Wolfgang Puck at the Oscars: Catering Harder Than Running a Restaurant

As Hollywood celebrated the Oscars this weekend, Wolfgang Puck and his group have been as soon as once more tucked away within the kitchens. They’re behind one of many ceremony’s greatest traditions: the Governors Ball dinner that follows the awards.

Puck has run the culinary group on the Governors Ball for over 30 years. And whereas the Oscars could also be one of the glamorous nights in Hollywood, Puck says the catering enterprise behind occasions just like the Governors Ball might be harder to run than a restaurant — an trade the place about half of recent companies fail throughout the first five years.

“A catering enterprise is absolutely tougher to run since you is likely to be actually busy for every week after which one other week you’ve gotten little or no,” Puck, who has spent a long time constructing each restaurant and catering operations, advised Enterprise Insider at this yr’s Oscars.

The size of the operation behind Hollywood’s greatest night time exhibits simply how labor-intensive that enterprise might be. Puck’s group prepares 84 completely different dishes, together with 30,000 small plates for about 1,700 visitors on the Governors Ball.

The occasion requires a military of employees: round 75 savory cooks, 45 pastry cooks, and lots of of servers.

Puck defined that the most important problem in catering is protecting a steady group when the workload is unpredictable. Restaurants are likely to have extra constant hours and visitors. Catering does not at all times work that method.

The most important problem in catering

For catering operators, the volatility of the enterprise can have an effect on scheduling and payroll. This makes it tough for catering companies to maintain expert employees, particularly throughout slower durations, Puck says.

The broader trade displays that problem. The US catering sector employs about 158,000 employees throughout hundreds of companies, however the common firm has nearly 11 staff, in accordance with trade evaluation agency IBISWorld. This implies most catering firms rely closely on momentary or event-based employees to scale up for giant jobs.

Staffing shortages have turn into one of many trade’s greatest hurdles. Practically 89% of occasion trade leaders say labor shortages have affected their capacity to ship profitable occasions within the final yr.

“Individuals can’t say, ‘Okay, I get a job two weekends of the month,'” Puck advised Enterprise Insider. “Individuals should pay their rent, feed the household, and every little thing.”

Wolfgang Puck’s catering enterprise technique

Puck opened his enterprise, Wolfgang Puck Catering, in 1998. To create extra constant work for his employees, the corporate expanded its enterprise past giant night occasions just like the Oscars.

“What’s nice with us, we do quite a lot of corporate catering,” Puck mentioned. “So we do Netflix, Sony, Seaside, Google, Apple, and so forth.”

These catering gigs are likely to give attention to weekday breakfasts and lunches moderately than giant night occasions. This helps fill gaps between giant occasions. “In order that helps us to have a very good group in place,” Puck mentioned.

An added bonus, Puck says, is that the Oscars is at all times on a Sunday, when these huge firms are closed. So, there are not any conflicting schedules.