Posted by Carl Jones on August 09, 19100 at 19:15:54 :
In Reply to: is this 'catering'? posted by Laurie on August 08, 19100 at 18:31:02 :
: After spending the last hour or so reading through the messages on this forum, I have a question that I hope I won't get in trouble for asking. :)
: My husband is an excellent cook, and just about every time he cooks at a BBQ or a church function, he has people ask if he will cook for a party they are having, or a wedding, or some kind of event.
: We have done this several times now, just cooking in our home kitchen or the host's kitchen. The problem is that it's starting to balloon into a lot of work - we get at least 4 or 5 requests a month, and we have had to turn down quite a few because we both work full time and just don't have the time to fulfill all the requests.
: I found this site while looking into what it would take to do this as a legal, full-time business, and realize that it is out of reach, at least for now.
: My question (finally) is this. Is what we are doing now considered 'catering' and if so, is it also illegal since we are not licensed? So far, we have only been cooking for family and friends, but we have started getting calls from people we don't know saying 'so and so referred me to you' and we are wary of taking those jobs for legal reasons.
: I hope this is not an inappropriate question, and I would appreciate any insight I can get.
: TIA,
: Laurie
Great question Laurie. Sam's advice below is on target and I agree 100%.
Another thing to think of. What happens when 25 people end up in the hospital with Food Poisoning. No offense to your expertise, but it happens and can happen to you. My point being that you need to protect your ASS-ets.... so find insurance to cover you and be up front about your lack of permits. If the liability carrier wont cover you, then that should answer a lot of your questions. If they do cover you, then you need to do it all at the client's home or a permitted rental kitchen.
Hope this helps,
Carl