Catering menu template: a free Word file and how to build a menu clients book from

What a catering menu should include

Clients read a catering menu very differently from a restaurant menu. They are not ordering for themselves tonight. They are planning a wedding, a board lunch or a fundraiser, often weeks out, and they need to explain the choice to someone else. Your menu has to answer their questions before they ask: what is included, how big the portions are, what the per-guest price covers, and what changes if fifteen more people say yes.

The template below is built around that. Each section carries a course name, the dishes, a one-line description, allergen letters, and a price on a single basis. The header carries the event fields you need to quote accurately, and the footer carries the terms.

Step by step

1. 1

   Choose your service styles first

   Decide whether you sell drop-off, buffet, family style, plated, or stations. Each style changes staffing, equipment and portion size, so each needs its own price.

2. 2

   Group dishes by course and keep choices tight

   Three to five choices per course is enough for most events. Long lists slow the client's decision and make your purchasing harder to predict.

3. 3

   Set one pricing basis per section

   Price mains per person, platters per tray, and desserts per dozen if you like, but never mix bases inside one section. Clients compare totals, and mixed bases make yours look higher than it is.

4. 4

   Mark allergens and the raw food advisory

   Put allergen letters next to each dish and a key at the bottom. Where a dish contains raw or undercooked animal food, add the disclosure and reminder your state's food code requires.

5. 5

   Add the terms that protect the margin

   State the minimum guest count, the final headcount deadline, what is included (staff, rentals, cake cutting), what is extra, and how long the prices are valid.

How to price a catering menu

Start from food cost per guest for each dish, then add labour, rentals, transport and overhead before your profit. Price per person for plated and buffet service, because the client's budget is usually set per guest. Price per tray or per dozen for drop-off orders, where the client controls quantities.

Show what the price includes in plain words: disposable or china, servers, setup and breakdown, and how many hours of service. A per person price with servers included will look higher than a competitor's drop-off price. Saying so on the menu stops the comparison going against you.

Set a minimum guest count for full-service events, and say clearly that you bill the final confirmed count or the guaranteed minimum, whichever is higher. Give a date for the final count, often several days to a week before the event, so you can order food without guessing.

Allergens: the nine to mark and why

The FDA lists nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame. Sesame became the ninth on 1 January 2023 under the FASTER Act. Federal allergen labeling rules under FALCPA apply to packaged foods. The FDA notes they do not apply to food placed in a wrapper or container after a customer's order, which covers most catered food.

That does not make allergens optional for a caterer. Clients ask, guests react, and one serious reaction can end a venue relationship. Mark each dish with simple letters, such as G for gluten from wheat, D for dairy, N for tree nuts, P for peanuts, S for sesame, and put the key in the footer. Ask for dietary needs on the booking form and record them against the event, so the kitchen sees them on the prep sheet, not just the salesperson.

Raw and undercooked items: the consumer advisory

The FDA Food Code, which most states adopt in some version, asks food establishments to give a consumer advisory when animal foods are served raw, undercooked or not otherwise processed to remove pathogens. The advisory has two parts. The disclosure identifies the dishes, for example with an asterisk. The reminder states the health risk of eating those foods raw or undercooked.

For caterers this covers oysters, tartare, crudo, rare steaks carved to order, and sauces or desserts made with raw egg, such as some mayonnaises, hollandaise or mousse. Put the asterisk on the dish line and the reminder in the footer. Your state or county may set its own wording, so check with your local health department.

Do catering menus need calorie counts?

Federal menu labeling applies to restaurants and similar retail food establishments that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations selling substantially the same menu items. Most independent caterers fall outside it. The FDA's guidance says off-site catering for private events, where one or two people order from a catering menu for a group, is likely not covered, though a covered chain must still declare calories on a catering menu that meets the rule's definition of a menu.

Some cities and states have their own nutrition or menu rules. If you are part of a larger restaurant group or sell through a chain's catering arm, ask whoever handles compliance before you print.

Packages that sell without discounting

Three packages work well for most US caterers. A lower tier keeps you in the conversation with budget clients. A middle tier carries the dishes you make best and should be where most bookings land. A top tier adds stations, upgraded proteins or extended service and makes the middle tier feel reasonable.

Build each package from dishes your kitchen can produce at scale without extra staff. Keep upgrades as clear add-ons with a per person price, such as a carving station or a late night snack, rather than reopening the whole menu for each client.

• Name packages by occasion or service style, not by price.
• Keep the same sides across packages to simplify prep.
• List what changes between tiers in one line each.
• Put the validity period under the packages: prices for events booked within 90 days, for example.

From menu to quotation to invoice

The menu is the start of the paperwork, not the end. Once the client picks a package, you need a quotation with the guest count, service charge and local sales tax, a contract with the cancellation terms, a deposit receipt, and finally an invoice on the confirmed count. The catering contract template and catering invoice template for the US on this site cover those steps.

Venura's catering app turns a selected menu and headcount into a quotation, tracks the deposit and balance, and keeps the menu, dietary notes and staff schedule on the event record on web, Android and iOS. When the final count arrives, the invoice updates from the same record instead of a second spreadsheet.

Catering menu template: questions from the United States