:

The cost that's easiest to miss doesn't show up on an invoice: the hours someone spends on the phone and on the road before catering pays its way. Price your packages (step 3) so the orders cover packaging and delivery from the first one.

Step 1: Pick your first catering lane

Don't launch everything at once. Choose the type of catering your kitchen can do well on a normal weekday and sell that first.

• Drop-off office catering: boxed lunches or trays delivered before a meeting. No staff on-site, so it is the easiest place to start.
• Pickup trays: party and family orders collected from the restaurant. The lowest-effort option, but harder to sell to offices.
• Staffed events: buffets or plated meals with your servers on-site. The highest prices, and the most labor, equipment and risk.

Drop-off lunch is usually the right first lane. In ezCater's workplace data, reported by Food On Demand, lunch was the most common occasion, ordered by 90% of workplace orderers, against 36% for breakfast. The same data puts the average workplace order at a $430 check for 26 people.

Step 2: Build a catering menu that travels

Your best dine-in dish is not automatically a good catering dish. Pick items that still look and taste right after a drive and some time on a table:

• Holds its temperature and texture. Braises, grain bowls, roasted vegetables, rice and sturdy salads travel well. Fried food that goes soggy and dishes that need last-second plating don't.
• Portions cleanly. Each guest should get the same amount, whether it's boxed or served from a tray.
• Covers the common diets. Have a vegetarian option, and list ingredients and the major allergens on the menu and on every container. Don't call a dish gluten-free or allergen-free unless your kitchen has reviewed it and can back the claim, including cross-contact during prep.
• Uses what you already stock. A catering menu built from your existing ingredients adds volume to your purchasing, not new items to your inventory.

Start with three to five packages rather than an à la carte list: an individually boxed lunch, a build-your-own spread for a larger group, and a breakfast or snack option if you can do it well. Name each package, list what's in it, and price it per person. The corporate catering menu template gives you the layout.

Step 3: Price your catering for margin

Price from your costs. Work out the food cost of one guest's portion, divide it by your target food cost percentage to get the price per person, then add packaging. Delivery, setup, staff and rentals go on the quote as separate lines, and a minimum order keeps small orders from losing money.

Worked example: Say one grain-bowl box costs $6.00 in food. At a 30% target food cost, that's $6.00 ÷ 0.30 = $20.00 per person, plus $1.00 of packaging. With a 15-person minimum, the smallest order you'll take is $315 in food and packaging before delivery.

For published per-person ranges by service style, the fees that go on top, and how marketplace commission changes your price, read how much catering costs. The catering pricing calculator does the arithmetic for each package.

Step 4: Set the rules: minimums, lead time and payment

Write your terms down before the first order, so whoever answers the phone gives the same answers. One page covers it:

• Minimum order: a headcount or dollar minimum for delivery.
• Lead time: how much notice you need for a standard order and for a large one.
• Change cutoff: the latest time the buyer can change the headcount.
• Cancellation: what happens if they cancel late.
• Delivery window: for example, a half-hour window that ends before their meeting starts.
• Payment: card at booking, invoice, or a monthly statement for regular accounts. Have a W-9 ready, because offices often ask for one before paying a new vendor.

Plan for short notice. In ezCater's data, 30% of workplace orders came with less than 24 hours' notice. If your lead time is longer, decide which packages you can still do the same day, and say so on the menu rather than turning those buyers away.

Step 5: Package and hold food safely

Catering puts time and distance between your line and the guest. That is where food safety gets tested.

The 2022 FDA Food Code is the FDA's model code for restaurants and retail food; the FDA says every state has adopted some edition of its model food codes, though not necessarily this one. It sets these core limits for food that needs time and temperature control:

• Hot holding: at 135°F (57°C) or above (section 3-501.16).
• Cold holding: at 41°F (5°C) or below (same section).
• Cooling cooked food: from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours, and to 41°F or below within a total of 6 hours (section 3-501.14).
• Time instead of temperature: food taken out of temperature control can be held for up to 4 hours if it is marked with the time it must be used by, then served or thrown away. The establishment needs written procedures for this (section 3-501.19). A 6-hour option for cold food has extra conditions.

The Food Code is not federal law. Your state or local authority decides which edition applies and how, so confirm the rules with your health department before your first order.

What that means in practice:

1. Pack hot food hot and cold food cold. Use insulated carriers, and probe-check temperatures when food leaves the kitchen.
2. Label every container with the dish, the allergens and, if you use time as the control, the discard time.
3. For drop-off orders, tell the buyer when the food should be eaten or thrown away, on the label or a card.
4. For staffed events, bring chafing dishes and fuel for hot food, ice or cold wells for cold food, and a thermometer.
5. Write it down as one packing and holding procedure, and train everyone who packs or delivers.

