Make your own mini yorkshire pudding, top it with horseradish or mustard mash & rare piece of diced sirloin,

serve warm, Yum….

www.callthecaterers.co.uk

As nominated wedding caterers, the bride and groom were greeted with a champagne reception and then served with a selection of handmade canapés to start the day off, just a few from the menu included mini Yorkshire puds topped with rare sirloin beef & a horseradish mash, pan fried queen scallops with chorizo served in Chinese spoons and  Duck parfait served on a toasted brioche….

The canapé and drinks reception was staged within the grand drawing and dining rooms of the estate, home to Sir Edward Dashwood and what is simply, a stunning venue and home.

Guests then moved into the tipi for the wedding breakfast, catered-events served up a three course meal starting with prime Scottish
smoked salmon served with a saffron new potato & balsamic green salad. Swiftly followed with Venison casserole & spicy red cabbage, wild Scottish Venison again sourced north of the border from the award winning blackface meat company allowed to run free on the heather clad hill farm in the south west of Scotland.

Dessert soon followed and to supplement the African theme we created an Armarula crème brule, specifically ordered via the
wedding party from the menu tasting earlier this year served with handmade shortcrust heart shaped biscuits drizzled with chocolate.

We received some truly generous comments from guests throughout the day that included “to serve 180 guests, the number of canapés you did and to then follow with a four courses meal from a tent was remarkable”

Mother of the bride went on to add - I just wanted you to know that we were very impressed with the food at the wedding.  The venison casserole was very tasty and lovely and tender. Everything else was great and I have had very positive feedback from the guests.

Thank you Dave for an excellent meal.

Congratulations to you both, Dave and team at Catered-events,

Happy New Year and to a prosperous 2013. www.callthecaterers.co.uk

They held the reception within a marquee erected at Longford hall for 100 guests. The menu took on a winter feel to it and with a chilly, albeit a bright sunny day the warm food was well received.

To start, a hot red lentil & panchetta broth served up for starters, swiftly followed by bangers n mash, an 8oz Cumberland sausage ring with buttered mash potato and spanish onion gravy.  To finish a strawberry cheesecake or a choice of baked apple pie.

The guests then danced the night away until such time, we the caterers we back in demand. Cooking and carving up enough pork legs to feed a small army, plenty of extra crackling, home made apple sauce and of course our own recipe chunky stuffing. Not a single bap was left which for me was a first as there is always someone who deosn’t partake but on saturday night they did.

Thanks for the nice comments and best wishes to you both.

Sorry not to have replied sooner/

The chef Tim and the waiter Chris were fantastic!! Every course was amazing and the
fact that we did not have to lift a finger was great. It was like being out at a top restaurant but with no pressure and having all of the comforts of home!!
Staying in for a meal is definitely the new going out!!

I have no hesitation in recommending Catered Events to anyone. The service was fantastic and the food was even better!! When the evening was over, it was as though they had never been and we all had the opportunity to enjoy a drink without worrying about taxis or designated drivers.

I will definitely use this service for an evening with customers as I think it will create an excellent impression.

Looking forward to my next event.
Kind regards Paul Coxhead

The world of event catering never ceases to amaze us in terms of the pricing
and how caterers cost their products. Yes, we all have clients with varying
levels of budget and varying levels of expectation. But we do see some crazy
quotes that are often forwarded on from clients, prices that on the face of it
don’t stack up.

With clever menu writing a lot of the lower budgets can achieved with still an acceptable
menu, plus don’t forget it’s also down to how good your chef is and what they
can create with little ingredients.

We have catered for many events recently and as many believe we are still in
recession, the brief has been very similar in terms of a low budget to provide
an acceptable menu. A particular recent event saw us provide a three course
meal with a budget of £16 per person plus vat, I imagine some caterers have
just gasped with horror while others sighed in agreement, but yes it can be
done.

Firstly we agreed that a plated meal wasn’t an option and therefore agreed to serve the
meal as a buffet, not ideal for all guests but as the event was a charity
fundraiser, they got into the spirit of it. Serving the meal as a buffet saved
the need for 8 waiters.

Then the menu, ok I gave my chef £.90p to spend on the starter; he came up with a goat’s
cheese & roasted vine tomato tartlet, served on a bed of mixed herb leaf
with red pesto dressing. Some may say a dated dish but still plenty of positive
comments.

The main course, chicken is the safe bet and once served with leek mash,
crunchy veg topped with a Chablis sauce you’re pretty much there in terms of making
the event a success.

On too dessert to finish off the evening and a classic dish we haven’t seen for
while sticky toffee pudding with vanilla custard’ nice. Simple but also amazing
how many adults enjoy the custard.

Now what makes this evening significant is the fact that this meal was put together
using portable kitchen equipment housed in a room the venue uses as a child’s
play area, basically not a commercial kitchen in site. What is also worthy of a
mention is that the meal was prepared, served and cleared within 90′minutes
using two chefs and five waiters!

What I haven’t mentioned yet and is even more reason for praise is the number
of guests, 197 was the final count on the evening which also included a veggie
option and a couple of dietary requirements.

