Catering glossary
Updated August 2026
Plain definitions of the catering terms that show up on quotes, in venue contracts, and on event orders, each written for the person running a small catering business.
Every entry says what the term means, then what it means for your business. Where a term touches a number, it points at the pricing guides, the free calculators, or the guide to starting a catering business. For longer reads, browse the catering article library.
BEO (banquet event order)
A banquet event order, or BEO, is the single document that turns a booked event into instructions: date, arrival and service times, guaranteed headcount, menu by course, service style, room setup, staffing, rentals, and billing terms, all on one sheet the client signs and the kitchen works from.
Buffet service
Buffet service sets the food on a line that guests serve themselves from, with the caterer’s staff tending pans, refilling, holding temperature, and clearing. It sits between drop-off and plated on both labor and price.
Chafing dish and holding temperature
A chafing dish is the frame, water pan, food pan, and fuel or element that holds already-hot food at a safe serving temperature on a buffet line. Holding temperature is the range cooked food has to stay in from the moment it leaves the kitchen until it is served.
COI (certificate of insurance)
A certificate of insurance, or COI, is a one-page document issued by your insurer that proves a policy exists: who is insured, what kinds of coverage, what limits, and what dates it runs between. It is evidence of coverage, not the policy itself.
Commissary kitchen
A commissary kitchen is a licensed commercial kitchen that rents production time to food businesses, by the hour, by the shift, or by the month. It gives a caterer a permitted place to cook, cool, and store food without owning a facility.
Corkage fee
A corkage fee is a per-bottle charge for serving alcohol the client supplied rather than bought from the venue or caterer. It pays for the glassware, ice, chilling, opening, pouring, and clearing that the client’s purchase did not cover.
Cottage food law
Cottage food laws are state-level rules that let certain low-risk foods be produced in a home kitchen and sold directly to consumers without a commercial facility or a full food-service permit. What qualifies, how much may be sold, and where it may be sold are all defined by the individual state.
Day-of coordinator
A day-of coordinator is a planner a client hires to run the event on the day itself: the run of show, the vendor arrivals, the cues, and the timeline. They typically join weeks before rather than planning the event from scratch, which is what a full-service planner does.
Drop-off catering
Drop-off catering is food that is cooked, packed, delivered, and set out on the client’s table, with no staff staying to serve it. The caterer arrives, arranges the spread, and leaves; the client and their guests handle the rest.
Event minimum
An event minimum is the smallest amount a caterer will accept for a job, stated either as a total spend or as a headcount. Orders below it are declined, or accepted with a stated small-order charge that brings them up to it.
Family style service
Family style service sends large shared platters and bowls to each table for guests to pass among themselves. Guests are seated and served like a plated dinner, but the food is portioned at the table rather than in the kitchen.
Food cost percentage
Food cost percentage is the raw ingredient cost of a dish divided by the price charged for it, expressed as a percentage. Caterers commonly aim for somewhere in the high twenties to mid thirties, and treat the figure as a sanity check on a price rather than as a way of setting one.
Food handler certification
Food handler certification is short food-safety training with an exam, held by the people who prepare and serve food. A separate, longer food protection manager certification is commonly required for at least one person responsible for an operation. ServSafe is the best known of the programs that offer both.
Guest count guarantee
A guest count guarantee is the headcount a client confirms by an agreed deadline before the event, and the number the event is billed from regardless of how many guests actually arrive. Additions after the deadline are usually accepted at a higher rate, if they can be accepted at all.
Per-head pricing
Per-head pricing quotes an event as one price for each guest, so the food portion of a client’s bill is that figure multiplied by the guaranteed headcount. Delivery, staffing, rentals, a service charge, and tax sit on their own lines beside it rather than inside it.
Plated service
Plated service means every course is portioned and dressed in the kitchen and carried to seated guests, course by course, on a timeline the caterer runs. It is the most controlled service style and the most labor-heavy.
Service charge vs gratuity
A service charge is a mandatory charge the caterer sets and books as business revenue, covering the cost of running service. A gratuity is a discretionary tip a client chooses to add for the staff who worked the event. They are different charges with different purposes, and industry practice is to show them as separate lines.
Tasting
A tasting is a scheduled sample meal a caterer prepares so a prospective client can try dishes from a proposed menu before committing to it. It is most common in wedding and large-event work, where the menu is chosen months ahead.
Stop translating the terms by hand
CaterKit costs every dish from your own ingredients, prices the quote at your margin, and puts the deposit line, the final-count deadline and the named charges on the page a client accepts.