Step 6: Check permits, licenses and insurance

Rules for catering differ by state, county and city, so don't assume your restaurant permit covers it. The Food Code's definition of a food establishment includes catering operations, but how your jurisdiction applies that is a local question. Ask your local health department, in writing if you can:

• Does our current food establishment permit cover food prepared here and delivered to customers?
• Do we need anything else to serve food on-site at an event, or at a venue without a kitchen?
• Are there rules for our delivery vehicles or the containers we use?
• Do we need a temporary event permit for festivals or public events?

Then call your insurance agent:

• Does our general liability policy cover food served off-premises?
• Are employees covered when they drive their own cars on deliveries?
• What changes if we serve alcohol at an event?

Ask your accountant how your state taxes catering sales, delivery fees and service charges. Get these answers before the first event, not after something goes wrong.

Step 7: Choose your ordering channels

Catering buyers contact restaurants by phone, email, web form, online ordering and marketplaces. Offer the channels you can answer quickly, and route all of them to one person.

• A catering page with your packages, per-person prices, minimums, lead times, delivery area and a phone number that reaches someone who can quote.
• An order form that captures the date, time, address, headcount, dietary needs and allergies, on-site contact and payment details in one go. Start from the catering order form template. Once an order is confirmed, turn it into one order sheet for the kitchen and the driver. Caterers often call this a BEO (banquet event order): the menu, quantities, allergy instructions your kitchen has approved, timings, address and setup notes on one page.
• Online ordering, if your system supports catering. Keep checkout short: MONKEY's State of Catering 2026 page reports that 43% of catering carts are abandoned before checkout.
• A catering marketplace, if you want buyers who already order there. Marketplaces charge 15 to 30% commission on catering orders, and their reach is growing: MONKEY's data, as reported by Food On Demand, shows marketplaces' share of catering orders rising from 12.8% in 2021 to a projected 36% in 2026. Treat a marketplace as a source of first orders, and give repeat buyers a direct way to order.

Whatever the channel, answer quickly. A buyer planning Thursday's lunch is often asking several restaurants at once.

Step 8: Plan catering delivery

Decide three things before the first order: who delivers, how far, and what goes in the delivery kit.

• Who drives. Your own staff gives you control over timing and setup. A courier service saves you a driver but not the responsibility: the buyer will still call you if the food is late.
• How far. Set the radius you can reach on time with food at temperature, and charge delivery by zone.
• What goes with every order: plates, napkins, cutlery, serving utensils, labels, a copy of the BEO, and your card or menu for the next order.
• What the driver does on arrival: check in with the on-site contact, set up, take a photo of the setup, and confirm the pickup time for any equipment.

Arrive early. Late food is the one problem the buyer can't fix.

Step 9: Run a test catering order

Before you sell to a stranger, run a real order for people who will tell you the truth: a staff meeting, a regular's office, a local nonprofit. Time every step from prep to setup, probe temperatures at packing and at arrival, and check portions against the headcount. Then fix what broke and update the procedure. Plan your first few orders in your kitchen's quietest window, so catering prep doesn't collide with the lunch rush.

Step 10: Win your first catering customers

Nobody orders catering from a restaurant they don't know caters. Start with the warmest buyers:

1. Your guests. Put a catering card in every takeout bag and a line on every receipt.
2. Your order history. Look for large takeout orders, repeat names and office addresses. Those people are already feeding groups with your food.
3. The offices around you. Find the person who places the food orders, usually an office manager or an executive assistant, and offer a tasting.

How to get catering leads compares twelve ways to find buyers, and how to get corporate catering clients gives a step-by-step outreach sequence with a sample email.

If you'd rather not run the outreach yourself, Kutlerri.ai's Catering Sales Agent does it as a managed service: it finds catering-fit businesses within 30 miles of your restaurant, contacts them by email, calls and texts, and drafts quotes for you to approve.

What are the 7 P's of catering?

There is no industry-standard list of "7 P's of catering." The phrase borrows the 7 Ps of services marketing, which Booms and Bitner proposed in 1981, according to a 1995 paper in Marketing Intelligence & Planning: in the Chartered Institute of Marketing's words, "product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence." The ten steps above cover all seven. For a launch, the checklist below is more useful.

Catering launch checklist

• One catering lane chosen for launch
• Three to five packages, priced per person, with dietary labels
• Minimum order, lead time, change cutoff, cancellation and payment terms on one page
• Containers, insulated carriers, labels and a probe thermometer on hand
• A written packing and holding procedure
• Written answers from the health department and your insurer
• A catering page, an order form and one person who owns every inquiry
• A delivery radius, delivery fees and a delivery kit checklist
• One test order run and the procedure updated
• A first list of buyers: regulars, large past orders and nearby offices

Starting a catering business vs adding catering to your restaurant

Most "how to start a catering business" guides assume you're starting from nothing. A restaurant isn't.

That last row is the one to plan around. Catering works best when it fills the kitchen's quiet hours. Once orders come in steadily, the restaurant catering revenue guide shows how to turn a first few orders into recurring accounts.