Urbanization of the urban population has contributed to the emergence of catering in the Russian market of public catering services. The positive experience of its implementation in foreign countries, the need to expand the scope of activities of public catering enterprises, the desire to bring diversity to the range of services provided, and a number of other factors have become the reasons for the introduction of catering in public catering enterprises. The article considers the essence of catering, its types, and analyzes the state of the catering services market in Russia. Given that the structure of the catering market is dominated by mass catering and most companies in the Russian catering market were engaged in event-based customer service during the pre-pandemic period, in 2020б there was a reduction in demand for this type of catering and a shift in the market focus towards ready-made food delivery. It should be noted that risks for the catering services market remain at least until the end of 2020 against the background of an increase in the number of cases during the second wave of the pandemic. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the catering services market in 2020 has been supplemented with new trends and, according to experts, is still far from saturation, which makes it possible to open new businesses throughout Russia.