Event Staff:
Professional, high quality event staff is an important part of Ultimate
Cuisine’s great reputation and business success. Along with high quality food,
it is the most important part of a truly “catered” event. Making sure your
guests’ every service need is addressed...making sure your event goes exactly as
planned...requires a coordinated effort from the entire event team.
The primary responsibility of the event staff is, of course, to serve your
guests and to maintain the event location in a neat and clean fashion. However,
the event staff also has many less visible, but equally important, duties. These
include unloading food and equipment from the delivery vehicles, setting up the
event location, breaking down after the event, and reloading everything back
into the delivery vehicles. All event staff...servers, chefs, bartenders, and
kitchen helpers...participate in these additional duties.
Because the event staff has these additional responsibilities prior to your
guests’ arrival, staff are charged for from the time they arrive until the time
they leave. For most events, staff arrives 1-1/2 to 2 hours prior to guest
arrival time, and finishes break down and clean up within 1/2 to 1 hour after
the guests leave. Some events with significant setup may require more time, and
occasionally there are events with such limited setup requirements that the
staff needs only an hour or so for setup. We do not charge for the time it takes
to load or unload delivery vehicles at our shop, or for the time it takes to
travel to your event.
Servers, bartenders, and chefs are $28.00 each per
hour with a 4 hour minimum. Chef's assistants are $22.00 each per hour, also
with a 4 hour minimum.
In-House Kitchen Staff: There is another very important group of dedicated
professionals that you and your guests will never see...the culinary
professionals who carry out the initial preparation of your food. Chef Keith
Brill and his staff receive food orders, assuring that only the highest quality
products get in our door. They then carefully prepare and package all of your
event menu items, to exacting standards, so that they are ready for final
preparation and presentation by the event chefs. All of our kitchen staff are
certified by the State of Florida, a process that involves regular training and
testing in health-related topics such as: safety in food preparation, cooking,
and serving; proper purchasing, receiving, and food storage procedures; and
proper cleaning and sanitizing practices. In addition, chef Keith is certified
by the State of Florida to train others on these important topics.
Other In-House Staff: There are many other jobs
associated with the successful catering of your event. Equipment must be pulled
from storage and loaded into delivery vehicles. Following completion of an event
the china, flatware, glassware, serving utensils, and other equipment must be
cleaned, sanitized, and returned to storage, and linens must be laundered. There
are also office people who perform the variety of jobs typical of any business.
In addition to these “behind the scenes” staff, there are also the event
planning professionals who will guide you through the planning of your event and
help you make the many important decisions that go into the creation of the
“perfect” event. These people hardly need highlighting here, however, as you
will undoubtedly get to know them well during the time leading up to your event.
We consider our in-house staff to be a part of our everyday, permanent team so
they are not charged to your event. The services of these staff members are
included in the price of your menu.
Taxes and Insurance: Employees of Ultimate Cuisine
are paid “on the books”. This means that Federal, Social Security, and Medicare
taxes are deducted from employee paychecks as required by law, and Ultimate
Cuisine contributes its matching share of Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Additionally, employees are covered under the Company’s worker’s compensation
insurance policy. If comparing Ultimate Cuisine to another catering company, one
important thing to check is whether the employees of the other company are also
legally employed and covered by proper insurance.
Service Charge and Gratuities: We do not add a
service charge to your total bill (i.e. 15% - 20%) the way many other companies
do. It is important to consider this if comparing our prices to the prices of
another company. Staff gratuity is entirely at your discretion. Our policy of
not automatically adding a service charge to your bill does not concern our
staff; they know that their level of service is such that you will be inclined
to offer a gratuity, without being forced to do so. And be assured that any
gratuity, regardless of whether it is paid separately to the staff or included
in the final payment, goes 100% into the hands of the staff; Ultimate Cuisine
does not take a “house cut”.
(If you are unsure of what constitutes an appropriate gratuity, one of our event
planners will be happy to assist you with some general “rules of thumb”.)
Hourly staff rates are valid through December 2009. Hourly staff rates are subject
to change without notice.
