As Hollywood celebrated the Oscars this weekend, Wolfgang Puck and his team were once again tucked away in the kitchens. They’re behind one of the ceremony’s biggest traditions: the Governors Ball dinner that follows the awards.
Puck has run the culinary team at the Governors Ball for over 30 years. And while the Oscars may be one of the most glamorous nights in Hollywood, Puck says the catering business behind events like the Governors Ball can be tougher to run than a restaurant — an industry where about half of new businesses fail within the first five years.
“A catering business is really more difficult to run because you might be really busy for a week and then another week you have very little,” Puck, who has spent decades building both restaurant and catering operations, told Business Insider at this year’s Oscars.
The scale of the operation behind Hollywood’s biggest night shows just how labor-intensive that business can be. Puck’s team prepares 84 different dishes, including 30,000 small plates for about 1,700 guests at the Governors Ball.
The event requires an army of workers: around 75 savory chefs, 45 pastry chefs, and hundreds of servers.
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Puck explained that the biggest challenge in catering is keeping a stable team when the workload is unpredictable. Restaurants tend to have more consistent hours and traffic. Catering doesn’t always work that way.
The biggest challenge in catering
For catering operators, the volatility of the business can affect scheduling and payroll. This makes it difficult for catering companies to keep skilled workers, especially during slower periods, Puck says.
The broader industry reflects that challenge. The US catering sector employs about 158,000 workers across thousands of businesses, but the average company has just about 11 employees, according to industry analysis firm IBISWorld. This means most catering companies rely heavily on temporary or event-based staff to scale up for large jobs.
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Staffing shortages have become one of the industry’s biggest hurdles. Nearly 89% of event industry leaders say labor shortages have affected their ability to deliver successful events in the last year.
“People cannot say, ‘Okay, I get a job two weekends of the month,'” Puck told Business Insider. “People have to pay their rent, feed the family, and everything.”
Wolfgang Puck’s catering business strategy
Puck opened his business, Wolfgang Puck Catering, in 1998. To create more consistent work for his staff, the company expanded its business beyond large evening events like the Oscars.
“What is great with us, we do a lot of corporate catering,” Puck said. “So we do Netflix, Sony, Beach, Google, Apple, and so forth.”
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Those catering gigs tend to focus on weekday breakfasts and lunches rather than large evening events. This helps fill gaps between large events. “So that helps us to have a really good team in place,” Puck said.
An added bonus, Puck says, is that the Oscars is always on a Sunday, when these big corporations are closed. So, there are no conflicting schedules.
