Functions and celebrations – what’s on offer as we head into the festive season

With this year’s festive season fast approaching, Foodservice Rep takes a look at the state of play in the function catering market – what’s on offer and how to set your menus apart from the competition.

Interest rates impacting spend

While the market experienced a boom post-Covid, with consumers keen to return to face to face contact and experience the events prohibited during lockdown, the recent rises in interest rates have since impacted spend. That’s the word from Nick Kalogeropoulos, director of catering and events company Calibre Feasts which regularly stages corporate events as well as catering for weddings, functions and elite sporting teams.  

“When I think back to last year and the year before, all the venues went totally gangbusters because everything had been locked up for two years, but now discretionary spending is definitely down and unfortunately the first things to go are those F&B and entertainment expenses,” Nick says. “If you compare intake at this time of year with last year, people aren’t booking with such long lead times anymore, and they’re more focused on the budget, so they’re trying to deconstruct some of the standard packages.

“This isn’t impacting the big tier venues so much, it’s more the 80 per cent of other players in the market. A lot of consumers are asking their caterers, ‘do we have to have a three hour function, do I really need to make that minimum spend, can’t we reach an agreement?’ I heard of a customer recently trying to reduce their minimum spend from $1800 to $1200 and if you want the work you try to be a little bit flexible as well. We’ve had people say they want a one hour function rather than two hours, they only want canapes and non-alcoholic drinks because they’re cheaper.

End of year office functions and Christmas parties are still gaining ground, but again there is a Covid legacy, as Nick points out – “we’ve had people ask about space for social distancing, about air circulation – I think there is still some Covid fear. What we see now is that people are happy to book a space which holds greater capacity than they need – our main venue at AAMI Park is licensed to hold 500, but people are happy to book it out for 100-150, because there’s more space so they don’t have to be so close together. They like to be able to spread out and social distance if they choose. And of course you have to be mindful that it may not be one individual with concern just for their own wellbeing – they may be living with someone who’s immunocompromised, because you don’t know what’s going in people’s lives.”

Rising costs pushing up prices

Costs are also on the rise – some by as much as 10 or 20 per cent, as Nick confirms. “We’ve had alcohol increases, CPI increases, labour costs and super, bank charges are going up, and there has to be a flow on effect back to the consumer. If you want to have an event on Sunday there’s a 20 per cent surcharge because labour costs an additional 30 to 40 per cent on a Sunday. So everything is going up – but the good thing about working in F&B is that you can say to people, ‘you’ve been to the supermarket, you can see their prices are going through the roof’.”

A further additional cost centre is the push for sustainable and recyclable packaging. “We’ve all switched to biodegradable packaging because we want to be socially responsible and do the right thing, but that comes at a price – it’s probably five to six per cent more costly than our old containers. I coach a lot of businesses and some of their owners are lucky to be making a five per cent return – they’re operating on very tight margins and that’s why the majority of the market is really fighting for that dollar. Businesses have cut back on purchasing pre-produced food, they’ve gone back to making their own, but still with the ability to buy in readymade when they need to scale up once they’re really busy again.”

Nick says the key to longevity in the functions market is to stay “flexible, adaptable and competitive”: “It’s really about how much you want to win that dollar. If you have to deconstruct the menu, change everything just to win the work, then sometimes that's what you need to do. It's probably only about two to three per cent of the market who can say ‘my way or the highway’: the big caterers can say that to their clients but the smaller ones are just fighting for some coin.

“We’ve also seen a lot of people doing more inhouse events and just ordering food off us, no drinks, because the alcohol is always the most expensive part of any event. On the wine list there’s hardly anything under $70, so people will have the food catered for them at their home and one or two staff to help them serve, then they can drink the champagne which they’ve bought at Dan Murphy’s and the chef goes home after two and a half hours and they're sitting in their own home. Ordinarily they would have gone out to a venue, but now it’s cheaper to do it at home.”

Customers looking for tried and true favourites

Over at the top end of town, Markus Werner, corporate executive chef for Delaware North Australia, says the appetite for end of year functions is going strong. “I can’t say it’s slowing down – demand is good, numbers are good, it also looks like the people getting invited are happy to attend because it’s very rare you have any dropouts; probably we had more before Covid, but now the attendance is really good. I was just at an event which is normally 600-650 and this year we got 800+, so it looks to me like people are really looking to go out and do something different.

