Resorts World's free corporate tasting needs $150,000 in F&B

A corporate planner calls about a 120-person awards dinner in March. She likes the proposal, she thinks the price is fine, and before anyone signs she'd like to bring "a few people from the committee" in to taste the menu. A few turns out to be seven.

For years I said yes to every version of that call. Tastings sell the food, and a room full of people eating your short rib is the best sales meeting you'll ever have. But my kitchen also cooked a lot of free dinners for committees that went with someone else, and I never tracked how many.

So I went looking for what venues and caterers actually publish about tastings: who gets one, what it costs, how many people come, and what gets tasted. The policies are more consistent than I expected, and the hotel packages I found are stricter than I assumed.

Three published models

Every written policy I found fits one of three shapes: free but only after the contract, paid but credited if the client books, or paid with no credit mentioned.

Only Resorts World's policy is written for corporate groups; most of the others come from wedding packages. Guest caps cluster at four, sometimes six. Where a policy allows more, the extra people pay.

My wedding pricing post compared four more caterers' tasting fees and the conditions they attach to credits. The corporate side is where the published rules get narrower, and that's the side most restaurants doing catering will actually sell.

The free hotel tasting comes after the signature

Hotel wedding packages are where the free tasting has its reputation, and they're also where its conditions are spelled out. Rosen Plaza's 2026 wedding package lists a menu tasting for up to four people, then adds: "Offer valid with signed contract." The same package asks for 25% of the food and beverage minimum at signing, so by the time that client tastes anything, the hotel already holds a deposit.

The Swan Reserve in Lake Buena Vista goes further. Its reception packages offer a private tasting for up to six guests "Upon executed Catering Contract with a $10,000++ Food and Beverage Minimum," and only based on availability. The Four Seasons St. Louis lists a tasting for four guests plus the planner among its wedding package inclusions, without spelling out the condition.

That changes what the tasting is for. At these hotels it isn't a sales tool. It's a planning meeting where the client picks between dishes they've already agreed to pay for. An independent caterer offering a free tasting before the contract is doing something different: spending food and a chef's afternoon to win the business. Both are legitimate. You just need to know which one you're offering.

Corporate tastings are for the gala, not the breakfast

The clearest corporate policy I found is in the Resorts World Las Vegas 2026 conference dining menu. A complimentary tasting is available only to contracted corporate groups with a food and beverage minimum of $150,000 or more. Groups without a contract can still have one, but they pay for it, and the cost is credited back if they go on to sign.

The rest of the policy is a good template for anyone selling to companies:

• Up to six "decision-makers." Extra attendees pay menu price.
• Four weeks' notice, with the tasting held four to eight weeks before the event.
• Event-specific menus only, for events such as gala dinners, executive meals and sponsored lunches. No general menu samplings.
• "Tastings will not be conducted for continental or breakfast buffets, boxed meals, or break menus."
• Any décor the group requests (linens, chairs, flowers) is charged to the group.

Pacific Lutheran University's catering sets a floor of its own, for any client: tastings only for parties of 50 or more (campus clients also need a specialized menu), requested at least three weeks ahead.

The word "decision-makers" does more work than the cap. A corporate tasting with the person who signs the contract is a sales meeting. A tasting with the committee and without the signer is lunch. When the planner says she's bringing a few people, ask which of them approves the spend.

The exclusions matter too. Nobody chooses a caterer for a quarterly meeting because of the breakfast pastries, and a boxed-lunch order is decided on price, reliability and how fast you answered. If a client wants to taste before ordering 40 boxed lunches, send a sample box at the menu price and credit it on the first order.

Taste the proposal, not the menu

The published policies also agree on sequence: the proposal comes first. UC San Diego's Saltaire catering offers a tasting only "once a catering proposal has been reviewed", with at least three weeks' notice and usually on a Saturday at 1 p.m. Pacific Lutheran serves two portions of each item on the proposed menu. Iowa's private alternative to its tasting show is a limited selection, not the full catalog.

Chef Tregaye's catering page is the exception, offering the chance to sample the entire buffet or menu for its $250 fee. I'd still rather taste a proposal. When a client tastes the full menu, the tasting becomes the menu-design meeting, and the proposal you send afterwards starts from scratch. When they taste what you proposed, they're confirming or swapping, and the contract is a few edits away.

The order of events matters for the rest of the pipeline as well. The inquiry response post covers how fast the first reply needs to be; a tasting is the step that comes after a proposal the client already likes, not a substitute for one.

What to charge, and what to credit

The published fees are few and specific: $75 per person at UC San Diego, $25 per extra guest at Iowa, $250 for up to four (about $62.50 a head) at Chef Tregaye. Pacific Lutheran's approach is the one I like best for corporate work. If the client doesn't book, it bills the quoted price of the two meals. The tasting fee is your own menu price, and nobody can argue with it.

Credits vary more than the fees. UC San Diego credits the full fee if the client confirms, as Resorts World does for uncontracted corporate groups. Chef Tregaye's page states no credit, and asks for a 50% deposit after the tasting if the client proceeds. A Vancouver caterer, Savoury Chef, charges $99 a person for up to six tasters and deducts up to two guests' cost from the catering invoice if the client books. It's Canadian, so take it as a design idea rather than a US example, but it's a neat one: the client can bring more people, and you only credit two seats.

You'll see "$25 to $100 per person" quoted as the going rate. The version I traced came from a wedding-directory blog, not a survey. Set your fee from your own menu, the way the catering pricing post builds any other price.

The tax on a free tasting

None of this is tax advice; these are published state rules, and yours may differ.

A paid tasting looks like any other sale of prepared food. Missouri's catering tax matrix lists sales of catered meals as taxable, and I found nothing that treats a tasting differently. The less obvious line is on the purchase side: it also lists "Prepared foods not sold to the public, complimentary, or given away" as taxable. In Missouri, then, a free tasting doesn't escape tax: the caterer can owe sales or use tax on the food it gives away.

The credited fee raises a second question I couldn't answer from any published source: whether crediting a tasting fee against the event invoice changes the taxable base of that invoice. One way to keep it traceable is to record the tasting as a sale when you take the money, then apply it as a credit on the event invoice. Whether that credit lowers the event's taxable amount is a question for your accountant.

What I'm not going to give you

A tasting-to-booking conversion rate. I found no survey or trade data. The rates vendor blogs quote are inquiry-to-booking, which is a different number.

The cost of a tasting. No published source puts a figure on the food or labor, and I won't estimate one for your kitchen.

How other states tax a free tasting. Missouri puts it in writing. I didn't find a published answer for most other states, so check yours.

How many caterers charge. The trade articles that might have said now redirect or fail to load.

What to do

1. Decide what your tasting is for. A free tasting after signing is a planning meeting; one before signing is a sales cost. Price them differently.
2. Send the proposal first, and taste what's in it.
3. Set a threshold for free tastings, a contract and a minimum spend you choose. Below it, charge your menu price and credit it on signing.
4. Cap tasters at four, and ask who signs. The signer should be in the room.
5. Exclude breakfasts, breaks and boxed lunches, and offer a paid sample box instead.
6. Log every tasting, with the date, tasters, dishes and whether it booked. It's the only conversion data you'll ever have.
7. Check your state's rule on food you give away.

Disclosure: I work at Katalyst, which sells catering software that sends invoices and collects deposits, so a tasting fee can be billed the same way as the event it's meant to win. The software won't decide who gets a free tasting. That's a line you draw before the planner asks to bring seven.

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