Why a full seated service doesn't work well with hand-made pizza

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There are events, like weddings, where the ideal format is guests seated at long tables and delicious pizza popped in front of them to eat. Soft music in the background, chatter, low lighting and the continual flow of fresh pizzas delivered in front of each guest.

The idea is lovely. It has a whole ristorante Italiano vibe.

Unfortunately, this is where I add the word "unfortunately".

For a party of 20-30 guests, we can do this. Unfortunately, for parties any bigger, we start to have challenges. In our experience, delivery to tables generates the highest amount of guest complaints by far.

As the pizzas are all hand-made, this means every pizza is assembled and cooked before being brought to your guests. Nothing is pre-made or pre-assembled. The trade off is amazing, fresh, hand-tossed, authentic pizza which wows your guests. However, there is a natural delay each round of food, which is made 3-4 at a time and then with a short break of around 2-3 mins between each delivery.

Imagine this scenario. You have 120 guests, all hungry and eager to begin eating.

Seated style

Your 120 guests are seated at 12 tables of 10 guests each.

CHALLENGE 1: Slow service

Table 1 gets three pizzas quickly, but table number 12 has to wait for 12 rounds. That's around 40-45 minutes for a single slice of pizza, and in the meantime, Table 1 has to wait nearly 50 minutes for their next helping. In 3 pizzas, there is enough for each guest to have 2-3 slices each, so that's 2 slices of pizza in 45-50 minutes.

CHALLENGE 2: Limited pizza options

Each table will be stuck with the three pizzas delivered to them. What if you have vegetarians and it's all meat pizzas? Or you have a guests who can only eat chicken but get all pork or beef? Or who don't eat beef? Or who don't like mushrooms, or olives, or a BBQ base? It limits the selection greatly, and then they need to wait for 50-odd minutes for their next three pizzas and what if those ones aren't suitable either?

CHALLENGE 3: Paddles and service

The chefs, who are delivering the pizzas, will be slowed by having to walk up and down the tables to collect the pizza paddles rather than cooking. This means it will be longer between each round.

CHALLENGE 4: Additional cost for wait staff

The only solution is wait staff to walk the pizzas around to the guests in a 'seated cocktail-style', without putting paddles on the tables. This is still slow because it's per table, but it is slightly faster than putting the paddles down. You will need one wait staff per 30-40 guests, which is hundreds of dollars more for your budget.

It would take hours to fill everyone with long gaps in between. People will be unsettled and hungry.

Banquet style

Now let's compare that to a banquet or standing cocktail-style of 120 people.

Our chefs walk the pizzas to a single table in one spot. Your guests walk freely up to that table and are presented with a huge array of pizzas that are refreshed every 3-4 minutes. They grab a slice of this one, a slice of that one, then wander away to chat. A few minutes later they come back to the table and there is a new range of pizzas to delight their taste buds. Your guests can indulge in flavours they may not usually try, grazing on hand-made pizza slices until they are stuffed.

Guests requiring gluten-free bases or dairy-free pizzas can meander out to the truck to order when they're ready to eat and get their custom pizzas made.

And then we bring out the dessert to fill up any more gaps in people's tummies.

Further, if you'd like the vibe of wait staff, one person can manage 60-70 guests, which saves you money here, too.

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In short, our style of catering matches beautifully to events where guests are moving and shifting, grazing and chatting, drinking and wandering around grabbing a slice here, a slice there. As delightful as the idea is to have pizzas delivered to tables, unfortunately hand-made food that is cooked in a steady stream like ours is, isn't the best match.

Our professional events coordinator would be happy to run you through any questions you have about your service style to see if we can adapt to your needs. Gives us a call!