Meeting and conference catering

Plan the food around the agenda

An all-day meeting is five or six food moments, not one order. Each one has a different job. Breakfast gets people in the room on time. The morning break resets attention. Lunch has to be fast enough that the afternoon session starts on schedule. The afternoon break fights the 3 p.m. slump, and a closing reception gives people a reason to stay and talk.

We start with your agenda, not a menu. Send us the session times, the room layout and where breaks happen (in the meeting room, a foyer or a separate space), and we will build a food plan that matches. If the agenda changes on the day, a staffed event can hold or move a break by 15 minutes; a drop-off plan has less room to adjust, so we build in buffer.

Menus that keep a room awake

Heavy, carb-led lunches and sugary breaks make afternoon sessions hard work. For conferences we lean toward lighter food with steady energy:

• Breakfast with eggs, yogurt and fruit, and pastry as a side rather than the main event.
• Morning break with fruit, nuts or roasted chickpeas (nut-free if needed), and a coffee refresh.
• Lunch built on grain bowls, roasted vegetables and a lean protein, with a lighter dessert.
• Afternoon break with something savoury, not only cookies: hummus and vegetables, cheese, or small sandwiches, plus cold drinks.

Our Mediterranean and Levantine dishes are particularly good here because they are mostly vegetables, legumes and grains, hold well at room temperature, and work for vegetarian and pork-free diets without separate versions.

Coffee break volumes

Breaks are short, usually 15–20 minutes, so the question is how fast 100 people can get a coffee. As a rule of thumb, one self-serve coffee station handles about 50 people in a 15-minute break. Above that, we set a second station or separate hot and cold drinks.

Afternoon coffee consumption is typically lower than morning, while water and cold drinks go up, especially in warm rooms. We plan morning breaks at close to one hot drink per person and afternoon breaks at about half that, with more water.

Dietary needs at scale

At a 150-person conference, dietary requirements come from a registration form, not a conversation. Add a dietary question to registration (vegetarian, vegan, halal, gluten-free, allergies with details) and send us the export. We match special meals to names and, at lunch, set them aside at a clearly signed spot.

Some organizers add a small sticker to name badges for people with special meals. It is optional, but it helps staff at the buffet point guests to the right place quickly without asking out loud. Read how we handle halal and gluten-free requests.

Venues: what to check before you book us

Many hotels and conference centres in Toronto require you to use their in-house catering, so check the venue contract before planning outside food. Offices, coworking spaces, university rooms rented by the day, galleries and loft spaces are more often open to outside caterers, though some charge a kitchen or buyout fee.

Ask the venue about access for load-in, a space near the meeting room for breaks, whether there is a sink and fridge we can use, and the time we must be out. Our offices and boardrooms and lofts and industrial spaces guides cover the practical details.

Multi-day events and changing numbers

On a two- or three-day program, attendance drops after the first morning: people leave early for flights, skip the afternoon or arrive late on day two. We confirm headcounts each afternoon for the next day, rather than locking the whole event to the registration number. Menus are planned so lunch does not repeat across days, and breakfasts rotate between a continental and a hot format.

For offsites outside the core of the city, for example a leadership retreat at a venue in north Vaughan or near the Oak Ridges Moraine, we build extra travel time into early deliveries and ask whether the venue has a fridge for overnight storage of cold items.

Drop-off or staffed

For a one-room meeting of up to about 40 people, drop-off works: breakfast and the morning break arrive together, lunch arrives separately, and the afternoon break comes with lunch if it holds at room temperature. Beyond that size, or when the day includes a reception, staff make the day run on time. A staff member replenishes coffee, clears between sessions, sets lunch while the room is still in session and runs the reception.

Drop-off orders need 48 hours notice; staffed events need 40 guests or more, staff time is billed hourly ($38 per staff hour) and a 18% service charge applies. All-day plans are quoted per day with each food moment itemised.