Caterer Nick Mattiello is used to assembling specialty orders with creative presentations such as a three-tier crudité table overflowing with grapes, pepperoni and a medley of crackers and cheeses.
But lately his job has grown more mundane, and more taxing: He and his employees have been making boxed lunches.
Mattiello, general manager of Providence-based catering and event company Pranzi Inc., said countless catering jobs have been canceled in recent months during the COVID-19 pandemic, including corporate events that bring in as much as 35% of the caterer’s annual revenue.
Now remaining clients who want to avoid communal buffets and cheese boards are opting for utilitarian grab-and-go meals.
That simplicity makes things more complicated for the catering company.
“The boxed lunches take way longer to put together,” said Mattiello, a cousin of the R.I. House speaker with the same name. “If we get many of them, it slows down the whole kitchen. If this continues, we’re going to have to change the price because it’s a lot more labor intensive.
“If I could just put sandwiches on a platter, it would be a lot easier.”
As the coronavirus crisis continues to put the squeeze on the business world, the effects have trickled down to catering companies that under normal circumstances would be providing the food and beverages for outings, events and parties that now have been scratched off the calendar.
Team-building corporate outings have been replaced with virtual happy hours. Client meetings are taking place over Zoom. When people do meet, the numbers are limited and those in attendance are wearing masks and spaced apart.
Even the community snacks in office kitchenettes have been replaced with hand sanitizer and health screening tools.
And there are also the firms now struggling to keep their doors open that can no longer afford to provide the perks of catered meals at corporate gatherings.
To survive in this environment, most caterers will have to change the way they do business – at least for now – according to Elizabeth Covino, an associate professor at Johnson & Wales University’s College of Hospitality Management.
She said the future of corporate outings and conferences will be focused on making a “microfunction,” fewer than 50 in-person attendees, feel bigger with a hybrid model that includes virtual attendees and a strong social media component.
At the same time, food presentation will change for safety reasons.
“Courses are going to be plated in the kitchen and served to the guests,” Covino said. “Buffets are gone. Cheese boards and carving stations are out.
“Caterers now need to be both safe and creative when presenting food,” she added.
Covino said that before COVID-19 many caterers also put an emphasis on sustainability. But now “the rules have been thrown out,” Covino said, as caterers are encouraged to use plasticware, bags and cups that are designed to be used once and then thrown away.
In the wake of an initial wave of event cancellations, catering companies have been delivering lunches to workers on the front lines of the pandemic fight, a pay-it-forward campaign to keep the company name fresh in the minds of clients.
Others, such as Pranzi, are shifting menus, touting individually packaged offerings that were never really popular before.
Mattiello said the sales of Pranzi’s boxed-lunch offerings and individually wrapped foods have increased by 50% since March. In recent months, Pranzi has fulfilled two orders for 500 boxed lunches for the Honeywell International Inc. factory in Smithfield where N95 face masks are manufactured.
Some catering companies won’t have to change at all.
Ja Patty LLC, a food truck that typically parks on Mineral Spring Avenue in Pawtucket on Thursdays and Sundays, is seeing a 30% to 40% increase in sales as corporate clients discover the offerings of jerk chicken rice bowls, traditional beef patties with authentic Jamaican spices and coconut curry that can be ordered as individualized meals.
Co-owner Conroy Outar said clients can have the food truck drive to the location and have employees order at the truck’s window, allowing companies to avoid the health concerns that would come with having catered gatherings inside a building.
“It’s on the go and takes five minutes to prepare,” Outar said.
Looking to the future, Outar said he worries that this newly developed corporate side of his business will evaporate when Rhode Island fully reopens, the COVID-19 pandemic fades and businesses return to putting on catered events.
At Pranzi, Mattiello said he feels corporate sales will rebound after the state has fully reopened, but to what degree, he’s unsure.
Caterers such as Pranzi, Mattiello said, may have to change their menu and the way they do business permanently.
“If there’s one part of this business that really concerns me, it’s corporate sales,” he said.
Alexa Gagosz is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Gagosz@PBN.com.