How to Brief a Caterer: The Questions You Need to Answer Before You Pick Up the Phone
Most guides to office catering are about how to choose the right caterer to work with. That's the first question you need to answer, but it's just as important to work out the details you'll need to have on hand for that first briefing call.
A good brief is the difference between a quote that's accurate on the first pass and a back-and-forth that eats a week of your time. This guide covers exactly what to have ready before you make that first call or send that first email.
Quick answer: before briefing a caterer, you need a headcount (even a rough one), your timing and venue constraints and a sense of budget. Have these five things ready and most caterers can turn around an accurate quote within a day.
Why the Brief Matters More Than People Expect
Caterers price and plan around specifics. Getting it right at the start avoids unexpected costs appearing later down the line, and cuts out a lot of unnecessary back-and-forth. Everyone knows where they stand right away and can get on with organising the event itself.
A specific brief gets a specific answer, faster, and it's usually an accurate price too, since the caterer isn't guessing at your requirements. If you haven't yet worked out which caterer to approach, our guide on how to choose an office caterer in London is worth reading alongside this one. Together they cover both sides of the process, who to pick and what to tell them once you have.
Headcount: What to Do When You Don't Have an Exact Number
Almost nobody has a final headcount at the point they first contact a caterer, and that's fine. What caterers actually need is a range and a date by which that range becomes a firm number.
What to have ready:
A realistic minimum and maximum, based on invites sent or expected attendance
The date you can confirm final numbers by, most caterers ask for this two weeks before the event
Whether numbers are likely to move up or down, and by roughly how much
Being upfront about uncertainty gets you a better quote than guessing a single number and hoping it holds. Caterers plan for movement, they just need to know how much movement to expect.
Dietary Requirements: Collecting Them Without Chasing People
This is the part that causes the most last-minute stress, and it's almost always a process problem, not a food problem.
What to have ready:
A simple way to collect dietary needs, a short form or a line in the calendar invite works better than emailing everyone individually
A cut-off date for responses, two weeks before the event is a reasonable default, in line with most caterers' own deadlines
A plan for late responses, most caterers can accommodate a handful of late additions if you flag it as a possibility upfront
If your team has a genuinely wide mix of dietary needs, our guide on catering for a mixed-dietary team without the stress goes into more detail on collecting and communicating this well.
Timing: The Constraints Caterers Actually Need to Know
"Lunch at 1pm" is a start, but it's not a full brief. Caterers need to know what's happening around that time slot too.
What to have ready:
Setup access, when can the caterer actually get into the space
Whether food needs to be ready before people arrive, or served once everyone's already seated
Any hard stops, a meeting resuming, a room needing to be cleared, a venue curfew
Whether the event runs across multiple sittings or one single service window
Getting this wrong is usually what causes food to arrive too early and go cold, or too late and hold up an agenda.
Venue Access: The Detail Most People Forget to Mention
This is the question caterers ask that catches people out most often, because it's rarely obvious until someone actually asks it.
What to have ready:
Building access, is there a loading bay, lift, or will everything need to be carried up several flights of stairs
Kitchen or prep space, what facilities are available and what equipment the caterer needs to bring
Parking or unloading restrictions, particularly relevant for central London venues with limited vehicle access
Whether the venue has its own catering restrictions or an approved supplier list
A caterer who knows about a fourth-floor walk-up in advance can plan for it. One who finds out on the day cannot, and that's when service runs late.
Budget: Share the Number You're Working To
Many corporate bookers already have a specific figure to work with, a set cost-per-head, a budget approved by finance, or a cap agreed before the brief even reaches a caterer. When that's the case, share it early. A caterer working to a specific number can build a menu that actually fits, rather than proposing options above or below what's approved. If you don't yet have a firm figure, even a rough range is enough to get started, and our guide on the true cost of office catering in London is a good starting point for working out what's reasonable to expect.
The Brief Checklist
Before you contact a caterer, have answers ready for the following:
Headcount: minimum, maximum, and the date you can confirm final numbers
Dietary needs: how you're collecting them and by when
Date, time and duration: including any hard stops
Setup access: when the caterer can arrive and how long they have
Venue details: lift or stairs, kitchen access, parking or unloading restrictions
Budget: a figure or a range, even a rough one
Format preference: if you already have one, buffet, bowl food, sit-down, or grazing
Ready to Brief Your Caterer?
Once you've got these five things worked out, most London caterers can turn around a proposal quickly. If you're still not sure, our team is happy to talk it through with you directly.
