Catering Request Form

Catering Request Form Template

A catering business is won or lost on the event sheet. The dish ideas are the easy part; what actually determines whether Saturday runs smoothly is whether the team knows the guaranteed number of covers, which guest cannot go near a shellfish station, whether the venue has a working oven or just a power outlet, and the precise minute the first plate needs to land. When any of those facts arrive late — or arrive wrong — the cost shows up as overtime, emergency purchases, or an apology at the pass.

This catering request form template is built for the operational side of the trade. It is the intake you send once an event is essentially booked, and it captures the details your prep lists, staffing plan, and van loading order depend on.

The Guaranteed Count Is the Whole Menu

An estimate buys ingredients; a guarantee portions them. The form separates the two: an expected figure for early planning, and a firm number field for the count you can actually cook to, with a cutoff date for final changes. From that one figure the whole kitchen math cascades — protein quantities, staff-to-guest ratios, china and glassware volumes, even how many chafing dishes the van needs. Getting it right at intake is the difference between a 12% food-cost event and a 22% one.

An Allergen Register, Not a Preferences Box

Dietary notes collected casually get treated casually. This template treats them as a safety document: a dedicated long text prompt asks specifically about severe allergies, religious and medical requirements, and anaphylaxis risk — with the wording making clear that this register is what the kitchen will cook against. A linked yes/no question flags whether any guest carries an epinephrine prescription on site, so service staff know before doors open. Culinary teams can then build separate prep protocols, dedicated boards, and marked plates instead of improvising on the night.

Walk the Venue Before You Pack the Van

Every experienced caterer has a venue story: the “fully equipped kitchen” that was a sink and a microwave, the freight elevator that shut down at six, the lawn that needed a generator nobody ordered. The intake asks the questions that surface these early — a yes/no check on kitchen access, a note field for power, water, and loading specifics, and the full venue address so drive times and load-in routes are known. An optional file upload lets clients attach site photos or a floor plan, which settles debates about staging areas before the truck is packed.

Build the Day Backward From Service Time

The single most useful field on the sheet is the one most forms forget: when does service actually begin? A date question pins the event, and a service-start time anchors the entire countdown:

1. T-minus 72 hours — final count confirmed, purchasing locked, staffing roster posted.
2. T-minus 24 hours — prep lists issued, allergen register printed for the pass, van loading order drafted.
3. T-minus 4 hours — load-in begins against the venue’s access window.
4. Service-minus 30 — hot line fired, first plates staged, floor staff briefed on the register.

Keeping Every Event Sheet in One Running Order

A new-submission alert drops each completed intake straight to your operations inbox, and the response list becomes your master book of upcoming events — sortable by date, count, or venue. Because the essentials are enforced with required question settings, no sheet reaches the kitchen with the count missing. Running weddings, corporate lunches, and private dinners as different operations? Duplicate the form per service line and tune the add-on options for each.

For more event-side paperwork, the order form collection covers purchase-style intake, and the event planning library gathers the surrounding templates.

Frequently Asked Questions