Like everything else, it's changed.
Here's how to make it work today.

• No more rigid Plan A and Plan B catering options, says New York-based chef and restaurateur David Burke. "We get one-on-one with clients and see what we can do at whatever price they have to work with. We want the business, so we're more flexible in pricing."
• Work harder to qualify clients and determine their needs upfront. "We ask a lot more questions today about what it would take for prospective clients to buy our services," says Carlyn Berghoff, owner of Chicago's iconic Berghoff Catering & Restaurant Group. "Buyers today want it to be good, they want it to be creative and they don't want it to look like they spent a lot of money. We need to understand what that means to each client before we put proposals together."
• Get more creative with basic ingredients. "Catering menus today are driven by less-expensive proteins," Berghoff says. "Chicken is huge and so are inside round, flank steak, tilapia and salmon. Food costs have held steady and even dropped on some items, but you have to be creative to satisfy clients' desire to both save money and serve something special." Roman agrees, noting that the food cost on a single frozen shrimp can run $1.25, but drops to almost nothing for shrimp toast. "It still says shrimp, it's trendy and it's affordable," he says. "Catering in this environment isn't about discounting, it's about presenting creative alternative ideas at alternative price points."
• Ditch formal sit-downs in favor of passed hors d'oeuvres and grazing stations to save on labor, rentals and food cost. "You can do a Mediterranean, Asian and Latin station, for example. Or choose a single theme and repeat it at three stations," suggests Jim Israel, owner of Philadelphia's Culinary Concepts catering company. "That's even more cost-effective because it's easier to produce and you can still incorporate a lot of excitement and a lot of food."

• Cast a wider net. Burke, who has diversified from fine dining with convenience-oriented concepts such as Burke in a Box, targets offices with promotional e-mail blasts and free food samples as a way to get a foot in the door. He's also looking beyond the traditional office market, promoting to businesses such as hair salons.  "We'll drop off 20 sandwiches a day to those types of clients," he says. "If we can get to where we drop off Mondays at one place, Tuesdays at another and so on, that's good repeat business."
• Beat more bushes. Jeremy Merrin, founder of Havana Central's three large-volume restaurants in New York and a thriving corporate catering business, says his sales staff is simply pounding the pavement harder to counter declining catering sales. "We're doing much more cold calling, more e-mail blasts, social networking, sampling and taste testing with prospective clients," he says. Berghoff agrees, saying her catering sales staff has had to transition from being order takers into aggressive sales people.
• Make it easy and affordable. Havana Central has worked to make lunch easy and to focus on value. "We've developed more flexible menu packages, lunch specials and a new boxed lunch program that's been very popular" Merrin says. "It's faster, easier and more affordable for clients to order in lunch for large groups. Any compromises we've made in margin we're making up for in volume." Culinary Concepts is launching a new business model that takes them from just catering to full event management. "We've aligned ourselves with the Independent Seaport Museum, so we'll be able to manage the venue, the catering and every aspect of event planning—a one-stop shop," says Israel.
• Stay top of mind. Berghoff's company moved up holiday-themed promotional drop offs of cookies and hot chocolate to July from September this year to get an early jump on holiday bookings. "We hit companies who have booked events with us in the past and just include a ‘thanks for your business, we're already booking for the holidays' note to make sure we're top of mind," she says.

• Play to win. Berghoff recently set out to create a strong wedding catering niche. "People get married, recession or not, so we diversified from mostly corporate catering into weddings, and we're doing a lot of them," she says. "We changed our whole presentation—e-mails, how we communicate, the look of our proposals. We're more thoughtful in customizing our cover letters, using specific strong words and phrases that have helped us to win sales."
• Don't take weddings casually. "If you do them, you have to commit to being a strong, full-service caterer," she adds. "You need a dedicated team and tight systems in place to make them successful and avoid catastrophe."
• Follow caterers' lead. "If you're just starting to go after weddings, look around at what established wedding caterers in your market offer," Roman suggests. No doubt you will not be able to provide all the amenities that full-service wedding caterers offer, but it will tell you what the competitive landscape looks like. "You'll see things like a separate entrance to the banquet area, separate restrooms, a bride's room with plenty of mirrors and amenities. You may not have the physical space to do such things, but you'll get ideas for things you can do that will boost your attractiveness to brides."

• Handle what you can, but tap a partner for bigger events. "For larger events we have a venture partnership with a caterer who helps us with rentals and staffing," Burke says. "We don't have those resources at the ready, so it works well. We do the food prep, but they help with the set-up and service."
• Find caterers that are just getting established and offer to partner. "The caterer handles the logistics and the client gets the cachet of having the restaurant cater the event. It's a win-win," Roman says.
• Look for caterers who aren't name brands in their communities who'd love to be the "stealth caterer" of the restaurant. "Just make sure they're reputable and have the proper licenses," he advises. To find out who the good caterers are, ask local party rental/supply shops.