The kids are back at school and the summer is drawing to end but things are still hotting up on our catering schedule. Expecting a bit of a lull with the end of the holiday season I was going to have a break too, but circumstance has deemed this a little optimistic on my part. Coming up in September we have many events in – these are back to back days over the weekend so that’s going to be pretty hectic. Before then we have got a wedding and a charity gala to cater for – both big events and both cooking a lot of meat.
The wedding has a couple of pigs as the centre piece, but plenty of freshly prepared, local produce to go with it. Salad, rice, pasta and a whole van full of apple sauce. This will be a huge day for preparation, to ensure that we can set up without a hitch on the morning with the wedding early afternoon and the pigs need a long slow cook to ensure they are meltingly succulent.
Last weeks wedding was a brilliant affair, a great day where Hogroast East Anglia catered for over 130 people in a fantastic location. Picking up the fresh beef early on the Saturday morning had proved a slightly trickier affair than expected, when at 5 in the morning I had a very close shave with a herd of fallow deer intent on attacking the van and running down the centre of the carriageway. That certainly woke me up enough that by the time I’d picked up the rest of the team I felt like I’d had a flask full of coffee.
The rest of the day passed off a little more smoothly and we had so many people come up to the machines to thank us for the wonderful food. I even had one of the strict vegetarian ladies on the day whisper in my ear that she was more than tempted by the aromas we were creating – nearly, but not quite. Oh well you can’t win them all. The bride and bridegroom were apparently ecstatic at the food, but as we were packing away the roasters, the music had begun and I don’t think they ever came back off the dancefloor – so we didn’t manage to say goodbye. But thanks to everyone for their help and kind words, it was a quality day.