JASA KATERING

Pendahuluan
Catering is the provision of food and drink for large numbers of people.
There is a wide range of operational areas which belong to catering industry. Some
distinctions are to be made regarding the following points:
 places where catering is their main or secondary activity
 places supplying food for consumption on or off the premises
 licensed and unlicensed places

The catering businesses where catering is the main activity include:

 Hotels and Residential Establishments
 Holiday Camps, Campings, Caravan Sites
 Restaurants
 Snackbars, cafes and fish and chip shops
 Fast food operations and take-aways
 Pubs.
They all are available to the public at large but differentiate in the type of the market
served, in the organisation involved and in marketing strategy.
The sectors where catering is their secondary activity and is available only to relatively-
limited groups comprise:
 Institutional catering (schools, colleges and Universities, hospitals, prisons)
 Employee catering (offices, works canteens)
 Transport catering (road, rail, air and sea catering)
 Catering in department stores, theatres, clubs, trade fairs, etc.
The catering activity in these sectors is carried out under contract by catering
contractors who operate within the guidelines laid down by the Institution or the
parent company.

Eating places supplying food for consumptin on the premises include hotels, motels,
guest houses. They provide overnight furnished accommodation with food and service.
Take away food shops (Fish and chip shops, sandwich bars and other premises) supply
prepared food for consumption off the premises.

Licensed places are eating places licensed to provide alcoholic liquor with meals.
Railway buffets and dining car services are included. Pubs, Wine Bars and Night Clubs
are licensed too. Unlicensed places are eating places which do not provide alcoholic
liquor, such as ice-cream parlours and coffee bars. Hotels, motels, guest houses and
bed & breakfast places may be either licensed or unlicensed places.
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1. Refer to General Features and check the correct box according to these
statements are true or false
T / F
Catering in department stores is their main activity / 
Fish and chip shops are take away food shops / 
A wine bar is a licensed place / 
A guest house offers food and accommodation / 
Theatres provide no catering services / 
You can’t buy alcoholic drinks in pubs / 
Works canteens provide a take away service / 
Fast food restaurants are licensed operations / 

2. Change the following nouns into verbs

provision ....................... accommodation ...........................
distinction ....................... market ...........................
consumption ....................... involvement ...........................
operation ....................... trade ...........................
shop ....................... limit ...........................
organisation ....................... furniture ...........................
accommodation ....................... preparation ...........................

3. Cross the boxes corresponding to the aspects of each catering operation:

Fast Guest Pub Hotel School Restaurant
Food House Restaurant Cafeteria Car

Catering
as main
activity

Catering as
secondary
activity

Customers
consume
in the
premises

Customers
consume
out of the
premises

Licensed
operation

Unlicensed
operation
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CONTRACT CATERERS
Contract caterers are private individuals or companies who, in return of a financial
reward, provide food and beverage within the guidelines of a contract agreed with the
parent company. They operate fo companies or institutions both in the public and
private sector and carry out their catering service for a period of time (generally years
or temporarily for one particular event). The British leading contract caterers operate
both in Britain and worldwide. The number of contracts they operate in Britain is much
smaller than that related to the establishments they cater for overseas. They are
involved in a stunning range of catering areas such as business and industry (staff
feeding market), Government, health care and hospital, event, function, education
(colleges and Universities), transport (airports, railway stations, etc.), public houses,
offshore, leisure, retail, sports venues, etc. Very big shares of the catering market are
represented by local authorities and other public bodies. Local authority direct service
organisations (DSOs) are increasingly competing for business with the biggest catering
companies.
A growing number of organizations such as factories, oil companies, banks, insurance
companies, department stores, offices, sports centres and institutional establishments
such as schools and hospitals, are using the services of catering contractors who
undeniably use a more professional approach and, thanks to their purchasing power,
they allow considerable cost savings.
They also provide catering facilities and staff and manage the operation. Depending on
the establishments they cater for, service requirements and catering facilities for
factories and offices may vary considerably. In most cases they provide a main meal a
day and the service of morning and afternoon beverages and snacks. As they imitate
the high street catering outlets more and more, so customers’ expectations are more
demanding and most of the leading caterers are committed to investing in quality
programmes.
The catering facilities they usually run include:
Snack bars used for morning coffee or afternoon tea. They also provide light meals,
that is, sandwiches and snacks, and other beverages, generally soft drinks.
Cafeterias that provide full and slight meals, as well as snacks and beverages for
employees.
Restaurants (plated and/or silver service-) for employees and management, too.
Thes operations are open at main meal periods and offer more variety of higher
standard food and service.
Vending machines which replace a catering facility at any time of day or night. A food
vending machine is a coin-operated slot machine for the sale of food and beverage
items. You put in coins, press a button and can buy everything. They distribute pre-
plated dishes, light meals, snacks, milk, coffee, soft drinks. Vending machines are used
in any situation where food, drinks and snacks are required, outside the normal dining-
room situation e.g. airports, rail or bus stations, office blocks, schools, hospitals,
factories, etc.
Conference / function facilities available for company executives dining together, for
business meetings during the day, for banqueting operations or social functions in the
evenings and at week-ends. The style of service may be silver or buffet service and is
similar to the banqueting service provided by a hotel.
Top contract caterers by turnover include:
 Gardner Merchant (the market leader: 35,000 employees; turnover £986m)
 Compass Group (turnover £497m)
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 Sutcliffe Catering Group owned by Granada Group Plc (16,500 emplyees; turnover
£360m)
 Forte Plc
Leading companies in the public sector include the biggest of the DSOs:
 Catering Direct (school meals and civic catering service)
 Quadrant (Post Office staff catering, staff shops offering newspapers, confectionery,
etc.)
Among the major companies operating specific catering markets are:
Aramark (industrial catering)
Sutcliffe, ISS Mediclean, Bateman Catering (health care and hospital catering)
Surrey Commercial Services (SCS), Chartwells (educational catering)
Letheby & Christopher (event caterer)
Selbys (event and night club catering)
Alpha Airports (airline catering)
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Automated Restaurants
For people working outside normal office
hours, contract caterers think it vital to
provide a full meal service through vending
machines in an ‘automated’ restaurant. This
may be a measure taken to face the escalating
costs of labour and ensures a consistent high
standard of service.

