He pressed a bit further. Catering, I reminded him, is akin to picking up a restaurant and setting it up in someone's home, office or other venue. It requires great organizational skills. It's about presenting the food beautifully, and on schedule, bringing in a great service staff, and any other party vendors needed. And while for me personally, the quality of the food I serve is an extremely high priority, the caterer's job in the end, is really about allowing the hostess to show up at her party just like her guests would. She should be able to open the door for the caterer, and then  disappear into her room to dress, make herself look beautiful, and prepare herself to greet her guests. After her guests have left, she should be able to retire to her room, with everything cleaned, put away and otherwise taken care of. I told him my story of the 50th birthday party hostess I wrote about a couple of years back, as opposed to the other (ahem!) nameless party giver.

"Oh", he said (I could see the light bulb going on), "you mean it's not just about food, but a caterer does complete party planning, too!"

Of course! That's our job- to create the party of our client's dreams. Whew!