Office food has its own vocabulary, and most of it was invented for weddings.
That is the trouble with every catering glossary you can find. They explain what a banquet captain does and what French service means, which helps nobody who is trying to work out why there is a separate charge for an attendant on a quote for sandwiches.
The terms below are the ones that actually come up when a company orders food. They are written for the person ordering, not the person cooking. Where a word means something different in an office than it does at a hotel, that is flagged. It happens more often than you would think.
Service formats
Drop-off catering. The caterer delivers the food and leaves. Setup, serving and cleanup are yours. Usually disposable containers, no staff, no rented equipment. Note that drop-off does not mean no extra charges. A delivery fee, an order minimum and sometimes a service fee still apply.
Full-service catering. The caterer brings staff who set up, serve and clean up. Everything drop-off does not include.
Buffet. Guests walk along a line and serve themselves. Portions get decided at the line.
Family style. Large platters go on the table and get passed around. Portions get decided at the table.
Plated service. Food is portioned onto plates in the kitchen and carried to seated guests. In an office you will almost never see this. The closest thing is individually boxed meals, which the banquet world would not call plated at all.
Individually boxed. One sealed container per person. This is the office default whenever people eat at different times. It is the only format that reliably stops the last person from getting a picked over tray.
Action station. A chef cooks in front of guests instead of in the kitchen. Omelets, pasta, carving, sushi. Also called a live station or a chef attended station. All three names mean the same thing. What changes is the bill, because a station almost always adds a separate chef charge on top of the per person price.
Passed service. Servers walk around with trays of small food while guests stand. Also called butlered or tray passed. This is a reception format rather than a meal, and it is usually priced by the piece instead of by the person.
Grazing table. A big spread of cheese, cured meat, fruit and bread laid out on a table for people to pick at. Worth knowing this is a descriptive term, not a contract term. It will not show up as a defined service format on paperwork, and caterers mean slightly different things by it.
Micro market. A small unattended shop inside a secure workplace, with a self checkout kiosk. The key point is that employees pay. It is a shop, not a perk.
Pantry service. Snacks, drinks and food stocked in the office and paid for by the employer. Same shelves as a micro market, opposite model. Who pays is the whole difference, and people mix the two up constantly.
Ordering and contracts
Per person. The standard pricing unit. A fixed price for each person attending. "Per head" means the same thing and is fine in conversation.
Per cover. A restaurant term meaning one meal served, used to track how many people a restaurant feeds. It is common in UK hotel food and beverage. You will not see it on a US office catering quote. It is here so you recognize it, not because you will need it.
BEO, or banquet event order. A detailed document covering the menu, timing, headcount, room setup, prices and terms, signed by both the venue and the client. Once signed it is binding, and it usually replaces whatever was agreed in earlier emails or conversations. If it is not on the BEO, it does not exist. In an office, note that most catering has no BEO at all, just an order confirmation. Ask a sandwich caterer for the BEO and you will get a blank look.
Guaranteed count. The confirmed headcount you give the venue by a set deadline. Two things trip people up. You are billed on whichever is higher, the guarantee or the actual attendance, not simply on the guarantee. And it only moves one way, so you can usually raise it but not lower it. Venues often prepare slightly above the guarantee as a courtesy, but that is not in the contract and it is not free. In an office, guarantees are rare. Office catering usually runs on a short cancellation window instead.
Billed on consumption. You pay for what gets used, item by item, instead of a flat price per person. Most common with drinks. There is almost always a minimum underneath it, and usually an attendant whose time gets billed no matter how little gets consumed. In an office this mostly shows up as pantry and micro market restocking.
À la carte. Items priced one by one, so you can see each cost and remove what you do not want.
Package. A group of items sold together for one price, with no individual prices shown. Packages often work out well, but you cannot see what you are paying for or take anything out.
Minimums. Thresholds a caterer sets before they will take or deliver an order. They come in several forms: a dollar amount, a headcount, a day of the week, a service type. They are separate from the delivery fee. Clearing a minimum sometimes waives the fee and sometimes does not.
Lead time. How far ahead the caterer needs your order. The real holdup is usually on your side rather than in the kitchen. Lock your dietary list and your confirmed headcount before you order, because changing either afterward is where change fees come from.
COI, or certificate of insurance. A one page document from an insurer showing what a caterer is covered for, for how much, and until when. Office buildings ask for one before a caterer can deliver, because a vendor on site creates risk the building has not planned for. Two things to know. A COI is proof that a policy exists, not insurance itself. And being listed as the certificate holder only means you get a copy. Only an additional insured endorsement actually extends the caterer's coverage to the building. Hotels do not have this problem, because the venue is the caterer. In an office, how long a COI takes is often the real reason a new caterer cannot deliver next week.
Fees on the invoice
Service charge. A required charge the caterer adds, usually a percentage of the food subtotal. It is not a tip. The IRS treats it as regular wages rather than tip income, and under federal labor rules an employer who passes it to staff can count it toward wages it already owed them. If you want to know whether service staff see any of it, you have to ask. Some caterers now call it an operations fee or an administrative fee instead.
Gratuity. A real tip. By IRS definition it has to be voluntary, in an amount you choose, not set by company policy, and given to whoever you decide. An automatic or required "gratuity" is a service charge under another name.
Delivery fee. The charge for bringing the food to you. Sometimes flat, sometimes based on order size, sometimes based on distance, and sometimes dropped above a certain order size.
Attendant fee. An hourly charge for each staff member on site, billed on top of both the service charge and the food. Two things to watch. Billable hours usually run longer than the event, because setup and cleanup get charged too. And a chef running an action station is a separate charge from the servers.
Equipment and logistics
Chafing dish, or chafer. A frame that holds a pan of water over a fuel can, with the food pan sitting above the water. The food is heated gently and never sits over a flame. It needs no electricity, which is why catering runs on them. The important part: a chafer keeps hot food hot. It cannot heat cold food up. Food has to arrive hot. This is the mistake people make most often with office catering.
Sterno. The canned fuel that heats a chafing dish. It is a brand name, owned by Sterno LLC since 1915, used generically the way people say Band-Aid. The generic terms are chafing fuel or canned heat.
Induction warmer. An electric warmer that heats the pan directly using a magnetic field, with no flame. In a hotel, induction gets chosen because it looks better. In an office, it often gets chosen because the building does not allow open flames in conference rooms. Two catches. Induction needs its own circuit, and conference room outlets often cannot handle several units. And the pans have to be magnetic. Stainless steel is not automatically magnetic, so a caterer who shows up with aluminum pans and an induction base has a station that does nothing.
Hotel pan. The standard rectangular pans that everything gets served from. Also called a steam table pan or a food pan. Sizes are fractions of a full pan: full, half, third, quarter, sixth, ninth. Depths come in shallow, medium and deep. One quirk worth knowing: the stated size is smaller than the actual size, because the pans hang by a lip around the rim. A "full" pan will not drop into an opening cut to the same measurement.
Cambro. An insulated box for carrying food. Like Sterno, this is a live trademark, held by Cambro Manufacturing since 1982, that everyone uses as a common word. The generic term is an insulated food pan carrier.
Dock and freight access. The building side logistics that decide whether your food shows up on time. Loading dock hours, freight elevator booking, whether the driver needs an escort. This is a common reason catering arrives late, and it is entirely avoidable.
Food safety
TCS food. Short for time and temperature control for safety. Food that needs to be kept hot or cold to stay safe. The list is broader than people expect. Not just meat and dairy, but cut melon, cut leafy greens, cut tomatoes, sprouts, cooked rice, cooked pasta, cooked beans and tofu. The fruit platter and the grain bowl both count. Older documents call these potentially hazardous foods, or PHF.
Danger zone. The temperature range where bacteria grow fastest. USDA consumer guidance says 40°F to 140°F. The FDA Food Code, which health inspectors enforce against caterers, uses 41°F and 135°F. This is not a scientific disagreement. USDA rounds the numbers for the public, and the Food Code uses the tighter ones for inspections.
Hot holding and cold holding. Keeping food out of the danger zone while it is being served. Under the Food Code that means 135°F or above for hot food and 41°F or below for cold.
The two hour rule. USDA guidance for anyone deciding whether food is still safe. Food that has been sitting at room temperature for more than two hours should be thrown out. One hour if it is above 90°F. Reheating does not fix it, because some of the toxins bacteria produce survive heat. And it cannot go in the fridge either. Chilling food that has already been out for hours does not undo anything.
TPHC, or time as a public health control. A formal option that lets a caterer hold food using a time limit instead of temperature, for a short window. It requires written procedures prepared in advance, time labels on every container, and throwing the food out at the deadline. It is not a casual "the food is fine for four hours." Without the paperwork it is just a violation. And it only runs one way. Once the clock starts, the food cannot go back into a fridge or a warmer.
Cross-contamination. Germs moving from one food, surface or pair of hands to another. You control it with heat, time and sanitizer.
Cross-contact. An allergen accidentally getting into a food. This is not the same thing, and the difference is the most important safety idea in this glossary. Cooking kills germs. Cooking does not destroy most allergens. So cross-contact can only be handled by keeping things physically apart: separate surfaces, separate utensils, separate gloves, separate fryer oil. Wiping down a counter does nothing for allergen safety. This is why one serving spoon moved between dishes on a buffet puts an allergic guest at risk no matter how clean the kitchen is.
Dietary and certification terms
Major food allergens, informally the Big 9. The nine allergens US law requires to be declared: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans and sesame. Sesame was added by the FASTER Act and has been required on labels since January 2023. Mollusks are not on the list. Clams, mussels, oysters and scallops may not be fully declared, even though people with shellfish allergies are often told to avoid them too. Worth knowing before you order seafood for a group.
"May contain" labels. Entirely voluntary. If a package does not carry one, that does not mean the allergen is absent.
