Catering prices need more than food cost and a markup. Include ingredients, packaging, prep labor, event staff, delivery, setup time, rentals, disposables, payment fees, insurance, kitchen overhead, and the admin time spent quoting and revising menus.
Start with a per-person food and packaging cost, then add labor by role: prep, transport, setup, serving, and cleanup. If the event has a small guest count, minimum order pricing matters because fixed travel and staffing time cannot be spread across many plates.
A practical catering formula is: food and packaging + labor + delivery and rental costs + overhead allocation + payment fees + target net profit. For deposits, compare the cash collected before the event with the vendor costs you must pay upfront.
Next iteration candidate: build a per-guest catering calculator with minimum event fee, deposit, and staffing assumptions.