Plan Your Meetings

Please Crumble This Cookie: March 2008 Morsel

Attention Chefs and Catering Managers: This note is to you fine folks in culinary cyberland. I am sitting here writing menus for my various clients, and I am not happy to see that many properties have cookies and lemon bars as desserts on their picnic menus.

Why is this irking me so much? Because, when you are charging what you do for a grilled burger luncheon, you can step up to the plate and offer assorted pies and old-fashioned style cakes. Don’t get greedy; you are still more than making your food cost. I find this cookie/lemon bar dessert option to be lazy, and it’s not giving the customer value for their dollar. Also, many of us already are using cookies for afternoon break.

So, please add a little bit of thoughtfulness to what you are doing when it comes to dessert, and I, as a buyer of your services, will appreciate your efforts.

— Claire R. Gould

Claire R. Gould is the owner of Rx for Catering, LLC, a culinary and logistics company that works globally negotiating and designing menus for meetings and events. Her company has done work for Coca-Cola, IBM, Honeywell and Randstad, among others. Gould teaches and writes about culinary and banquet trends and topics, and publishes a quarterly online newsletter “The Claire Diaries.” If you have any feedback for her, please leave a comment.