Top 12 Catering Coordinator Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the bustling world of events and hospitality, a Catering Coordinator earns trust by juggling details without dropping a single plate. Showcasing the right skills on your resume doesn’t just look tidy—it signals you can tame logistics, charm clients, and deliver service that actually lands.
Catering Coordinator Skills
- Menu Planning
- Event Management
- Customer Service
- Budgeting
- Inventory Control
- Food Safety
- Catering Software (e.g., Caterease)
- Vendor Negotiation
- Staff Supervision
- Time Management
- Presentation Skills
- Microsoft Excel
1. Menu Planning
Menu planning means shaping a lineup of dishes that fits the event’s story—theme, budget, dietary needs, timing, and production flow—so the food feels cohesive and guests feel considered.
Why It's Important
Thoughtful menus prevent waste, streamline prep, honor restrictions, and balance cost with impact. Done well, it lifts guest satisfaction and keeps margins healthy.
How to Improve Menu Planning Skills
Start with the brief: Guest count, service style, timing, dietary needs, venue constraints. No guesswork.
Lean on seasonality: Fresher, cheaper, better. Rotate a few hero ingredients across courses without repeating flavors.
Design for inclusivity: Build default gluten-free/vegetarian/vegan paths that don’t feel like afterthoughts.
Engineer costs: Pair a few premium items with smart, lower-cost sides. Cross-utilize ingredients to reduce waste.
Test and time: Taste for balance. Time every step. Confirm plating speed matches service expectations.
Plan production: Batch, par-cook, and hold safely. Write down station maps and handoff points.
Close the loop: Gather post-event feedback and adjust the core menu library regularly.
How to Display Menu Planning Skills on Your Resume
2. Event Management
Event management is the orchestration of people, product, and timing so service lands exactly when it should. For catering, it’s the bridge between the kitchen plan and the guest experience.
Why It's Important
It reduces friction, prevents misfires, and keeps clients calm. Strong logistics turn good food into a great event.
How to Improve Event Management Skills
Clarify outcomes: Agenda, audience, tone, non-negotiables. Align menu, staffing, and equipment to the plan.
Build a run-of-show: Minute-by-minute timing, cue points, contacts, contingency notes. Distribute it early.
Vendor alignment: Confirm specs, access times, loading routes, and power/water needs. One confirmation sheet for all.
Rehearse the flow: Walk the venue. Pace service routes. Mark staging areas and backup stations.
Plan for the “what if”: Weather, no-shows, power hiccups, menu swaps. Pre-pack alternates.
Debrief: Short, honest postmortems. Keep a living checklist that evolves with each event.
How to Display Event Management Skills on Your Resume
3. Customer Service
Customer service is the art of clarity, kindness, and quick fixes—setting expectations, responding fast, and making problems disappear before they grow teeth.
Why It's Important
Happy clients return. They refer. They trust your suggestions. That’s the difference between one-off gigs and booked calendars.
How to Improve Customer Service Skills
Respond quickly: Even if you don’t have the answer, acknowledge and give an ETA.
Document everything: Preferences, allergies, timelines, floor plans. Confirm in writing.
Offer proactive options: Present backups for weather, substitutions, and timing shifts before clients ask.
Coach your team: Role-play tough conversations and service recovery. Consistency matters.
Close the loop: Gather feedback and fix root causes, not just symptoms.
How to Display Customer Service Skills on Your Resume
4. Budgeting
Budgeting is the discipline of mapping projected revenue against food, labor, rentals, and overhead—then steering the plan as reality changes.
Why It's Important
Margins vanish quietly. Tight budgeting protects profit, prices events correctly, and prevents last-minute scrambles.
How to Improve Budgeting Skills
Standardize recipes and portions: Lock costs with yield-tested recipes and plated weights.
Forecast accurately: Use historicals to predict seasonal demand, staffing, and purchase cycles.
Track in real time: Monitor food cost, labor cost, and rentals per event; adjust purchasing quickly.
Negotiate and bundle: Consolidate orders and secure volume pricing or long-term terms.
Review monthly: P&L, cash flow, job costing—spot trends and tighten where leakage occurs.
How to Display Budgeting Skills on Your Resume
5. Inventory Control
Inventory control keeps ingredients, disposables, and equipment available at the right levels—no waste mountains, no last-minute store runs.
Why It's Important
It preserves cash, reduces spoilage, and keeps service dependable. Guests shouldn’t feel your stockout.
How to Improve Inventory Control Skills
Adopt a system: Real-time counts, par levels, and automated reorders. Even a disciplined spreadsheet beats guesswork.
Cycle counts: Count high-movers weekly, full counts monthly. Investigate variances.
FIFO always: Label by date, rotate relentlessly, and train the team on proper pulls.
Tighten specs: Clear product specs for each item; substitutes documented before purchase.
Forecast with data: Use past event patterns to shape prep lists and purchasing for the next one.
Cross-use ingredients: Design menus that repurpose components without feeling repetitive.
How to Display Inventory Control Skills on Your Resume
6. Food Safety
Food safety is the system of handling, cooking, cooling, holding, and serving food to prevent illness. It’s not optional; it’s the backbone.
Why It's Important
It protects guests, shields your brand, and keeps you compliant. One mistake can undo years of good work.
How to Improve Food Safety Skills
Train and certify: Keep current manager and handler certifications; refresh staff regularly.
Control temperatures: Calibrate thermometers, log cook/chill/hold temps, and audit the logs.
