Function Catering Feature - Part 2
Making food approachable but innovative

In part two of our Function Catering feature we talk to NICHOLAS KALOGEROPOULOS of Melbourne-based Calibre Feasts, which operates a dedicated function centre, the Pavilion in the heart of Melbourne’s Box Hill with a view across the oval, as well as Edwin’s cafe on the ground floor of AAMI Park Stadium, providing catering services for corporate dinners, weddings, elite sporting teams and more.

Nicholas says that when it comes to festive season catering, “we find that we’ll write a menu which is a mixture of traditional Christmas items and others that are more innovative and exciting, but people tend to default to the more traditional. I think that’s because throughout the year there’s such a bevy of contemporary food that they’re exposed to, when it comes time to booking a festive season event in a function centre they not only want a Christmas ambience but they want it to taste like Christmas when they’re eating. They might not want to cook a roast turkey at home or do a glazed ham or a six month macerated plum pudding, but those are the foods that make it feel like Christmas.

“The question then becomes: how do we present the traditional Christmas turkey so it doesn’t look like mum’s Sunday roast? And we might use some Australian herbs to give it a distinct presentation, or we might present it as individual buffet portions rather than the traditional meat and three veg – build it up as a little island with carbs on the bottom and meat on top to impart a little more excitement.

“That said, in function catering it’s important that the meals are not too ornate for the average customer. Food has to be identifiable and approachable and when a customer reads the menu they need to understand it and identify the ingredients. If they need a glossary to make sense of the menu, people get intimidated. So if you can make food that’s approachable but innovative at the same time, you’ll get the majority of the market.”

The business started up in 2011 after winning a tender to manage the 200 seat Pavilion function centre in Box Hill, shortly thereafter also taking on the contract for Edwin’s Café at AAMI Park Stadium. “Through our production kitchen in Richmond we can cater anywhere and everywhere – we’re happy to go to offices, houses – we recently did a 40th anniversary for 550 people at a warehouse in Port Melbourne, where we had to create everything from scratch including kitchens and tables,” Nicholas says.

Calibre Feasts has also built a reputation as a caterer to elite sports. “We feed Melbourne Storm, Rebels, Victory … the players’ daily meals during the week, which are all nutritionally balanced. We’ll sit down with the head of conditioning or head of nutrition and work out how much fibre, proteins and carbs are needed – which is quite complex because different players have different eating requirements. The food not only has to be healthy and nutritious but it has to taste good.”

Nicholas adds that competition for the event dollar is fierce right now – “A lot of customers are looking for a specific vibe, a particular ambience, and are being very careful about how much they spend. We find people and businesses are moving away from the formal sit down dinner because everyone’s so time-poor and also a lot of people get invited to multiple events, so it becomes an evening of drop-ins from one to the next.

Cocktail parties popular with time-poor customers

“Cocktail party formats are becoming more popular, not only because they are more affordable but because they don’t take up as much time as a sit down, and if people drop in and out it’s not such a big cost. We start advertising for festive functions around mid-August, that’s when people start making their booking decisions, and it tends to go until the last Friday before Christmas. The following week it’s pretty much dies – you might get a few lunches in the city, but by then a lot of the holiday vibe has gone.”

When it comes to sourcing quality products and ingredients for function catering, Nicholas relies extensively on word of mouth – “a lot of it is talking to other chefs; everyone is in the same boat, everyone wants to scale up. But if you ask a chef to make three sets of canapes for 100 people, that’s 600 to put together and the amount of hand movements in making them is quite significant. So we’re all looking for products which provide scalability because that allows us to take on extra events, say three or four in a week, which we otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

“The key is to find products which you can buy and sell under your name so it’s not representing the supplier but representing you. So the product has to be in line with your brand – in our case it has to be sourced ethically, has to have integrity and be in keeping with our philosophy.

“Apart from scalability we also look at labour costs, which are going through the roof at the moment. If you can buy 50 kilos of peeled or portioned potatoes then that’s less work for your staff as well as cutting down on wastage and loss of profit through incorrect portion sizes.

“All you need is one worker to be cutting 230 pieces instead of 200g and your margin drops because you’re only getting four portions per kilo instead of five. It’s also harder for a chef to push back if you’ve sold a cocktail function for 100 people when you’re buying 70 per cent of the canapes in and they only have to make 30 per cent of them.

“If we’re holding multiple events on the same evening, we also try to get some economies of scale as well. For example if we’re already making 100 Peking Duck pancakes for one function, we’ll ask the other function if they want them too – it’s a lot easier to make 200 of one item as opposed to 100 of two items.”

Not all food is made to travel

In choosing readymade products, Nicholas approaches suppliers to get a range of samples – “we look at what we think might be in line with our current menus and customer demographic. In the case of on-site catering, we also have to look at whether the food can travel, what kind of prep do we need to do on site, whether we need to par-cook in one kitchen and finish in another and if so, how the product will hold up. Because not all food is made to travel, as people are now discovering with Uber Eats.

“We also look at the logistics side – what’s the lead time, delivery time, ethical sustainability, food philosophy; and in this age of increased labour costs, how do they treat their staff as well? Because you want all this to be in line with your brand. And of course cost is also a factor – what are they going to charge me for a canape, and what can I onsell it for? If I buy it for $2 and sell it for five, is it a $5 product in the consumer’s eyes?” 

NEXT: Part 3 – STUART WEBB, Executive Chef at Sydney Cricket Ground talks about pushing the function market food envelope.