Have you ever contracted a caterer to prepare and serve food at your ceremony, only to discover, to your embarrassment, that the job was abysmally executed? If you have not, you may experience it sooner than you imagine.
Imagine inviting 300 guests to your wedding, birthday celebration, burial ceremony, child dedication, graduation party, housewarming or other social gathering. You have calculated the number of invitees, budgeted for the food, purchased the necessary ingredients and entrusted the catering to someone you believe possesses the requisite expertise.
Then, just as the ceremony gathers momentum, you hear the announcement: “There is rice, but there is no meat.” Or perhaps: “The swallow is available, but the soup is finished.”
You are stunned. Your guests are bewildered. You begin to wonder what went wrong. How could food prepared for a specified number of people suddenly become insufficient?
Then comes the revelation that makes your blood boil: while your guests are being told that the meat or soup has finished, the caterer has allegedly kept several containers of meat, fish, chicken and soup somewhere, presumably for herself, her family members or friends.
Worse still, some caterers arrive at events with a small army of friends and relatives masquerading as assistants. They eat from the food meant for invited guests, while the paying client is left to bear the embarrassment when the food eventually runs out.
Welcome to one of the less discussed but disturbing dimensions of Nigeria’s event industry.
We talk endlessly about poor-quality roads, bad governance, corruption, insecurity and the high cost of living. Yet other forms of everyday dishonesty occur right under our noses and rarely attract public discourse.
Perhaps disappointed clients are too embarrassed to speak. Perhaps they fear being accused of being stingy or overly suspicious. Or perhaps they simply regard the experience as one of those unfortunate incidents that should be forgotten once the ceremony is over.
A caterer who deliberately withholds food paid for by a client is not merely providing poor service. She is betraying a professional trust.
Catering is one of those innocuous aspects of event management that can make or mar a ceremony. In Nigeria, food occupies a particularly important place in our social life. Indeed, the success of an event is sometimes measured less by the speeches, decoration or entertainment than by whether guests were adequately fed.
A beautifully organised ceremony can quickly become the subject of ridicule if guests leave complaining that they were not properly served.
Unfortunately, the person who bears the reputational damage is usually not the caterer. It is the host.
The irony is that the host may have done everything correctly. He may have paid the agreed amount, bought all the ingredients requested by the caterer and clearly communicated the expected number of guests.
Yet, when the food runs short, few people ask: “What happened to the food?” Instead, they ask: “What kind of host is this?”
This is perhaps why some unscrupulous caterers continue to get away with such practices.
Consider a ceremony where food has been budgeted for 300 people. If a caterer arrives with ten or fifteen additional people who were not factored into the calculation and feeds them from the client’s allocation, those extra mouths inevitably reduce what is available to guests.
The caterer may call them “assistants”, but the important question is: Were they part of the agreement? If they were not, why should the client be responsible for feeding them?
There is nothing wrong with a caterer bringing assistants to an event. Catering can be physically demanding, and additional hands may be necessary for cooking, serving, washing utensils, clearing tables and other logistical duties.
The problem arises when friends and relatives who have little or nothing to do with the assignment are brought along primarily to eat from the client’s provision.
That is not professionalism. It is exploitation.
There is also the troubling practice of deliberately controlling portions in a manner that favours the caterer and her associates.
Some caterers may serve generous portions to early guests, only to become miserly when the food begins to diminish.
Those who arrive later may be told that the meat has finished, while containers of meat, fish, chicken or soup have been discreetly set aside.
A competent caterer should anticipate this and manage the food with the entire guest list in mind.
The problem may extend beyond cooked food. Drinks, bottled water, takeaway packs and other consumables can also disappear. By the time the host begins to account for what was purchased and what was served, the figures may no longer add up.
Of course, unexpected circumstances can occur. More guests may attend than anticipated. Food may spill or spoil. There may be wastage or a cooking error. These are understandable operational challenges.
The former is a logistical problem. The latter is an ethical failure.
