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How to Price Catering: A Complete Guide for Restaurants

How to price catering per person: food cost, labor, delivery, and card fees, with a worked 50-guest example built on BLS, USDA, and IRS data.

By Admin User 14 mins read

The simplest way to price catering is per person. Cost out the food for one guest, divide by a target food cost percentage (we work between 28% and 32% on catering), and then check that the price also covers labor, packaging, delivery, card fees, and profit. A $6.55 food cost at a 30% target comes to about $22 per person. On a 50-guest drop-off lunch, that price leaves roughly 44% of the order to cover rent, utilities, insurance, and profit.

That's the short answer to how to price catering. The rest of this guide shows each step with real numbers, the four ways restaurants charge for catering, and how to set delivery fees, staffing rates, and minimums so a busy catering month actually pays.

Why catering pricing deserves its own math

Catering looks like dine-in food sold in bigger quantities. It doesn't cost like it. There's no table service, but there's packaging, a driver, a van, setup, and sometimes staff on site for hours. A dine-in menu price copied onto a catering menu can be too high on some items and badly too low on others.

The opportunity is large enough to get right. U.S. households and businesses spent $1.41 trillion on food away from home in 2025, 56.3% of all food spending (USDA ERS, published June 2026). Revenue at employer caterers alone reached $12.5 billion in 2022, up from $6.9 billion in 2020 and above the $12.0 billion of 2019 (Census Service Annual Survey via FRED). That figure counts only dedicated caterers, not the restaurants that grow catering alongside their dining rooms.

Prices are also moving. Food-away-from-home prices rose 3.5% in the 12 months ending September 2026, while grocery prices rose 1.8% (BLS CPI). Full-service meals rose 3.8% and limited-service meals 3.2%. USDA's Economic Research Service forecasts food-away-from-home prices up 3.5% for all of 2026 and 2.8% in 2027 (USDA ERS Food Price Outlook, updated October 23, 2026). A catering price set two years ago has probably drifted.

Step 1: Food cost per person

Everything starts here. Food cost per person is the cost of every item on the menu at the portion each guest actually gets.

Here's a working example: a drop-off lunch buffet for 50 guests.

  • Herb-roasted chicken thighs, 5 oz cooked per guest: $2.40
  • Roasted vegetable and white bean main (sized for the share of guests who take it): $1.10
  • Two sides, roasted potatoes and green beans: $1.30
  • Garden salad with dressing: $0.70
  • Rolls and butter: $0.40
  • Cookie or bar: $0.65
  • Food cost per person: $6.55

A few details keep this number honest:

  • Cooked weight, not raw. Chicken thighs lose weight in the oven. The cost per guest uses the raw weight it takes to get 5 ounces cooked.
  • Real yields. Trim, peel, and bones belong in the cost. A case of romaine doesn't produce a case of usable salad.
  • Over-production. Most kitchens send a little extra so the last guest in line isn't left with scraps. If that's 5% more food, it's 5% more cost.
  • Current prices. Last spring's invoice prices understate this winter's costs for many items.

Packaging is kept separate from food. In this example, plates, napkins, cutlery, serving utensils, and chafing fuel add $1.25 per guest. Keeping it separate shows when packaging creeps up and makes it easy to drop for clients who bring their own.

Step 2: Set the per-person price from a target food cost

The core formula:

Price per person = food cost per person ÷ target food cost percentage

At a 30% target, $6.55 ÷ 0.30 = $21.83. We round to $22 per person, which makes the actual food cost 29.8%.

Why 28% to 32%? That's the range we've worked in for catering, and it's a starting point, not a rule. A restaurant with low rent and strong lunch demand might run higher food cost and still do well. A kitchen with expensive labor or long delivery routes might need to run lower. The rest of the steps check whether the target works.

Here's how the same menu prices at three targets:

  • At 32% food cost: $6.55 ÷ 0.32 = $20.47, about $20.50 per person
  • At 30% food cost: $6.55 ÷ 0.30 = $21.83, about $22 per person
  • At 27% food cost: $6.55 ÷ 0.27 = $24.26, about $24 per person

Step 3: Price the labor

Food cost percentage doesn't show labor. Catering labor is different from line labor because it's concentrated: prep the day before, an early packing window, and a driver out of the building.

For the 50-guest lunch, the hours look like this:

  • Prep: 2 cooks × 3 hours = 6 hours
  • Packing and labeling: 1 hour
  • Delivery and buffet setup: 1.5 hours
  • Total: 8.5 labor hours

For an hourly rate, we start with public wage data. The mean hourly wage for restaurant cooks in the U.S. was $18.62 in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics). Local wages vary a lot, so a kitchen's own payroll is the better number when it's available.