Halal. Arabic for permitted. It covers much more than meat. For food it means no pork or pork products, no alcohol, and no animals killed outside Islamic rules. There is no US government halal standard. Certification comes from private organizations whose requirements differ from each other.
Kosher. Food that follows Jewish dietary law. The main rules cover which animals are allowed, how they are slaughtered, and keeping meat and dairy completely apart.
Pareve, also spelled parve. Neither meat nor dairy, so it can be served with either. Both spellings are correct. The important part: pareve does not mean safe for a milk allergy. The Orthodox Union states plainly that people with a severe milk allergy should not rely on kosher certification, because pareve is a religious category with its own limits and traces of milk protein can be present.
Gluten-free. A regulated label meaning the finished food has less than 20 parts per million of gluten. The rule was written for packaged food. The FDA expects restaurants to use the term the same way, but enforcement mostly falls to state and local health departments. The practical gap matters. That 20 ppm limit applies to the finished food, including gluten picked up from a shared fryer, toaster or cutting board. So "gluten-free" on a menu is a claim about the recipe. Someone with celiac disease needs a claim about how it was handled: separate prep, separate tools, sealed individual portions. Those are two different questions, and you have to ask the second one on purpose.
Vegetarian. No meat, poultry or fish. Usually allows dairy and eggs.
Vegan. No animal ingredients at all, including ones that are easy to miss like honey, gelatin, whey, casein and the anchovy in Worcestershire sauce.
Plant-based. Marketing language with no agreed meaning. The Vegan Society found only about a third of shoppers were confident the label meant no animal products, compared with roughly two thirds for "vegan," and brands use it on vegan and non-vegan products alike. A plant-based burger might be cooked on a shared griddle or served with a dairy sauce. If someone is vegan, ask for vegan.
Lactose-free. The milk sugar has been removed or broken down. The milk proteins are still there. This helps people who are lactose intolerant, which is a digestive problem.
Dairy-free. Meant to say there is no milk in it at all. This matters for a milk allergy, which is an immune reaction and can be severe. A lactose-free product is not safe for someone with a milk allergy. Two more things to know. "Dairy-free" has no FDA definition, so the label alone is not a guarantee. And "non-dairy" is regulated in a way that actually allows caseinate, a milk protein, as long as it is listed in the ingredients. Non-dairy coffee creamer is the classic example, and it is in almost every office pantry. The only reliable check is the ingredient list and the required "Contains: Milk" line, not the front of the package.
Program terms
Meal benefit. An employer funded food program offered as part of what employees get paid. This is the umbrella term. A stipend, an allowance, a voucher and a catered lunch are all ways of delivering one.
Meal stipend. A set amount an employer gives employees to spend on food over a set period, usually a day or a week. Stipends are normally delivered through a platform or a card that only works at food merchants, and they usually expire if unused rather than rolling over. The money is attached to a time window rather than to a specific meal, so the employee chooses when and what to eat within the rules.
Meal allowance. In everyday use this means the same thing as a meal stipend, and plenty of companies use the two words interchangeably. Where people do draw a line, "allowance" tends to describe the policy, meaning the amount an employee is permitted to spend, while "stipend" tends to describe the money actually provided. If a vendor or a finance team uses both words in the same conversation, it is worth asking which they mean.
Meal voucher. A credit that pays for food, redeemable at participating places. In the US this is a loose term, usually meaning a one off credit tied to a particular occasion, like a delivery credit for people working late or a comped lunch during onboarding. The money is attached to a meal rather than to a time period, which is the practical difference from a stipend.
Outside the US the word is much more specific, and this matters if you have employees abroad. In France, Belgium, Brazil, Italy and several other countries, meal vouchers are a formal benefit with rules set in law. France's version, the titre-restaurant, is the clearest example. The employer picks a face value and pays somewhere between half and sixty percent of it, the employee covers the rest, and the employer's share is exempt from social contributions up to a set amount per voucher. Employees can spend up to a daily cap, the vouchers work at restaurants, bakeries, caterers and grocers, and they are valid for one meal per working day. So a European colleague who says "meal vouchers" is describing a regulated instrument with a cost split built into it, not a gift card.
Per diem. A daily travel allowance covering meals and incidental costs. A different thing from a meal benefit, aimed at people who are travelling rather than at everyday work, and governed by its own tax rules.
A note on tax: how any of these are treated depends on how the program is structured, where the employee is, and what the money can be spent on. It is worth asking a tax advisor rather than assuming, because the answer differs between a catered meal on site, a stipend paid to an employee, and a voucher scheme run abroad.
Group order. One order built from everyone's individual picks, so each person chooses their own meal and it all arrives together.
Recurring order. A standing order on a schedule, like the same lunch every Wednesday. It removes most of the admin work, and it is also where menu fatigue starts.
From Definition to Better Orders
Most of these words exist because somebody had to write a contract. The ones worth remembering are the handful where the everyday meaning and the technical meaning come apart. A service charge is not a tip. Pareve is not dairy-free. Non-dairy is not dairy-free either. And a chafing dish keeps food hot without ever being able to make it hot.
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