# How much should I charge for a 5 course dinner?



## sabbah (Jun 2, 2009)

Was asked to cater a party of 24 for a fine dining, 5 course meal. Curious if anyone has experience in pricing and charging an event like this.

Was thinking 50 plus wine and tip per person.


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

What do you call fine dining and what is menu then we can advise you. And what State and city?


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## chefhow (Oct 16, 2008)

What are you serving? What would you like for your food cost to be? Are you charging for servers or is it included in the cost per person? Do you have any overhead that you need to pay for? The question is quite vague without more info.


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

What's the menu (food cost)?

What is your kitchen help cost?

What is your server help cost?

Are you providing Linens, tableware, etc.

Personally, I'd add up ALL my costs, then add on what you want to earn, and then quote the total. I do NOT quote per person prices for small parties because my costs, and fee, does NOT go down proportionally if the number of persons decreases.

EXAMPLE: You quote, say, $50/person, thinking 24 people, comes the event and you've purchased food for 24 and rentals for 24 and labor for 24 and now only 20 people show up. Your gross just went down from $1,200 to $1,000, a drop of $200 and your costs did NOT go down, so your "net" dropped by $200! That's probably 25% to 50% of your profit!


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## filthy habitz (Oct 6, 2009)

Double your food cost and labour lol


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

You have to cost out each course and the amount of labor to prep the meal and serve it. It. I won't even go into the fact that you didn't tell us what the menu is..............But here it goes blind folded.

1st course.....7.00
2nd course....7.00
3rd course.....5.00
Main course...35.00
dessert..........8.00...............$62 plus wine and tip if your talking about real high food cost items then this price will go up............In my case when I did 5 course meals or 7 course French dinners it was always between $75 and $125 plus wine .......Bill


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Smaller the # of guests the higher the cost pp.
$75-$125, plus wine and staff.


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