"To infinity.... and beyond!" - Catering for a four year old's birthday party

The most fun JJ had had in ages. Me too. He was was in full Buzz Lightyear regalia while I had the more conventional chef jacket.... one day.....

Scary watermelon - this was dessert.... more about that later. 

"You're my favourite deputy!" JJ's mum supplied the plates - aren't they great! Chicken goujons & chips - where can you go wrong? "What do you want to go with them?" she had asked him "carrots and cucumber" he said. So that's just what we did!

So what do you do between 2:30 and 5:30 on a Saturday morning? Me I like to sit and carve shapes out of cucumbers. Well I did that morning anyway (after the watermelons from midnight). There's no such thing as a quick job - all those bits had to be cut out by hand with a craft knife and for the eyes I found one of my olive stoners was just the right size. Then you have to fix them with piped cream cheese and putting on the face pieces with the craft knife. Time consuming to say the least - but worth it!

Suprised face - these were slightly larger so seemed to stick on by themselves. Wasn't looking forward to transporting them to the venue though.

 Another of JJ's likes is watermelon. I've tried a few watermelon shapes before - now it time for a few different ones. Such fun to make! I thought these would make ideal holders for the fruit skewers to dip in chocolate fondue.

Had to fix the ship up a bit before serving - transportation and all that.......

Chocolate fondue

You can see the fin on the back of this one.  

Hey quit making those peppercorn eyes at me! The skewers with beads on are great for a kids party.

Jaws

In the seventeen years I've been doing events this has to be the fastest one I've ever done - very soon it was time for us to be off again on our mission to save the galaxy from the evil emperor Zurg.

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Surprise birthday party catering in Droitwich, Worcestershire - Childrens party, trio seafood, whole dover sole and assiette of desserts

"Suprise!"
"I've always dreamed of this!..... Getting caterer's in."

It's always good when everyone can keep it a secret right till the last moment. Last Saturday it was for a special birthday in Droitwich and the birthday girl's husband and the rest of the family had kept it a secret right to the moment they turned up back at their house after being out for the afternoon.

Children's tea

Firstly it was time for a (grand)children's sitting at 5:30 before the evening kicked off. 

Macaroni cheese - everyone's favourite comfort food

Finishing touches on the knickerbocker glory

Adults meal

Canapés to start (2 of the 5 below)

Mini burgers in homemade carrot and cumin buns

Spoon of seared scallop, asparagus puree and shiitake mushroom

Starter - trio of seafood starters - Homemade salmon gravadlax [on cauliflower and fennel coleslaw], smoked  halibut and marinated artichoke, spoon of crayfish and mango 

Then for the main course it was a split - some of the family had grilled fillet steak, a couple had asked for whole dover sole (it was the birthday girl's favourite). It's something you hardly ever see on a menu - you have to go to five star hotels & michelin restaurants. Rick Stein would do it. We could do it too. It's been a while - we used to do 10 or so a day at Claridges. Always around 10:50pm we'd get the room service dover sole orders, just as we were due to finish at 11pm - great for a bit of waiter-chef banter. When you were on the fish section Saturday was dover sole day.

Whole dover sole - whole before prepping at the house - head and tail come off , roe taken out,, de-scaled and then washed & dried.

Cooked meuniere - that paella pan has more than one use - these were 1 lb weight each -  so needed the biggest pan possible.  

Deboned after cooking and put back together, with the pan juices strained into the  lemon beurre noisette spooned on top. So delicious. Should have made it 3 ;)

Birthday assiette of dessert. The chocolate writing went down  so well we had to clean the plate around it after the meal so it could be kept!
Shotglass of eton mess, shotglass of raspberry sorbet, strawberry meringue roulade, spoon of sticky toffee pudding and glazed lemon tart

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Childrens party food delivery in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Edit 03/03/13

To see more from another children's party we did recently click on the picture above.

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You know me - turn my hand to anything (bar celebration/ wedding cakes - one day I'll go on a course). Childrens food? No problem. Great fun to make actually - it had been a while.

This was a delivery I did to Cheltenham at the begining of July - this took care of the morning, then in the afternoon it was off to Ross on Wye to start the 8 day breakfast, lunch and dinner holiday chef job - never like to do things by halves.

As well as the requisite finger sandwiches (marmite, jam & egg - though not all together) we did a few Home Farm sausages made into cocktail size on sticks, chicken goujons and sausage rolls. And mini cheese and tomato pizzas:
and cheese and pineapple aka Mr & Mrs Prickles.

Raspberry jelly
Cupcakes - how can a childrens party be complete without cupcakes at the moment?

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Roast courgettes..... that children like

In the peak of season, courgettes just grow at such a phenomenal rate - look at them in the morning and they're babies, look again in the evening at watering time and you'd think they'd been drinking miracle grow all day.

Leaving them to grow was never a problem for me when I was young - I preferred the steamed marrow rather than the fried courgettes, except maybe if they were mixed with onions, tomato and cheese.....

Last year when I was cooking for a family for a whole week I looked into different vegetable options for each day. Children, as you know, have a certain aversion to vegetables (it's a power issue), but I found with a few simple tricks, you can make something tasty that they like.

This week I have been cooking for a family for 4 days, so again, made sure we had different vegetable accompaniments each day.

These courgettes are peeled, sliced thin on the mandolin, sprinkled with olive oil and a little bit of maldon salt, and then roasted. I find it's the dark green skin that puts children off - looks are everything. Without the skin, it also tones down the taste, which, when your taste buds are young, can be a good thing.

Related posts

Steamed marrow
Children's dishes

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Chips

What type of potatoes do you use for chips?

Not estima - that's for sure. While they make great mash or fondant potatoes, chips they do not make - they just don't taste right. Maris Pipers? I tried those last week, when desiree were unavailable, and, I concede they do work well - with a crisp outside and floury middle, but if you want a creamy dreamy middle I still desire the desiree.

Blanched at 140 oC till soft in the middle

Finished at 180 oC

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Holiday chef

'We take the catering out of self catering, leaving you time to spend on your self'.

A personal chef for your holiday - all or some of your meals taken care of: breakfast, lunch, childrens meals and evening meals are all possible - you decide how much you want us to do. It's like being in a hotel but with the flexibility of your own home. No taxis to restaurants to organise and no baby sitter needed for the children - and it doesn't cost as much as you think!

We have menu ideas using the links below, but are happy to make whatever you would like - after all it's your special holiday! Previous dishes made to request can be seen here: Special request . You can also find dishes we have served in the past by clicking on starters, main course, dessert etc on the right sidebar or by using the search engine on the top left.

For weekends we also have weekend catering packages here: Benson of Broadway weekend catering pacakges and special offers

If you are interested in just one night - ideal for a celebration because you can spend your evening with your guests rather than toiling in the kitchen - we have menus here: Benson of Broadway menus. We can either cook you meal in your home with chef and waiting staff or deliver it chilled with simple instructions for you to heat and serve.

You can see our previous clients' feedback here: Benson of Broadway recommendation letters.

See our most recent holiday chef bistro menu post - click here

Sunday 25th - Friday 31st May 2008, Derry House, Downderry, Cornwall

Dear James,

Thank you so much for a week of fantastic food!

Every meal was fabulous and yet again you have converted the boys to new foods. On the Saturday morning the boys asked what was for breakfast and were most disappointed with the choice of cornflakes or rice krispies!

We all had a great time especiallly Dad who was over the moon with his surprise chef!
Thanks again, you played a huge part in making Dads birthday week the success that it was.

Kind regards,

Annette, Graham, Suzanne, Matt, Dan, Hayden, Lauren and Joshie.

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Everyone deserves a holiday. And everyone deserves a holiday from cooking. Large luxurious holiday houses are the new hotels, ideal for large groups of family or friends, only with the freedom of having your own house. But who out of your family or friends is going to give up their holiday to cook, and are they used to cooking for 10 or more people?

This was where I came in, cooking again for a family of 10 (incorporating 3 generations). They had all enjoyed it so much when I had cooked for them last year while they stayed in Gloucestershire, they wanted me to do the same this year in Cornwall.

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Derry House (aka The Beach House), a large Victorian House, recently refitted to the highest standard, is situated, as its name suggests, just up from it's own private beach on the Cornwall coast between Plymouth and Looe. Of its many features, nothing was more pleasing to see on arrival than the herb garden directly outside the kitchen which sits at the back of the house, the reception rooms and dining room all looking out over the sea.

Sunday

08:00. After finishing off the wedding which closed at midnight, unpacking, then re-packing for Cornwall (8 checklists and half a kitchen), and driving through the night, it was time to set up for breakfast.

There was apple and berry compote with greek yogurt, my speciality museli (easier to say what isn't in it), and a large selection of freshly cut fruit as seen here.

A traditional english breakfast followed with bacon (seen back here) and sausages from Home Farm in Bredons Norton, Oakfield organic portobello mushrooms, vine tomatoes and Clarence Court Burford Brown eggs.

Toasted homemade bread followed - I unleashed the chocolate bread (it was Sunday after all), which accompanied the sesame and poppy seed variety, home made pink grapefruit marmalade from Collis, the small market garden in Evesham, and homemade hedgerow jelly from Dove Cottage in Broadway.

Sunday dinner

What better way to start the english holiday than with an english roast. Each of the menus which I am serving over the week is chosen in advance by the organiser from a large repetoire which ensures I can procure the best quality ingredients.

For Sunday dinner there was parsnip soup with parsnip crisps, followed by a main corse of roast sirloin of beef with yorkshire puddings, red wine sauce, rosmary roast potatoes, horseradish, chantenay carrots and french beans with red onions, as seen in a photo at Broad Marston Manor a few weeks later:

Apple pie brought the classic english Sunday roast to a close, again a photo from a few weeks later:

Monday

While breakfast carried on in a similar vein to the day before, the weekday evenings took shape with an early meal for the children, then a later sitting for the 'big children'.

My personal mission was on again - how to get children to eat things they normally wouldn’t go near.

There’s a few rules of childrens cooking I‘ve picked up -

• If it’s meat it has to be bland, if it’s a vegetable it has to have serious flavour
• Don’t let different foods touch each other
• If it looks appealing, there’s a higher chance that it will be tried - think shapes, colours, & glossyness (if that’s a word)
• If you’re serving something they aren’t used to accompany it with something they are used to - one old, one new
• Don’t use hot plates
• Don’t serve the food too hot
• Don’t put too much on a plate - think small portions: they can always come back
• Don’t add much salt.
  

Monday childrens tea

Chicken goujons with chips (both handmade of course), butternut squash and peas (not shown).

Yes you read right - it was butternut squash, not carrots - but you liked it!

Knickerbocker glory - An improvement on my last version - now the original dessert with fruit, coulis, sponge, custard, jelly, ice cream, cream - and a cherry on the top. As well as a few scatterings of marshmallow, chocolate - that’s what holidays are for.

Monday adults dinner menu

To start - Grilled asparagus and parmesan - similar to this but with raspberry vinaigrette.

One of my favourite main courses - Ballottine of free range organically reared duck with rosemary noisette potatoes, kale and a cherry brandy sauce with fresh cherries.

Strawberry meringue roulade with strawberry coulis and prosecco sorbet - all made fresh in the afternoon


Tuesday

The chocolate bread I made and toasted went down well - it was the first request at breakfast on Tuesday morning as soon as everyone had sat down. I still had a couple of bananas I had brought with me and thought these might go down well - chocolate toast with bananas. Bananas on bread and butter had been a favourite for my grandfather, so this was just taking it a little further. They all went pretty fast.

Tuesday childrens tea

This was pronounced the best meal they had ever had. Playing around with old favourites is always fun. Having read about the black farmer brand in The Sunday Times, I was interested to try something out, and those were the sausages I found, pork and bramley apple. Perfect. Outside the kitchen door was a herb garden at arm level - perfect for picking and adding to whatever I was making. Here I used chive flowers, as they were in the peak of their all too short season.
I knew I wanted to use courgettes some time this week but was looking at various ways of doing them. I ended up adapting Tanya Ramsey's parmesan courgettes - in her book she sautés them and sprinkles in the parmesan at the end so it melts. I roasted thinly sliced courgettes (boiling courgettes is a criminal offence), sprinkled some parmesan on top and finished them under the grill. Perfect round shapes look much more edible.

