What set catering means in Paris
A set has no kitchen, no spare power for hot holding and no fixed lunch hour. Set catering in Paris therefore means food composed off site, delivered to the studio or the location ready to eat, and left accessible so that the crew eats when the schedule lets it. Nobody from us stays on set, nothing is cooked there, and there is nothing for the production to set up or clear away beyond a table.
The vocabulary is where productions arriving from abroad get caught out. What American crews call craft services, the snack table kept stocked through the day, is a separate thing from the crew lunch, which is the meal. Both exist here, both are delivered, and they are priced together as a full day or separately when you only need one.
Three recent bookings show the range. An international fashion magazine shooting a cover in a Paris studio needed individual meals for a crew that could not break at the same time, with a vegetarian tray and a gluten-free tray by name. A London creative team on a two-day shoot wanted breakfast before the first call and lunch delivered to a location with no parking. An American production asked, before anything else, whether the quote, the terms and the invoice could be in English and whether the prices were final. Yes, yes and yes.
Individual meals for a crew that eats in shifts
An individual meal tray is a complete lunch in a sealed tray: a starter, a main course, cheese, a dessert, bread, cutlery and a napkin. It is the right format when the crew eats in shifts, because a sealed tray holds. The camera department eats at 12:15, hair and make-up at 13:00, the director when the shot is done, and every tray is as good as the first one.
Trays are counted one per person and named where it matters. Vegetarian and gluten-free trays are available on request at no extra charge; the halal tray is a menu in its own right, at €44.30. What they all need is notice. Give us the names against each requirement when you order and the right tray reaches the right person, rather than the first person who likes the look of it.
When the whole crew does break together, a lunch buffet or a cocktail-style spread works too, and it costs less per head. The choice is a scheduling question rather than a catering one: if you cannot promise a thirty-minute window in which everybody stops, order trays.
How to brief us
A good brief fits in one message. The exact address and the floor. The access: service entrance or main door, lift or stairs, whether the lift needs a badge, whether a vehicle can stop outside or whether the street is closed for the shoot. The delivery window you want, built back from the call time rather than from the time you would like the van to arrive. The name and mobile number of the person who will be on set at that moment, because a runner who is out on a coffee run is not a contact.
Then the numbers: headcount per day, dietary requirements by name, and whether you want breakfast, lunch, the snack table or all three. For a shoot of several days, the headcount is firm for the current week and adjustable until the preceding Friday for the following week. Tell us about changes in time and each week is sized to your real crew.
Send it in English. The reply comes in English, within 2 hours during the day (9am to 6pm), and before noon for a request sent in the evening. The proposal is signed and paid online.
Enter your dates and crew size: the budget is calculated as you type, and the proposal can be signed online.
Price your shoot →What a shoot day costs
A full day for a crew, breakfast before the first call, lunch delivered at midday as a second drop, and a snack table kept stocked through the day, costs €58.90 per person per day for a short booking. The rate falls to €55.90 from five days and to €52.90 from fifteen. A thirty-day shoot for forty people comes to €63,480 at the long rate, against €70,680 at the single-day rate.
If you only need lunch, individual meal trays run from €27.40 to €53.50 per person depending on the menu, a vegetarian tray at the lower end and a prestige tray at the top. A halal tray is €44.30. Breakfast alone runs from €11.90 to €25.60 per person. The minimum order is €300 per delivery.
Prices are net: VAT is not applicable, so there is no tax line to add and nothing to reclaim. Delivery is included across Paris and Île-de-France, with a supplement in Seine-et-Marne stated on the quote. Disposable tableware is included, and there is no equipment to return.
Studios, locations and the Paris constraints
Studios on the edge of Paris are easy: a loading bay, a lift, a known address. Locations are where the delays happen. A Haussmann apartment on the fifth floor with no lift, a courtyard no van can enter, a street closed for the shoot itself. None of this is a problem if it is in the brief; all of it is a problem at 11:50.
Paris traffic is a real variable between 08:00 and 09:30 and again from 17:00. A delivery window is built with that in mind, which is why it is a window rather than a time. Breakfast lands before the first call; lunch is a separate delivery, so that it arrives freshly composed rather than sitting on set since the morning.
Lead time is 24 hours across Paris and Île-de-France for most menus. For a shoot elsewhere in France, allow five days and ask for an event quote.
Working with a production based abroad
Everything is in English from the first message to the invoice: the proposal, the terms, the invoice itself and the correspondence in between. A British or American production receives exactly the same documents as a French one, in its own language, which is what the production accountant needs.
The invoice is issued to the production company with its legal name, address and registration number. If your accounts process needs a purchase order number on it, say so with the request rather than after the invoice has been issued.
Payment is made in full before the first day, by card or by bank transfer when the date allows it, and that payment reserves the delivery slots for the whole period in your name. Our operating window is Paris time, Monday to Friday: a request sent at the end of the day in Los Angeles lands the next morning here.