The guests were invited to eat it, not the caterer’s entire social network.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with caterers eating from the food they prepare if such an arrangement has been agreed upon. Nor is there anything wrong with providing meals for legitimate catering assistants. Indeed, responsible clients should understand that those working tirelessly behind the scenes also need to eat.
The issue is transparency. If a caterer requires food for five assistants, she should say so. If she expects to bring additional workers, the client should know. If she believes the agreed quantity will not adequately serve the expected number of guests, she should raise the matter before the event.
What is unacceptable is for the caterer to make unilateral decisions about the client’s food and then leave the host to face the consequences.
The same principle applies to leftovers. If the client permits the caterer to take leftovers home, there is nothing wrong with that. If the leftovers belong to the host, however, they should be handed over.
There should be no clandestine packing of food into bags and containers while guests are still struggling to get a meal.
The catering profession, like every legitimate business, depends fundamentally on trust. Clients hand over their money, food items and reputation to caterers because they believe the professionals will deliver according to the agreement.
A caterer who compromises that trust does more than ruin one ceremony. She damages the reputation of an entire profession.
This is why caterers themselves should begin to police their industry. Professional associations and event-management bodies should establish clearer ethical standards for practitioners. Clients should equally insist on written agreements specifying the number of guests, quantities of food, number of assistants, serving arrangements and handling of leftovers.
Clients, too, must exercise greater caution. Rather than selecting caterers solely because they offer the cheapest quotation, prospective clients should investigate their reputation and seek recommendations from people who have previously used their services.
Most importantly, the host should appoint a trusted person to monitor the catering operation. This is not because every caterer is dishonest. Far from it.
There are many hardworking, conscientious and highly professional caterers who take immense pride in satisfying their clients. They understand that their reputation is their greatest asset and that every successful event can generate another contract. Such caterers deserve commendation.
Unfortunately, the misconduct of a few can cast aspersions on the entire profession.
A caterer takes home several plates of meat and someone says, “She has worked hard; let her enjoy.”
But where does legitimate compensation end and exploitation begin?
If the caterer was paid for her service and her remuneration was agreed upon, secretly appropriating food meant for guests cannot reasonably be described as an entitlement. There is nothing admirable about profiting from another person’s hospitality.
The caterer, therefore, has a responsibility that goes beyond cooking. She is part of the event’s hospitality chain. Her conduct can determine whether guests leave with pleasant memories or bitter complaints.
To caterers who engage in these questionable practices, the message is simple: there is nothing wrong with making a profit from your profession. There is everything wrong with making that profit through deception.
If you need additional food for your workers, ask for it. If your quotation is inadequate, renegotiate. If you need more money, charge more. If the contract does not cover your expenses, tell the client. If you want to take leftovers home, seek permission.
But do not deliberately deprive invited guests of food so that you can feed an uninvited entourage or return home with containers of meat and soup. That is not enterprise. It is exploitation.
And to clients, the lesson is equally important. Do not surrender the entire catering operation to blind trust. Put everything in writing. Agree on the numbers. Establish who is responsible for what. And, above all, have someone you trust monitor the process.
The time has therefore come for us to have an honest conversation about this largely overlooked aspect of event management. The mass media, event organisers, professional associations and the public should pay greater attention to it.
Because while a poorly decorated venue may be forgiven and a less-than-perfect programme may soon be forgotten, few guests forget being invited to a celebration and leaving hungry.
Caterers should remember that every plate they serve represents more than food. It represents money, planning, hospitality and trust.
Your client’s ceremony is not your personal harvest.
If you want more, ask for more. If you need more money, charge more. If the contract needs to change, renegotiate it. But do not steal your profit from your client’s pot.
A caterer who feeds every guest adequately, manages portions responsibly and leaves the venue with nothing more than what she is legitimately entitled to will earn something far more valuable than a few extra containers of meat: a reputation for integrity.
And reputation, in business, is capital. After all, the food in a client’s pot may feed you for a day.
But your integrity can feed your reputation for a lifetime.
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Dr. Odaro is a columnist and lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria.