Welcome to another Spitting Pig blog posting, this week with myself, Chris, one of Spitting Pigs hog roast chefs in Thorndon.
I’ve been asked to tell you what we’ve been up to this past week at at hog roast Thorndon and I really don’t know where to start, seeing as I’ve catered for quite a few events, especially over the weekend. I think to start with I’ll tell you about an event that took place last Saturday, so only a few days back.
I’m picking out the Saturday event as a talking point because it was one of the biggest hog roast Thorndon catering jobs I’ve done so far. I haven’t worked at Spitting Pig for long so no events in the high hundreds or thousands for me yet. I’m not 100% on the numbers as a guest or two couldn’t make the Saturday event, but the booking was for 180 people and by my reckoning there was at least 170!
It was a big party event, which makes the guest list even more impressive for a party, I think I’d be lucky to think of 18 friends to invite to mine! With so many people the event needed a big menu, which is exactly what we gave them. Pig, chicken, sausages and burgers were the 3 main options. The pigs and chicken we spit roasted and the sausages and burgers were grilled with our machines also.
On one machine I cooked the giant Thorndon pig, which I rubbed beforehand with a salt seasoning for the optimum crackling result to make the guests mouth water. On the second machine I cooked the chickens, 10 of them, and so many sausages and burgers that I went close to losing count! The chicken and pig I spit roasted were farm fresh and they cooked very well, smelling great and tasting even better if the guests response is anything to go by. The sausages and burgers I made myself with a special Spitting Pig recipe that we keep under lock and key. With the recipe at hand and all the ingredients I fashioned the sausages and burgers that morning with fresh beef and pork. All in all I spent 6 hours cooking the pigs, chickens and sausage and burgers. Come serving time I equipped myself with the stainless steel carving knife, bread rolls, sauces and bowls and served well over 150 people.
It was really spectacular to cater for an event so large, especially since I performed so well. It was a great feeling to know as I was cooking that my hard work would be served to so many people, of all different ages and backgrounds, which also meant the pressure was really on for me to do a fantastic job. Because that’s what people expect from Spitting Pig – hog roast brilliance.
After all that hard hog roast graft I went home and ironically had a microwave pizza for dinner. What can I say, I think I did enough proper cooking for the day!!!!!