Wages aren't the full cost of an hour. In accommodation and food services, employers paid $16.18 an hour in wages and $3.85 in benefits in June 2026, including $1.82 in legally required benefits such as payroll taxes and workers' compensation (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 4). Benefits add about 24% on top of wages.

So a loaded cook hour costs about $18.62 × 1.238 = $23.05.

8.5 hours × $23.05 = $195.93 in labor, or $3.92 per guest.

Step 4: Delivery, packaging, and card fees

These costs sit outside the food and are easy to forget:

  • Packaging: 50 guests × $1.25 = $62.50
  • Vehicle cost: a 24-mile round trip at the IRS business standard mileage rate of 72.5 cents per mile for 2026 (IRS) = $17.40. The IRS bases that rate on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating a vehicle, which makes it a fair stand-in for what each delivery mile costs.
  • Card processing: at 2.9% + 30¢ for an online domestic card payment on Stripe's standard pricing (Stripe), a $1,135 order costs about $33.22. Other processors and in-person rates differ; the processor's own fee page has the real number.

Step 5: Check the whole order

Now the full picture for 50 guests at $22 per person, plus a $35 delivery fee:

  • Food revenue: 50 × $22 = $1,100
  • Delivery fee: $35
  • Order total: $1,135

Costs:

  • Food: 50 × $6.55 = $327.50
  • Packaging: $62.50
  • Labor: $195.93
  • Vehicle: $17.40
  • Card fees: $33.22
  • Direct costs: $636.55

That leaves $498.45, or 43.9% of the order, to cover rent, utilities, insurance, admin time, marketing, and profit.

Here's the same order at two other prices, with everything else unchanged:

  • At $18 per person (a common "just use the dine-in price" number for this menu): order total $935, direct costs $630.75, $304.25 left, or 32.5%. Food cost is 36.4%.
  • At $24 per person: order total $1,235, direct costs $639.45, $595.55 left, or 48.2%. Food cost is 27.3%.

The $4 difference per person between $18 and $22 leaves $194 more on one order. Across 100 catering orders a year, it's close to $20,000. Small per-person gaps add up fast because catering orders are large.

The four ways restaurants charge for catering

Per-person pricing is the most common, but it isn't the only model. Most restaurants use two or three of these at once.

1. Per person

Best for buffets, boxed lunches, and packages. The client knows the headcount, and the price scales with it. The math above is per-person pricing.

2. Per tray or half pan

Best for à la carte catering menus and for clients who want to mix and match. The same formula works at the pan level:

  • A half pan of roasted chicken thighs serves about 10. Food cost: 10 × $2.40 = $24.00. At 30%, the price is $80.
  • A half pan of roasted potatoes serves about 12. Food cost: 12 × $0.65 = $7.80. At 30%, the price is $26.

Listing "serves 10 to 12" next to each pan does two jobs. It helps the client order the right amount, and it sets the portion the kitchen costed.

3. Packages and tiers

Best for parties, seasonal menus, and clients who want an easy choice. Three tiers built from real food costs might look like this:

  • Classic Lunch: one protein, two sides, salad, rolls. Food cost $5.20, priced at $18 (28.9%)
  • Signature Buffet: the menu from the example above. Food cost $6.55, priced at $22 (29.8%)
  • Premium Dinner: two premium proteins, three sides, salad, two desserts. Food cost $8.70, priced at $29 (30.0%)

In our experience the middle tier gets picked most, so it's where the best-margin menu belongs. Add-ons like beverages, an extra dessert, or coffee service raise the order total without crowding the base menu. Our holiday catering packages post walks through a full three-tier example for December.

4. Cost-plus for custom and full-service events

Best for weddings, multi-day conferences, and anything with staff on site. Food is priced per person, and labor is billed separately by the hour, along with rentals and travel.

Using the loaded cook cost of $23.05 per hour, a $40 hourly bill rate for event staff leaves $16.95 per staff hour to cover scheduling, travel time, and margin. A 4-hour minimum per staff member is common because no one can work a 90-minute event and nothing else that day. The first time we quoted a three-day conference, we forgot to price the second breakfast. Line-item quotes make misses like that easier to spot.

Delivery and setup fees

A delivery fee works best when it covers a real cost, not when it's a round number picked to feel fair.

A cost floor for a 20-mile round trip:

  • Vehicle at 72.5 cents per mile: $14.50
  • One hour of driver time at $23.05 loaded: $23.05
  • Floor: about $37.55

Above that floor, delivery fees usually work in zones or distance bands, such as one fee within 10 miles and a higher fee from 10 to 20. Setup is often priced on its own line: a drop-off with no setup, a buffet setup for a flat fee, and full-service staff by the hour. Keeping delivery and setup off the per-person price makes the menu easier to compare and keeps a long-distance order from losing money.

