Alan's Story
I started like many of you — I loved to cook. Family gatherings, dinner parties, friends asking me to “cater” their events. People told me I should do this professionally.
But loving to cook and running a catering business are two completely different things. I learned that the hard way. My first event didn't go the way I planned — and it taught me that great food alone isn't enough.
The Turning Point
You need systems:
- Menu engineering — what sells, what scales
- Pricing that covers costs and profit
- Operations that don't burn you out
- Marketing that brings repeat clients
I spent decades learning those systems running catering operations and teaching the next generation of culinary talent — and built a catering division from zero.
Why I Built This Academy
People ask me constantly: “How do I start catering?” Most catering education focuses on recipes. That's maybe 20% of the business. The other 80% is pricing, systems, operations, and marketing — the stuff that decides whether you make money or burn out. ABC Catering Academy teaches the whole system.