It’s 6am Sunday and I’ve just had a pint of Camden larger… now I’m queuing to get on a plane to Tenerife where I’ve been asked to go to help with menu consultancy for a week.
The last two weekends I’ve been helping a company called http://www.passion-for-food.co.uk/ who cater for large events and weddings. I’ve only briefly dabbled in outside catering when I have helped a friend who’s company does catering mainly in London for very rich people in beautiful houses! Normally no more than 20 people which is a good number I think. We prep all the food for a day or two then get it packed in a van drive to an amazing house in central London cook up a storm then clean up and disappear like we were never there.
Passion for food is similar because there is a unit where the chefs prep all the food one or normally two days before but the work I’ve been helping them with has been large weddings of 100-200 people! Now that’s a lot of people.
It’s made even more exciting because they are not always in places with kitchens, so we have to build them in a tent for example before any cooking can begin! I have to admit I find it much more stressful than working in a kitchen day in day out in which you know where everything is and if you get a surprise vegan in a service you can create some magic (or humous) from things you have at your fingertips.
Outside catering is all about the prep, you prep real good, you pack a truck full of the prep, equipment, chopping boards ,knives, cling Film, piping bags, tea towels…. you get the picture good packing is VERY important! You throw some avocados on for surprise vegans and you leave. When you arrive at the venue (last weekend was a huge tent in the grounds of a beautiful house) the have a few piles of crates with cutlery, plates, cups, glasses 3 ovens and a plate warmer and a pile of tresses tables. A very different scene from walking into he same kitchen everyday! So you must get to it, build a kitchen basically, decide the best logistics for the day and move the crates out to the bar area, place the ovens across one side start opening the legs of tressle tables all the time keeping one eye on the clock because canapes must leave the kitchen in 2 hours. It’s thrilling I must admit, it’s challenging in different ways to a dinner service in a restaurant because you know what has been ordered before you arrive, so that part which is normally an un known in a restaurant should make the day easy right?! The challenges in a tent are working fast and organised to a tight time scedual and then ‘re adjusting that scedual on the fly when people don’t want to sit down or do and extra 30 mins of speeches. And of course there are no hot lights in a tent so food temperature is critical and no salamander to flash food that’s lost it’s temp a little. Then the small matter of serving 110 covers all at the same time! Another thing which never happens in a restaurant (you hope!). You also get lulled into a false sense of security because the no guests when you arrive just an empty tent and 3 hours till starters need to go out so you have ages….. you forget that plating 110 plates of beetroot cured salmon, horseradish cream, pickled cucumbers, sourdough bread crisps, Micro dill and dill oil takes a long time!!
It’s very gratifying for me also to know that I have helped make someones wedding day a good one and memorable for the rest of there lives because often in a restaurant you don’t know the reason people are there or what the are celebrating if anything. As fun as it is and temping has been at whatley, I am missing a busy Saturday night service but the place I’m going in Tenerife does up to 300 covers on a Saturday so I may have a different opinion after this week!
Jonascooks 