Graduation Catering: Feeding The Family Afterwards

The day has a shape you do not control

Graduation is one of the few celebrations where the timing is set by somebody else and always runs late. The ceremony overruns, the photographs take an hour, and the restaurant booking you made for two o’clock is now a problem.

That is the argument for catering at home or at a hall rather than booking a table: the food waits for you instead of the other way round.

What actually happens on the day

The pattern is consistent across every graduation we cater. Ceremony in the morning or early afternoon. Photographs afterwards, longer than anybody plans. Family arriving at the house from three onwards, having travelled and not eaten. Everyone tired, hot, and in clothes they would like to change out of.

Which tells you what the food should be: ready when you get back, not needing anything doing to it, and substantial enough to be a meal for people who have skipped lunch.

A buffet delivered and laid out while you are at the ceremony solves the entire problem. Buffet 5 at £7.70 a head or Buffet 9 at £11.00 if it will run into the evening.

The access problem

The same one christenings have: everybody is out at the thing, so nobody is at the house to let a driver in.

It is solvable and we do it constantly. Either somebody stays behind, a neighbour holds a key, or the venue lets us in. Tell us the arrangement when you book and the food will be out and covered before you get back.

What does not work is assuming it will sort itself out on the day. Say it in the order.

Nottingham, Derby and Leicester

The three cities we cater most graduations in, and they are not the same.

Nottingham and Derby graduate mainly in the summer, which puts graduation parties into the same weeks as weddings. The busiest we have. Ask early.

Leicester has significant winter graduations as well, which means December family parties competing for Saturdays with every office Christmas do in the city. If you are catering a winter graduation in Leicester, book earlier than feels remotely necessary.

Numbers, and the ones who turn up

Graduations bring grandparents, and grandparents bring appetite and sometimes each other. Order for slightly more than the list.

They also bring a wide age range into one room, so order the kids menu at £8.00 a head separately if younger cousins are coming.

If you want it to feel like an occasion

A dessert grazing board at £97.00 a crate serving ten (mini doughnuts, waffles, brownies, Victoria sponge, berries) does more for the table than a cake and photographs considerably better, which on a day built around photographs is not a small thing.

Everything is 30% vegetarian as standard, with vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and halal prepared separately and labelled.

Graduating soon? Party catering has the range and prices, and it is worth booking before the ceremony date is confirmed rather than after.