Service charges, gratuities, and sales tax

Three lines on a catering invoice often get mixed up:

  • A service charge is a mandatory fee the restaurant sets. Tax rules treat it differently from a tip, so it matters how it's labeled and how it's paid out. Our upcoming post on service charges versus gratuities covers the IRS guidance in detail.
  • A gratuity is voluntary, and the client decides the amount.
  • Sales tax on catering varies by state. Some states tax the full invoice, including delivery and service charges, and some don't. Each state's revenue department is the source to check.

None of these belong in the per-person price. Each gets its own line.

Minimums, deposits, and lead times

Pricing isn't just the number per person. A few policies protect the price:

  • Guest minimums. A 10-guest minimum on a buffet keeps a 4-person order from taking the same packing and delivery time as a 40-person one. Smaller orders can still go through the regular takeout menu.
  • Order minimums for delivery. A minimum order total for delivery, such as $250, keeps the delivery fee from being most of the bill.
  • Deposits. A deposit on large or far-out orders protects against cancellations on dates that can't be refilled.
  • Lead times. 24 to 72 hours for most drop-off orders, and longer for events. Rush orders can carry a rush fee because they disrupt the line.

When and how to raise catering prices

With food-away-from-home prices up 3.5% over the past year (BLS CPI, September 2026), most clients have already seen menu prices rise everywhere else. Two habits keep catering prices current:

  • Recost the menu on a schedule. Once or twice a year, plus any time a key ingredient jumps. If the food cost on the Signature Buffet rises from $6.55 to $7.00, the price at a 30% target moves from $22 to $23.33. Rounding to $23.50 keeps the margin where it was.
  • Change prices between seasons, not mid-quote. Quotes that are already out keep their price. New prices start with a new menu, a new season, or a clear "prices effective" date.

The calendar matters too. Raising prices before the busiest season of the year, rather than in the middle of it, keeps quotes consistent when the phone is ringing most.

A catering pricing worksheet

Here's the whole method on one page, as a reference. It works on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in any recipe costing tool.

Per order:

  • Guest count
  • Food cost per person (every item at its cooked portion, with yield and over-production)
  • Packaging per person
  • Labor hours (prep, packing, delivery, setup, on-site)
  • Loaded hourly rate (wage plus about 24% for benefits and payroll taxes, or the kitchen's own number)
  • Round-trip miles × 72.5 cents (2026 IRS rate)
  • Card processing rate from the processor's fee page

Per-person price:

  • Food cost per person ÷ target food cost %
  • Rounded to a clean number

Check the order:

  • Revenue = guests × price + delivery fee + setup fee
  • Direct costs = food + packaging + labor + vehicle + card fees
  • What's left = revenue − direct costs
  • What's left as a percentage of revenue, compared with the kitchen's overhead and profit target

Policies that protect the price:

  • Guest minimum per package
  • Order minimum for delivery
  • Deposit threshold and percentage
  • Lead time and rush fee

Pricing catering, start to finish

Here's one more order, priced from scratch.

  • Order: Signature Buffet for 35 guests, delivered 15 miles away (30-mile round trip), buffet setup.
  • Food: 35 × $6.55 = $229.25
  • Price: 35 × $22 = $770, plus a $45 delivery fee and a $25 setup fee = $840
  • Packaging: 35 × $1.25 = $43.75
  • Labor: 7 hours × $23.05 = $161.35
  • Vehicle: 30 × $0.725 = $21.75
  • Card fees: $840 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $24.66
  • Direct costs: $480.76
  • What's left: $359.24, or 42.8% of the order

The result is close to the 50-guest example. That's what a good pricing structure does: the per-person price, minimum, and separate fees keep each order in a similar range whether it's 35 guests or 150.

Where Prep Station fits

This is the part Prep Station handles for us. Recipes are costed once, with yields and portions, and the cost per person updates as ingredient prices change. Quotes pull those costs in automatically, so it's clear what's left on every order before it's sent, and delivery fees, deposits, and minimums are set once and applied to every order. Independent restaurants can use it free for their first year. Here's how recipe costing works in Prep Station.

More on pricing catering

This guide is the hub for our pricing series. Over the coming weeks it will link to deeper posts on per-person costing with a free calculator, catering food cost percentage, service charges versus gratuities, sales tax by state, deposit policies, and delivery fees. For a seasonal example of these ideas in action, our guide to holiday catering packages for restaurants prices three December packages from their food costs.

About the author

Jon runs a catering business and founded Prep Station, where his team builds software that helps restaurants grow catering. He writes about what works in real catering kitchens: pricing, operations, and winning repeat business.

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