Case study $2$: Atlas catering

You work for a catering company that is preparing menus for a large wedding event being held in the

capital city of your state$/$teritory$.$ You have been asked to prepare a menu for the dessert buffet. The

buffet must have a minimum of four types of cold desserts. The wedding cake, a three$-$fiered, layered

semi$-$naked raspberry and lime cake, will also be served with the other desserts.

Guests attending the wedding range from $18$ to $80$ years old with the majority of attendees in the $25$ to

$35$ age brackets. You have been informed you need to provide one or more options that meet the

dietary requirements of vegetarian, vegan and lactose intolerant guests.

The wedding couple and many of their friends are in the fitness industry as personal or sporting club

fitness instructors and coaches. The bride was born in Malaysia and many members of their family are

flying in for the wedding. The wedding is booked for November.

The types of desserts selected must be able to be prepared prior to the event. Menu items can be

presented as individual serves or as whole items, for example, cakes and tarts. Whole items will be

portioned by service staff prior to service. If items cannot be portioned, portion sizes must be controlled

through use of standardised service utensils as all desserts will be self$-$served by guests.

As it is buffet service, portion sizes may be up to $50\%$ smaller than standard depending on the menu

item, recipe yield and method of portioning. Your employer is quoting for $250$ wedding guests.

Atlas catering has set a maximum average production cost of $$2\mathrm{.}50$ per portion for each buffet item

with a total production cost of $$10$ for four portions. Atlas will add a minimum mark$-$up of $45\%$ per portion.

The total price per person cannot exceed $$15\mathrm{.}00$ as this is their budgeted selling price.

Task $1$: Identify market and trends

Answer all the questions.

Q$1$: Identify three current or emerging market or food service trends relevant to this workplace.

List the sources of information you accessed when identifying and evaluating the trends for their

relevance to this menu.

Trend's could include, but are not limited to$,$ the following.

Contemporary eating habits

Culfural and ethnic influences

Mainstream or social medla influences

Seasonal influences, including availability of products.