Barbecue Catering Workbook

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Stan Marks

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Apr 30, 2008, 11:41:19 PM4/30/08
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I’ve been using the Barbecue Catering Workbook (Excel spreadsheet) a good bit lately, and it has come in handy, especially when it comes to estimating the amounts of meat needed to serve a certain number of people. However, in some respects, it is rather lacking. For instance, if I want to estimate the number of buns needed, the only option in the spreadsheet is for packages of 16 buns, which I don’t have access to. I would rather it tell me how many buns I might need and provide me a way to figure costs based on the packaging that is available to me. Another problem is that the spreadsheet is very inflexible, like the author never imagined that a caterer might be cooking, say, pork loins or turkey or Cornish game hens, for instance. There’s not even a listing for chicken!? And who buys/makes baked beans by the quart? I measure mine by the pound, as in 7-lb cans. On top of all that, the screen fonts are so small that I have trouble reading them even with my glasses!

I might be able to make the necessary adjustments to the spreadsheet to correct some of these things, but it is locked and password-protected. Even the formulas are hidden, and it might be difficult to replicate some of those. I don’t suppose anybody would know the password, or at least the person to get in touch with to get the password to unlock the file and make some adjustments, would you? Or is there a way to replicate the spreadsheet and configure it for personal needs?

Stan
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Stan Marks
Laurel, MS

swm...@hughes.net
swm...@yahoo.com

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned!" Mark Twain

Joe Ames

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May 1, 2008, 12:46:34 AM5/1/08
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Stan,

 

It’s not too hard to make up a “custom” spread sheet.  If I can do it, anyone can.  J

Just dive in it’s easy to make changes as you go, and if worse come to worse, you can always start over.

 

Joe

Merrill

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May 1, 2008, 1:10:33 AM5/1/08
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Stan,
If you're using the calculator written by KC Mike, there is a contact
link at the bottom of the download page.

http://www.azbbqa.net/catering/

Merrill

Roy Kennedy

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May 1, 2008, 6:59:20 AM5/1/08
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Joe : The Fab products you make are really amazing .And what really amazes me more is how on earth did you ever come up with the idea of Fab’s and actually know how to make them ?

Roy

Robert King

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May 1, 2008, 8:14:42 AM5/1/08
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This is the one I use and is pretty good:

http://www.bbq-review.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10

Robert King

Stan Marks

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May 1, 2008, 9:27:02 AM5/1/08
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Wow! First impression looks pretty good! Can’t wait to take it for a spin, but it’ll have to wait until later. :/

 

Thanks, Robert!

 

Stan

 


From: SmokeR...@googlegroups.com [mailto:SmokeR...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Robert King
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 7:15 AM
To: SmokeR...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [BBQ] Re: Barbecue Catering Workbook

 

This is the one I use and is pretty good:

Dan Gill

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May 1, 2008, 9:58:00 AM5/1/08
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This appears to be an excellent worksheet. I will probably use it for the Urbanna Arts Festival coming up in 10 days - Looks like we will be the only vendor.

I take an entirely different approach to catering, however. I have developed a "party planner" worksheet based on what we offer at the store with suggested serving sizes by each item. When I interview a client, I enter the number of people then we go through the list choosing appetizers, mains, sides etc and entering a serving size for each item. Amounts and purchase price are calculated and totaled. I can then hide all of the stuff not needed and give the client the printed worksheet as a bill. If the client plans to pick up the ready-to-serve items at the store, there are no additional charges. If, however, we have to deliver, serve or do anything else special, there is a  service charge. We are not really staffed to do much on-site work so this approach works well for us.

Our menu and party planner are available on our web page ( www.pine3.info ) for customers to download and and work with themselves.

Dan

Robert King

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May 1, 2008, 12:45:30 PM5/1/08
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Thanks Dan. I'll check it out.

Robert King
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