Smaller scale offerings set the scene for this year’s festive season functions

As the festive season will soon be upon us, now’s the time to be planning your menu for the functions and celebrations to come – from end of year office parties to Christmas dinner, New Year’s Eve and beyond. Weddings are also extremely popular at this time of year, which means receptions as well as anniversary celebrations are also high on the catering list.

Yet while the market has recovered strongly from the hit it took during Covid lockdowns, there has been a scaling back in function sizes over the past 12 months, likely driven by the rising interest rates.

Companies splitting up their entertainment budgets

As Corporate Executive Chef for major caterer Delaware North, Markus Werner is responsible for overseeing a range of major venues. He tells us, “The big functions are still a thing for the large corporations – they haven’t slowed down – but the small to medium companies are feeling the pain a little bit more so they’re not doing it so much. Having said that, businesses like ours are still doing really well because we have been heavily adjusting our offerings to meet the demand for these smaller-sized, more intimate functions, with party packages, fun packages and so on.

“We’re seeing smaller sections of large businesses coming in, one department at a time to have cocktail parties”

“I think what is happening in the small to medium companies is the entertainment budgets are now being split up among departments. For example, instead of a company-wide Christmas party, we’re seeing smaller sections of large businesses coming in, one department at a time to have cocktail parties, rooftop parties – which are lower budget but can still be upscaled if desired.

As you would imagine, this has opened up the market to more competition, as Markus explains: “When you are catering for 500 or 1000 people, most restaurants and bars can’t accommodate functions of that size, but now that businesses are booking smaller scale events, suddenly there’s a lot more offerings available from restaurants, trendy rooftop bars and so on.

“If you want to remain competitive, it’s really up to the venue or the chefs to come up with some different offerings, and you need to tip into the fun side of the events business or you’ll lose out on the bookings. You have to be flexible and really on trend and come up with things that the average restaurant is not able or not used to offering. The business is out there, but it’s different – for example cocktails are in such demand right now that your event needs not just a sommelier but a mixologist on site, because you have to offer the latest cocktails.

Stay on top of trends

“Food stations are also in high demand – which doesn’t necessarily equate to smaller food spend, but it’s about presentation and the fact that people want to have fun and move around, not sit down to eat. So you have to be on top of these trends and change up your offer, otherwise you’ll lose out to the trendy modern restaurants. You need to provide a full entertainment package, not just a set menu and leave the rest to the organisers – you need to provide options on DJs, live bands, mikes, party games, whatever the customer needs; you have to be a one-stop shop.”

“People want fresh ingredients, like freshly battered fish with freshly made guacamole, freshly made bean salsa”

Markus says taco stations have proven a big hit at recent Delaware North functions, adding, “we don’t go for traditional tacos, rather we’re putting a contemporary spin on them – people want fresh ingredients, like freshly battered fish with freshly made guacamole, freshly made bean salsa, maybe some pulled pork. It has to be 100 per cent great ingredients, don’t go for mass produced taco shells but get the best quality you can or make them yourself. The presentation should be vibrant, colourful, fresh and with plenty of spice.”

The mainstay of mix and mingle events – the carving station – has never gone away, but as Markus points out, the trimmings and presentation have moved with the times: “Instead of serving a heavy gravy you might go for a light jus, some chilli salsa, chimichurri, fermented chilli aioli, and accompany with some rustic sourdough bread rolls – again, it needs to be colourful and vibrant.

“Asian flavours have proven very popular for us, we’ll do a Peking Duck station with some dumplings, and Korean street food is also always in demand. We’ve been having great success with a traditional Hibachi charcoal grill, serving some Japanese style wasabi beef skewers marinated in a bit of miso – all these Asian cuisines are extremely on trend.”

When it comes to desserts, Markus is a stickler for the indulgent offering. “My approach is to make it delicious, really beautiful and rich, but reduce the serving size, so the customer get still indulge without feeling guilty. Nobody’s wanting a massive piece of cake or big bowl of ice cream anymore, so we make it smaller, more delicate – that way you can still have the full cream and richness of flavour.

“The key is to understand what your customer wants and don’t put any roadblocks or limits there”

“And obviously, don’t stop just with the dessert. You can include after-meal cocktails – these days you can’t have a cocktail party without the espresso martini, so make cocktails part of your dessert offerings. Give customers the opportunity to indulge in beautiful liqueurs, bring in whiskey stations or whiskey trolleys which are really on point right now.

“The key is to understand what your customer wants and don’t put any roadblocks or limits there – that’s the way to be successful in the events business right now.”

