Catering Services Made Me Financially Independent – Chef Ruddy

Ibrahim has gone on to acquire a Diploma in Hotel and Catering School, and first degree in Marketing at the University of Port-Harcourt, knowledge she has applied in her 15-year-old brand Ruddy’s Kitchen and also open her catering school within the past two years.

Through her organisations she has empowered youth, men and women to become self-employed and financially independent. She talks about many opportunities in catering services young Nigerians can take advantage of.

What is catering services?

Catering services is all about the coordination of the preparation, creation, delivery and presentation of food for clients. There are four different types of catering – Corporate Catering refers to the provision of food and drinks to business and corporate functions; Wedding Catering, Wedding catering is much more than cooking and serving food. A full-service wedding caterer is responsible for some décor, table arrangements, and food presentation. They also take into consideration themes and fantasies and accommodate for food allergies and dietary restrictions. There are also Social Events Catering, which are more intimate affairs and require greater attention to detail by the caterer, and due to their small nature, social event catering menus differ from party to party; and Concession Catering, which involves catering major sporting events, seasonal competitions and live concerts. The intent is to focus on the most popular food choices and the speed of service.

What are the inherent opportunities in the catering services?

Inherent opportunities in the catering services are vast. Job opportunities include dietician – those who use their expert knowledge on health and nutrition to advice people on best diets for their well-being. Other jobs include Head Chef, Sous Chef, Kitchen Porter, Restaurant Manager, and Bar Staff among others.

There are also profitable opportunities for growth in catering – through increase in order sizes. Catering orders are not only incremental, meaning they are added to the orders a restaurant would have gotten on its own, hence, it is highly profitable. Catering ensures efficiency and drives in-store sales.

How can Nigerians position themselves to take advantage of these opportunities?

Personally, catering made me financially independent. I no longer depend on my husband to provide every of my needs as it has provided me a job and improved my living standards. Catering services also accounts to greater tax revenues to state and local governments, and drives growth in local retail sales – thus, promoting local products, production and sales.

As part of the hospitality industry catering services are useful in the industry’s subsectors as lodging, gaming, cruise lines, travel etc.

There are culinary schools that train young people on catering services thereby empowering them to start up their own businesses. Our organisation within the past several years has trained youths, men and women in rural areas on pastries production and equipped them with starter packs to start up their own, and they are doing well today.

An illustration of the opportunities in the catering services was witnessing a former college mate of mine who graduated with a first class degree without job after graduation, started up a peanut business after taking lessons from me. She eventually included groundnuts sales in nylons and bottles. Today, she owns a factory that supplies peanuts and groundnuts to almost all the shops in Choba, Port Harcourt and its environs, and has created jobs for over 10 people in the area.

IN SHORT

Catering services provides job opportunities for Nigerians as dieticians, chef, restaurant manager, bar staff, sous chef, etc.
Catering services ensures efficiency and drives ins-store sales.
Catering services also increases local retail sales
Catering services market in the hospital industry span from hotel to lodgings, gaming establishments, cruise lines, travels (airline, ship) etc.