The reason I published this article was to show that catering can be done a little
cheaper than you may think, although the higher number of guests do make it
possible, the larger the number of guests, the easier the menu versus budget it
becomes. We couldn’t have catered for 50 guests at the same price for a banquet
or other event.

I hope the post was useful and if you have an event coming up and don’t think
your caterer can achieve the budget then email us chef@callthecaterers.co.uk
and we’ll see what menus we can pull together.

Www.callthecaterers.co.uk

To digress for one second, we took an enquiry for another BBQ on Friday, 400 guests and the client had been quoted £3 per person! We were asked if we could do any better, “not if you want some beef in your burgers” was the reply, I can’t understand why some caterers devalue what we do as an industry. We know there’s cheap food available but how do you staff an bbq event for 400 with that sort of budget? Maybe 2-3 hours to be served is acceptable!

Back to the wedding, congratulations to rich and Leah, married last week but they threw a post wedding party on Saturday in abberley.
For 90 guests we arranged a BBQ menu to include steaks served with balsamic onions or Cajun chicken skewers as your main choice, served up with some regional sausages (always great on a barbie). For the veggie guests they had the choice of aubergines stuffed with ragout or halloumi and med veg skewers. Both accompanied with roasted red pepper couscous, new pot salad with creme frieche & asparagus and baskets of French bread.

Thanks for the comments re the food and service, luckily the weather was on our side to cook the barbecue, although a little chilly to serve it outdoors.
Best wishes to you both and have a great time in Egypt

Callthecaterers.co.uk

60 miles south also on Friday night we found ourselves in fulham serving up a hot buffet for 200 at a charity event. A selection of simple dishes to keep the costs down, no point raising money for charity only to spend the bulk of it on the catering! An easy enough menu still served with flair and fresh ingredients, chicken n mushroom with puff pastry lids, a pie to you and me served up with a leeky mash, veggie curry with mini nan breads n rice along with braised beef teriyaki with sweet noodles & fresh chilli.

Easter Sunday took one chef up to birmingham to cook Sunday lunch for a regular client and his family.
A busy weekend catering for various events, hopefully sharing this information will inspire you and confirm that this level of service is out there.
Email the chef@callthecaterers.co.uk or visit us at www.callthecaterers.co.uk for more info

We received a call from a couple planning a last minute wedding reception, we’re not totally sure if it was last minute on their part but with only two weeks notice ahead of the wedding day it was certainly a little last minute from our point of view! To add to this, the couple were based abroad and had hired a venue, namely finsbury town hall as a central location for all guests.

With only two weeks to pull this together, we first needed to take a look at the venue and more importantly the kitchen. Kitchen space will often determine what menu is possible given the facilities available. Absolutely no point gearing up to a three course menu for a wedding if the kitchen can’t accommodate.

Kitchen inspected and venue viewed courtesy of the event manager, we then provided a few sample menus we the clients budget in mind.
Duck and chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche & balsamic onion chutney to start with, followed by a classic roast beef dinner with homemade yorkies and chateux potatoes. For dessert the client opted to serve up the wedding cake which we duly helped tp plate up and present with a plum compote.

112 guests made the trip from as far away as norway & argentina and helped make the day special.

Planning A last minute party or celebration, it’s always worth calling the caterers, it was slightly lucky we were available but as the wedding was in January a relatively quiet month we had two chefs available and could help cater the wedding.

Best wishes and congratulations to you both, dave and the team at catered-events

Www.callthecaterers.co.uk
Chef@callthecaterers.co.uk

Best

I’d prepared a quote based on providing a canapé reception for 160 guests, the client opted to provide their own drinks which is fine by us. The canapé reception was to be followed by a three course meal consisting of a chicken based main course.

We discussed the quote and in particular the charge for the main course, it appears another caterer had offered the same dish for pretty much half of the cost. This leaves me scratching my head as I’m thinking, they either use their own reared chicken which is highly unlikely or they plan to use a cheap imported chicken breast, full of water which after the cooking process will be half the size than when it went in!

I totally appreciate we all work too budgets but why spoil such a big day with an inferior piece of chicken? It sounds crazy I know but I imagine we all (caterers) have the same fixed costs associated with staging a wedding, therefore to provide the right level of staffing,
the equipment needed to cater in a tent and an acceptable raw ingredient then surely the costs are similar?

Email the chef@callthecaterers.co.uk for more info

Catered-events provided the catering for their big day. We started off the wedding reception with a selection of hot and cold canapés followed by a choice bowl food menu.

The menu consisted of swedish meat balls with vine tomato sauce, swiftly followed by beer battered cod with hand cut chunky chips, cumberland sausage n mash drizzled with a rich onion gravy finished off with teriyaki salmon served on a bed of udon noodles with toasted sesame seed & spring onion.

The bowl food concept provides a unique way to serve a series of dishes allowing each guest at the function to try a little of each. Individual dishes scaled and served in rice bowls, pretty much the size of a sugar bowl.

Ideal for functions with limited seating or when guests may require something a little more substantial as opposed to canapés.