“Numbers and spend have dropped”

Nick Kalegoropoulos of Melbourne-based catering and events company Calibre Feasts, operator of Edwin’s at AAMI Park Stadium which regularly plays host to corporate events as well as catering for weddings, functions and elite sporting teams, as well as setting up and running events in ‘cleanskin’ event spaces like Melbourne Pavilion or Glasshouse on the Yarra, echoes Markus’ comments with regard to the downturn in bookings for larger numbers.

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“People have definitely scaled back – we’ve had bookings for end of year events which used to be three to four hundred annually, and they’ve dropped down to 200 because people just can’t afford the larger sizes,” Nick confirms. “And if we do happen to get an event where the numbers are the same, the spend has usually dropped - if they had $80 per head to spend last year, it’s now down to $60.

Nick and the team at Calibre Feasts

Events tending to shorter durations

Nick says functions have moved away from sit-down to canapes style presentation “for a multitude of reasons. It’s more conducive to networking, because when you’re sitting down with someone you can’t work the room. Events also tend to be shorter duration nowadays, they might start around 5.30-6pm and run until 8pm which gives people the opportunity to use public transport to get home, rather than have to fork out the cost of an Uber – and also, as we move into the festive period, it allows people to move from one event to another. Often there will be two events scheduled over the one evening and we’ll find people leave the first halfway through in order to attend the second, while other people arrive halfway through because they’re likewise doing the rounds of other functions.

“On one or two occasions we’ve had a client who’s pushed the event back from Christmas into the New Year – with end of year parties, we find that even when events are being subsidised for staff, they’re still basically saying they can’t afford to come because they don’t have a spare $50 to $70 to spend. It’s a real shame and I think the rising interest rates have to shoulder a lot of the blame.

“So yes, I would say numbers have dropped and spend has dropped – where it’s a fully funded company event, the attendance is still good, but even then the companies are getting a little skinny on their budgets, so it might be $10 a head cheaper but they still want the same thing they got last year at the higher price, which is a catch-22 for operators like ourselves.”

“People still want a bit of theatre in the room – you need some food station presence”

“I think the rise of the canapes or cocktail style event really comes down to price – for a sit down dinner with three courses that runs over four and a half hours, you’re looking a $150 a head, whereas with a cocktail party you can probably get away with $60-$80 a head and the labour costs are cheaper too, because the staff aren’t needed for as long.

“That said, people still want a bit of theatre in the room – you need some food station presence, whether it’s a barbecue or a bar in the middle of the room, just not a blank canvas. We have moved towards premixed cocktails as that cuts down serving and queueing time. In a cocktail party environment people don’t want to wait fifteen minutes for their drink so we serve premixes like Aperol Spritzes.

“And a few weeks ago I came up with the recipe for a shake your own espresso martini and we served it at an event and it went great guns. We fill little jars with premade espresso and liqueur; all the guest has to do is grab one, we add the ice and give them a lid and they shake it, put a straw in it and walk away. That’s quite novel and interactive and people really enjoy it. The beauty of it from our perspective is we’re able to make a three litre container of the mix in advanced so it’s perfect for the event environment – once you start looking at cream-based cocktails that’s a little harder because they need to be mixed on demand.”

Keep menus simple and identifiable

On the food side, Nick says banh mi buns are very on trend – “or we might do a mini wagyu burger with a little added kimchi for textural crunch, along with matcha and charcoal buns. We’ve had great success with little noodle bowls – basically a scaled-down version of a poke bowl – and these are great for a two to three hour events because you can pre-make them and finish them off with some yuzu sauce.

“Your food costs might be at 30 per cent, but you also need to factor in the hidden costs of labour”

“For an event of that duration you’re typically looking at four or five canapes – things on sticks are very popular, and we do a fabulous cured fish wrapped in betel leaf with some nam jim dressing on top. Plant-based products are also in demand, not just for vegetarians and vegans but flexitarians and meat reducers too. You can’t really go wrong with Asian flavours when you’re catering to a broad demographic – people love those identifiable flavours like Peking Duck, they might also go for mini beef and burgundy pies or sausage rolls but I’d say 50 per cent of what they choose is Asian influenced.

“From our point of view, we try to keep the menus simple and identifiable – we also try to buy some good quality pre-made product in as well, because it’s not economical to make it all from scratch. Your food costs might be at 30 per cent, but you also need to factor in the hidden costs of labour – for example the labour cost of having to bring in a casual to make arancini balls, rather than spending a little more on food to buy them readymade. We find that the more quality goods you can bring in and save on labour, the more you can scale up.”