 “I do think the menu is perhaps not as adventurous at the moment – it feels like customers are looking for the tried and true, the familiar. You look at any menu and you’ll see beef tartare or sashimi style kingfish for entrée, beef tenderloin or braised chicken mains – I think people are wanting value for money and sticking to what they know so they won’t be disappointed. Shared dishes on the table are very popular at the moment because then there’s something for everyone and a lot of people are not eating so much anymore.

“We are running a lot of cocktail parties right now, but not with the old 12 to 15 different cocktail items; it’s a couple of smaller ones, like a smaller version of a poke bowl or a beautiful beef cheek bourguignon with some mash. We’ve also seen a real rise in grazing menus – this style of presentation used to be reserved for groups of two to three hundred, but now there’s groups of 700 to 1000 all moving around and grazing. Even companies who used to do only sit down are going into grazing – I think a lot of the time it’s so people don’t have to sit all night with the same group, they prefer to network the room and have a chat to everyone. I can’t recall ever having these massive groups grazing so much before but next week I have three!”

Markus says while Christmas remains a popular time for functions, “bookings are coming in later and later – and a lot of companies have moved away from Christmas parties and are instead holding get-togethers in late January/early February. Now we are living in a more multicultural society Christmas is no longer a celebration that everyone shares. I do think end of year parties are still big, I think more people want to come in because they have been working from home more so they want to come in and catch up in person. But we are moving more to start of year celebrations – we have some massive ones planned for February, and I’m quite happy because that was traditionally one of our least busiest times. And the season is still quite strong in December with smaller groups coming in, it’s still a busy time.”

Creating longlasting memories for customers

George Diamond, group executive chef at Trippas White, says “there are five goals which encapsulate what we try to achieve from an events menu” and summarises them as follows: 

“First is food creativity and quality. What we do as a culinary team is push the boundaries from a creative point of view while at the same time maintaining uncompromising standards – we create our menus by blending innovation with classic favourites, because we want to ensure a gastronomic journey for all patrons.

“Second is diversity and flexibility. We need to be aware of our guests’ dietary needs and preferences and respond accordingly – these things are always changing, and today we need to be educated around vegetarian cuisine, vegan, gluten free, low fodmap. Additionally we need to have a flexible approach so we can tailor our offerings which suit the theme and purpose of each event, so we can make every occasion a bit more special. We know our clients are looking for tailor-made menus to fulfil their visions and we strive to deliver on that.

“Third is service promise, which is the cornerstone of our reputation. We undertake a rigorous training process for all staff to ensure professionalism, courtesy, efficiency, so that right from the initial planning of the event through to the execution our team is totally aware of the expectations and committed to delivering a seamless and memorable experience for each of our patrons.

“Fourth is event styling – which is all about delivering a sustainable, immersive experience to complement the overall theme of each gathering. We look at enhancing visual appeal and wherever possible we try to create a sense of theatre – whether it’s an elegant gala dinner, a corporate conference or a casual networking event, the décor and presentation need to align perfectly with the event requirements.

“Fifth is to deliver on our reputation for excellence – we need to make sure we are working not just to meet expectations but to exceed them. We do this by embracing innovation, quality and diversity but we also need to make sure each guest’s palate is satisfied, because that generates invaluable word of mouth reputation.”

George says all the above points are taken into account when developing the group’s function menus. “We are fortunate that we have an extensive portfolio of venues – some of them, like the Opera House Yallamundi Rooms, Taronga Zoo, Botanic House at the Sydney Botanic Gardens, and the Centennial Parklands, are very popular for weddings, others attract sit-down meals, or grazing menus, all depending upon what the client is looking for. We strive to ensure that each venue has its own identity and that is reflected in the menus.

“It’s very important these days to provide plenty of flexibility and something for everyone so that we can create longlasting memories for our customers. The great thing about Trippas White is we have a very experienced, dedicated sales team who work closely with our clients to make sure we can meet their budgetary requirements. Sometimes we will have a client come in wanting a particular theme or styling – and we also employ a fulltime internal stylist who has been with us for many years and who works tirelessly with each sales team to ensure each event is unique to each client and that the styling is perfect.

“If you look at a venue like the Sydney Opera House Yallamundi Rooms, it’s one of the most amazing spaces in the country – the view is unequalled, it’s just a fantastic experience and you can have your event indoors and out. It’s the same with Centennial Homestead, which is ideal for farm to table style events – a lot of shared dishes in a beautiful parkland backdrop. These are iconic venues and they allow us to create really special memories, and the beauty of having a diverse sales team is that we can recommend the best venue for the size and the budget.”