Prevent cross-contamination: Color-code boards and tools; separate raw from ready-to-eat at every stage.
Sanitation routines: Written cleaning schedules, verified with checklists. Inspect and correct.
Supplier standards: Approve vendors, verify deliveries, and reject out-of-spec product.
Personal hygiene: Handwashing discipline, glove use when appropriate, illness policies enforced.
Pest control: Professional program plus preventive housekeeping.
Incident response: Document, isolate, notify, and remediate fast.
Follow the current code: Align procedures with the latest FDA Food Code (2022 edition) and local regulations.
How to Display Food Safety Skills on Your Resume
7. Catering Software (e.g., Caterease)
Catering software centralizes proposals, menus, BEOs, staffing, billing, and communication so nothing slips through the cracks.
Why It's Important
It speeds up quoting, reduces errors, syncs teams, and gives you reporting muscle. Less admin, more execution.
How to Improve Catering Software (e.g., Caterease) Skills
Train with intent: Complete vendor tutorials and create quick-reference SOPs for your team.
Build templates: Proposal, BEO, menu, and email templates that reflect your brand and pricing logic.
Clean your data: Standardize item names, units, taxes, and service fees; audit quarterly.
Integrate smartly: Sync calendars, email, accounting, and payment workflows to eliminate double entry.
Use automations: Triggers for confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups save hours.
Leverage reports: Review conversion rates, event profitability, and labor/food cost by job.
Go mobile: Ensure on-site teams can access BEOs, notes, and checklists from phones or tablets.
Sandbox and practice: Run mock events to pressure-test your process before peak season.
How to Display Catering Software (e.g., Caterease) Skills on Your Resume
8. Vendor Negotiation
Vendor negotiation means securing quality, reliability, and favorable terms across food, beverage, rentals, and services—without burning bridges.
Why It's Important
Better terms strengthen margins and resilience. Strong partnerships save you when timing gets tight.
How to Improve Vendor Negotiation Skills
Know your numbers: Volumes, frequency, seasonality, and acceptable ranges for price and lead time.
Compare apples to apples: Specs, yields, delivery windows, and service commitments clearly defined.
Trade, don’t demand: Offer longer commitments or flexible windows in exchange for price or priority.
Ask for adds: Waived fees, backup holds, or rush options included in the agreement.
Put it in writing: Quotes, SLAs, substitutions, and cancellation terms documented and signed.
Review performance: Quarterly scorecards keep relationships honest and productive.
How to Display Vendor Negotiation Skills on Your Resume
9. Staff Supervision
Staff supervision is guiding crews to deliver consistent, efficient service—clear roles, steady coaching, and accountability that feels fair.
Why It's Important
Team clarity prevents chaos. Supported people serve better, move faster, and handle curveballs with grace.
How to Improve Staff Supervision Skills
Set expectations: Role briefs, service standards, and measurable goals everyone can see.
Communicate often: Pre-shift huddles, on-the-fly adjustments, and post-shift notes.
Coach in real time: Specific, actionable feedback; praise publicly, correct privately.
Train for versatility: Cross-train stations and service styles to reduce bottlenecks.
Delegate deliberately: Match tasks to strengths; assign clear ownership and timelines.
Recognize wins: Small, frequent recognition keeps morale high and turnover low.
How to Display Staff Supervision Skills on Your Resume
10. Time Management
Time management is the choreography of prep, transport, setup, service, and breakdown—sequenced so deadlines don’t just get met; they breathe.
Why It's Important
When time slips, quality suffers. Smart scheduling safeguards both.
How to Improve Time Management Skills
Prioritize ruthlessly: Separate urgent from important; schedule deep-work blocks for complex tasks.
Build realistic timelines: Backward-plan from service times; include buffers for transit and hiccups.
Use a visible system: Shared calendars, task boards, and checklists everyone can access.
Delegate early: Assign owners and deadlines; eliminate single points of failure.
Review and refine: Post-event, compare plan vs. actual and tighten the next run.
How to Display Time Management Skills on Your Resume
11. Presentation Skills
Presentation skills help you pitch menus, walk clients through floor plans, and sell the experience—clearly, confidently, without fog.
Why It's Important
Clients buy what they can picture. Presentations translate ideas into decisions.
How to Improve Presentation Skills
Know the room: Tailor examples and language to the client’s priorities and budget.
Tell a story: Lead with the guest journey—arrival, first bite, crescendo, finale.
Use clean visuals: Menus, layouts, and mood boards that are simple, branded, and readable.
Practice delivery: Rehearse aloud, tighten transitions, and time the flow.
Invite questions early: Surface concerns before they harden.
Seek feedback: Iterate based on what lands—and what doesn’t.
How to Display Presentation Skills on Your Resume
12. Microsoft Excel
Excel powers budgets, forecasts, prep lists, and guest tracking—structured data that keeps operations sharp.
Why It's Important
It helps you model costs, spot trends, and share clean reports. When numbers are clear, decisions are easier.
How to Improve Microsoft Excel Skills
Start with templates: Standardize costing sheets, BEO checklists, and inventory trackers.
Master PivotTables: Summarize sales, labor, and food costs by event, client, or season.
Use conditional formatting: Flag low par levels, overdue tasks, or margin dips automatically.
Apply data validation: Prevent entry errors with dropdowns and rules.
Build dynamic charts: Visualize trends for quick stakeholder updates.
How to Display Microsoft Excel Skills on Your Resume
