How To Become A Catering Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a catering assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Catering assistants are hired by catering companies to work with caterers at events such as conferences, galas, and weddings. They perform basic food preparation tasks, including washing, peeling, and cutting fruit and vegetables, seasoning and slicing meats, and making sauces, dressings, and salads. They set up dining and buffet areas in line with the catering manager's instructions. Also, they maintain an inventory of ingredients and catering supplies, and restocks as needed. Besides that, they assist in developing and implementing marketing strategies to promote catering services.

The minimum academic requirement for this role is a high school diploma or its equivalent. Employers may also require a food handler's certificate. Candidates must have at least one year of experience in the food industry. Some employers may provide on-the-job training. You must possess communication, teamwork, multitasking, organization, customer service, and problem-solving skills. Catering assistants earn about $30,557 in a year. This varies between $22,000 and $43,000.

ScoreCatering AssistantUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $32,101

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.8

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.03%

Asian 7.24%

Black or African American 12.35%

Hispanic or Latino 17.96%

Unknown 5.09%

White 56.33%

Gender

female 67.75%

male 32.25%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.2

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a catering assistant

Explore catering assistant education requirements

Most common catering assistant degrees

Bachelor's

44.8 %

High School Diploma

24.2 %

Associate

20.4 %

Start to develop specific catering assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	25.35%
Food Service	20.51%
Customer Service	11.65%
Food Safety	6.58%
Food Delivery	5.76%

Complete relevant catering assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New catering assistants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a catering assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real catering assistant resumes.

Research catering assistant duties and responsibilities

Manage and prioritize restaurant reservations.
Monitor patients who cannot receive anything by mouth (NPO) or on liquid diets.
Assist dieticians with monitoring of patients who are NPO, on liquid diets or need to have intake record.
Run POS for student payments, including meal cards and cash.

Prepare your catering assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your catering assistant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a catering assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable catering assistant resume templates

Build a professional catering assistant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your catering assistant resume.