Pork and bramley apple sauasages with cheesy mash, sweet corn and parmesan courgettes. Gravy served on the side.

Dark chocolate nemesis with white chocolate sauce - and pysalis (cape gooseberry) on top - which got eaten as well.

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The bread proved while I served the children, and was then baked off in between serving them and adults. As the dark chocolate bread was so popular I tried making a white chocolate loaf. There’s a sunflower seed loaf too and some parmesan bread rolls for Friday. It was the daily change of flavour of the bread rolls that everyone loved.

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Tuesday adults dinner menu

Starter of smoked duck and mango salad with coriander dressing - again using some of the chive flowers from the garden.

Main course - Fillet of cod topped with rarebit served with watercress creamed potato, spinach and a tomato and herb dressing
The reception to this dish as I served it was rapturous. I invented it one evening at The Lygon Arms, and still like it. You may say it is a bit like fish pie re-incarnated. The cod is grilled skin side up so the skin goes crispy before being finished with the welsh rarebit.
Served here with roasted courgettes, red peppers and asparagus.
Dessert - Tarte tatin with madagacan vanilla ice cream and toffee sauce

For easy ice cream serving tip see here.

The apples bubbling in caramel earlier in the afternoon.


Wednesday night is buffet night

Wednesday is a nice day for a suprise birthday party. Although, admittedly, the other 6 are good too.

As soon as breakfast was clear, it was time to start preparing for the evening buffet. Good food takes time.
Open sandwiches on French baguette:
1 - Smoked trout with capers
2 - Coronation chicken - tikka sauce, mang chutney, fresh coriander et al.
3 - Prawns with marie rose
4 - Plum tomato, mozzarella, basil and olive oil

Avocado (in sesame) and cucumber sushi with soy, wasabi and pickled ginger. The wasabi is hot so only take a tiny bit. I did say tiny.
Confit of duck, apple and hoi sin spring rolls - the first thing to be made that morning.
Mini Broadway sausages from Collins of Broadway with grain mustard mayonnaise in one corner and tikka marinaded chicken skewers with coriander yogurt in the other.
Tiger prawns in filo with cocktail sauce
Mini tomato, mozzarella and basil pizzas (some with olives - as not everyone is an olive fan)
Barbecue flavour chicken legs - using the organically reared free-range chicken from the Smallholding in Chadbury - this is the most succulent chicken you will ever come across.
Glazed lemon tarts and strawberry and champagne tarts (the champagne is in the crème patisserie and the glaze) - again all made in the afternoon for the best freshest taste.


Thursday childrens tea

Sole goujon with chips, glazed carrot batons and mange tout sautéed with soy (not shown) Fruit trifle - freshly made as soon as the main course has gone out, so it remains light and fresh.


Thursday adults dinner menu

Chicken liver parfait - made fresh that afternoon with elderberry chutney from Dove Cottage in Broadway made from elderberries picked from the fields around the village and my homemade poppy seed bread toasted.
My personal favourite - roast saddle of lamb with sun dried tomato and basil stuffing, nicoise vegetables, grilled new potatoes (luckily it was a fine day, so all the doors could be opened to let out the smoke made by the grill pan) and a light balsamic jus.

After the saddle has rested out of the oven I pour the juice from the roasting tray into the sauce - to give it the extra flavour. Grilled polenta with nicoise vegetables and pesto dressing for one non-lamb eater.


Dessert on this day was glazed cheesecake, similar to that seen last year, but taller and with a new improved recipe. The base was made in the morning after breakfast, left to set in the fridge and the middle cooked first thing that afternoon)


Friday - the last supper


With both menus served together in the rush I missed the photos, apart from this.....


Childrens menu - Chicken in a basket with rosemary roast diced potatoes (more rosemary from the herb garden), creamy peas with bacon and sautéed baby corn with sesame (not shown, but very tasty)


Knickerbocker glory - similar to the one you saw on Monday, but with orange jelly inside this time instead of raspberry. Save the best till last.

Parma ham salad (adults starter) - as seen before


Grilled fillet of beef with sautéed bok choi, rosti potato, beetroot and a red wine sauce - similar to the beef dish seen here.


Blackberry crème brulee - similar to this version photographed at Upper Court in September 2006

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