Buying a coffee
The infrastructures of this catering concern include vending machines (or venders) and
re-heating microwave ovens. There are drinks venders, snack venders, coffee venders
and meals venders. These offer a full range of meals such as lasagne, salads, pies,
puddings, etc. All items are re-heated in microwave ovens. They are operated by a few
staff who fill, clean and care for them.

A row of venders in an automated restaurant

A Coca-cola vending machine

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How SCS operates Café Académic

Caterers’ services have improved a lot in recent years because of the changing tastes of
a more demanding clientele. Surrey Commercial Services (SCS) has been operating
Café Académic at Esher College (Surrey) since 2 September 1996. After winning the
contract in competition with Chartwells, the managers have devised an innovative
concept as to running this educational operation. An organization like SCS that
operates 400 school catering contracts is fully aware that handling an educational
operation for feeding 1200 16- to 18-year old students is a tough job. Students have a
limited budget and are exposed to high street branded food outlets.
The company needed ideas that would appeal to the tastes of young adults. Informal
talks with students allowed SCS to find out that they wanted college catering to follow
the style and cuisine of high street chains. This enquiry also suggested the lines of a
new approach consisting in innovating menus, coating walls with bright colours,
applying the bistro-style signage, redecorating the premises, devising the new yellow
and black kitchen staff uniforms and conferring a bright new image and logo to Café
Académic.
SCS has also found a combination of low prices and varied dishes. Main course dishes
are changed weekly and might include blackbean pasta, pork and yogurt with paprika
sauce or chicken tandoori with crispy salad. Desserts range from hot marble pudding
with orange sauce to peach and apricot crumble. To raise the quality of meals, SCS
uses fresh food and ingredients. Main courses are priced between 90p and £1.20, chips
and salad are 35p and snacks, such as hot dogs or turkey burger, are 75p-85p.
Breakfast items, such as bacon or egg, are 35p and 20p respectively.
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Surrey Commercial Services is one of the largest catering operations in Britain and as
such its purchasing power is huge, standing at £9m.
It gets the best prices from suppliers by going out to tender for contracts to supply
food in bulk, then each SCS unit orders supplies from the central “shopping basket”.
This means costs can be cut while the Café Académic concept hooks student interest
and increases turnover. (Adapted from a report by Rosalind Mullen in Caterer &
Hotelkeeper 17-23 October 1996).

Practice

1. Supply the missing items:

1. demand demanding to demand
2. competition _________ _________
3. _________ _________ to innovate
4. operation _________ _________
5. _________ _________ to manage
6. change _________ _________
7. interest _________ _________
8. _________ _________ to organize

2. Give the Italian equivalents to these phrases:

1. to run a business
2. to handle branded products
3. a limited budget
4. branded food
5. to appeal to the taste
6. to raise the quality
7. to price dishes
8. purchasing power
9. to face the competition
10. to quote competitive prices
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11. marketing consultant
12. avarage spend

3. Answer these questions:

1. What is a contract caterer?
2. Who does a caterer provide his services for?
3. What catering facilities do they run?
4. What is a snack bar?
5. Can you name some snacks?
6. What is a cafeteria?
7. What does a vending machine distribute?
8. What do you mean by function facilities?
9. Who are the leading contract caterers?
10. Who are the leading caterers in the public sector?
11. What are their interests?
12. Do they operate in Britain only?
13. What does event catering mean?