— Cecilia Litvak

People are finishing Rouxbe and myself included, I decided that I would do pop-up dinners, which were so much fun, but also so much work. And sometimes it's very easy to become absorbed in the fun factor without embracing the reality factor of how much work goes into this and how much do you value what you do. There are a couple of scenarios here. I'm gonna give you two of them, two basic ones. So Cecilia, I don't know where this event is going to be. I don't know how many people are coming. I don't know if you're using linen on the tablecloths. I don't know if you are renting dishes. I don't know any of that. So I'm gonna go basic bones here and say that whatever foods you buy. So let's say that you are planning a dinner for 10 and you spend a hundred dollars on fresh vegetables and stuff and tofu and brown rice and whatever it is you're going to make, um, you're gonna double that. So you have $200 that you have to add to your fee. Some people pay themselves an hourly wage, but the reality is that for every hour that you have an event, it's three hours of planning. So if your dinner starts at four and ends at six, you're actually going to be at the venue from two to eight. So that's six hours. What would you pay yourself for that? When I first began doing popup dinners, and remember this was 10 years ago, we charged between 45 and $65 a person and no one seemed to squeak an eye. So I think that you have to look at your menu, at your planning, at your time, at your cost. Is there a rental fee involved for the venue? I was very fortunate because I worked with a wonderful, wonderful chef at his restaurant and we did the popups at his restaurant after closing so that we didn't have to pay a venue fee. If I were to do it today, I would probably charge anywhere between 65 and $85 a person. And I think that that's very conservative, which leads me to today as food costs seem to change regularly, it's really important to look into efficient ways of purchasing any foods that you might need. So whether that be in bulk or sharing with a neighbor or whatever you choose to do. And I will tell you, my husband and I thought it would be the best idea to join Costco. So we joined Costco after maybe a 10 year hiatus, and we go and we've got a little card and a little map, and there are people sampling all of this food that doesn't appeal to me. And uh, the produce room is very nice. It's loaded with beautiful organic produce. And I remembered years ago that we got beautiful tofu and you would get like five bricks for $10. And I walked and hunted and walked and hunted and then found someone in a red vest. They're the people of authority. And she said, oh, we don't carry that anymore. No one liked it. And I said, okay, thanks. And then I asked for another product that I liked and she said, no, we don't carry that. No one liked it either. So I'm not sure that joining a big box is actually the way to also sort of address food costs today. But keep an eye on sales. I still use coupons and just have to be a smart, smart shopper. Remember that greens, grains and legumes are still rather basically priced. And if that is the basis of your diet or menu, then I think that we're still pretty good.