Craft Services

The other day the Gourmet Genie was selected from among hundreds of other food trucks to be on the set of a TV show at Paramount Studios. In my humble opinion, they had all the best trucks: Barbie's Q (and John's a super guy), Grilled Cheese and Dogtown.

The trucks served as background on the set of a "Happy Endings" which will be a mid-season replacement on ABC. I could tell you which shows on channel 7 need to go but that's a whole other blog. The plot dictated that one of the main characters dreamt of owning a food truck and won a food competition. While we took some pictures, they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. It was a still lot of fun (and a long day of sitting around).

Being there I realized that was another angle we hadn't given much thought to: craft services. I think as food truck operators we are in a unique position to capitalize on this because we could drop off catering/craft services and still roll out for the day and do our regular route. I am beginning to get excited about this new prospect.

We've actually already had a few inquiries for commercial catering and, out of lack of experience I think, we might have come in too high. We were also approached by a craft services person working on the set of another TV show while at Paramount who inquired about pricing. He seemed to think our quote was WAY too high which was puzzling to both of us. Of course I know it's his job to do everything on a budget and maybe he was playing hardball, but it's a complete mystery to me how to set up the pricing for this kind of thing and still turn a profit. The one person we know who does craft services isn't getting back to us about her pricing. I guess she doesn't want us to steal her customers or something.

Max asserts that we are doing something different, something very high end and specialized; he feels that if they don't like our prices they can go somewhere else (he might have put in a nicer way). I would never endeavor to contest his knowledge of food cost/labor. After all he has tons of experience in that regard and I'm just along trying to make sense of budgets, creating spreadsheets and forms. The challenge is just getting our foot in the door, not the actual work. I know no one would try harder to go above and beyond than we would and I know our food is a slam dunk. So what now? Can't just sit back and wait...

After many hours of research I think I have managed to pull together a pricing schema that should satisfy both parties. Just being there that one day was great because we did manage to make a few contacts and have already had a request come in through our (NEW AND IMPROVED) website. Could this be a coincidence? Maybe. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, look for our big red truck when "Happy Endings" airs in 2011 and if you know a location manager in need of craft services, now you know where to go.

Holiday Panic

Every year when November rolls around, I begin to feel just a little anxious about the Holidays. If I am hosting that year, it’s safe to say that the “little” part is multiplied by 10. I start cleaning, purging, and rearranging/ redecorating a month in advance. At the same time, I’m planning the menu in my head or collaborating with my mother on another continent at 50 RPM’s/second and I ALWAYS forget something.

Hosting, for me, kind of takes the fun out of hosting. If you’re organized like my husband, you can sit and enjoy a cocktail and a conversation with your loved ones. If you’re always running around, it isn’t quite so pretty. One of the easiest holiday celebrations I’ve ever hosted was when I had it catered. If you’re busy (and who isn’t?), I recommend you save yourself the agony of menu planning (and the defeat of a lackluster meal), a few hundred trips to the grocery store, the hassle of checking the turkey 80 times to see if it’s done and just hire a professional.

Whether you’d like a traditional holiday celebration with turkey, ham and all the trimmings, a delicious vegetarian alternative or dreaming of a Mediterranean-themed affair, the Gourmet Genie does it all in style, can offer budget-wise menu selections and can even clean up afterwards! How’s that for a reason to celebrate?

As for me, I have a lot to be thankful for. For one thing, our first quarterly newsletter is complete and not a moment too soon. You can sign up to join our mailing list on the website and have the next one delivered right to your inbox. Possibly more importantly, the Gourmet Genie IS catering all my celebrations this year, leaving me more time to work on things like NEXT quarter's newsletter.

Cheers! and here's hoping the Holidays don't drive you mad.