Pool party wedding celebration in Coughton, Worcestershire

Well this beats being indoors in a hotel conference room!

Mr Burns hard at work on the canapes......

A swimming pool at a wedding always gives it a much more informal atmosphere. We often do weddings were there is a pool in the background and after the meal guests take to the waters - much more informal and fun! This time the pool was centre stage. Just so lucky the sun favoured us - rain the day before and the day after - but this day was perfect.  

Whole lamb roast. Everyone loves watching & smelling it cooking & being carved - cravings!

Banter around the lamb roast with the father of the bride and guests - it never fails to draw people in. Another family from Africa were telling me all about a bison roast on an open fire - sounds epic!

Greek salad - a classic with lamb. Earlier that week I had called over to my Mum's house (take over a bunch of receipts - VAT time....) so picked some fresh oregano to go on the top of this salad - makes all the difference. The oregano plant is probably older than me. Thought I'd killed it one winter when I cut it right back - but they're hardy things. Also great to add to the barbecue to add flavour to what you're cooking.

Grandma of the bride and (I am assuming) Aunty. Cheers!

Salads went down well - I think people get the same kind of food at every event the go to. We like to try different things
Israeli cous cous salad always goes down well - not everyone has had the larger grain variety. The butternut squash salad is always a hit too - withcourgette carpaccio replacing feta as they had greek salad . We also served dauphinoise potato and Beetroot, rocket, fennel, radish and apple salad with cider vinaigrette  - what a feast!

Trio of desserts in the twlight
Shotglass of rhubarb jelly topped with custard, Grilled caramelised pineapple with homemade malibu ice cream & mini chocolate torte with white chocolate ganache and berries. 

The rhubarb shotglass was something we came up when we first met up back in March. We topped the jelly with some of the rhubarb compote left from making the jelly then spooned custard on top. So it's rhubarb and custard, but not as you've had it before!

From the mother of the bride......

Dear James

Thank you so very much for the fantastic catering you provided for our pool-side safari party last weekend to celebrate the wedding of our daughter and son-in-law in Zambia earlier in the year.  Every guest without exception remarked on the food and how wonderful it was to have something really different, and which looked and tasted so amazing.  And you achieved all that on our limited budget too!

The whole lamb roast was a huge success, and the canapes, salads and desserts were just perfect for the summer's evening event - you even managed to produce the sun at the important time!  It amazed us that you were able to do so much in such a confined space, yet when we returned to the kitchen after the party it was spotlessly clean and tidy.  Your assistants set the tables to our requirements, and quietly and efficiently served and cleared throughout the evening.

We had sampled your food at the wedding of friends about 18 months ago, and our high expectations were certainly matched, and exceeded, by the food you suggested and provided for our event.  We loved the idea that everything was so fresh and local, and really enjoyed eating up the minimal leftovers the following day!

Thank you to the whole BofB team for their hard work, which made our celebration so enjoyable - we were able to relax and join in the party knowing that the catering was totally under control.  And a special thank you to you, James, for masterminding the whole operation, suggesting food to fit in with our ideas without running away with our budget, and being so flexible in the pre-event meetings to fit in with our availability.  We will certainly recommend you whenever we can, and are already looking forward to the day we can plan another party and use your services again!.

Best wishes - Diane G
3 August 2013

0

English street food wedding catering near Redditch, Worcestershire

"So what we were thinking was street food...... but English....." said the bride and groom to be when I met them at the beginning of this year. The bride had Malaysian family, while the groom had english - so this was the perfect way to suit both families. The Malaysian contingent would expect having a number of dishes on the table from which they could serve themselves, so this seemed a good way of introducing them to some more english styles of food.

A few years ago we served a thai menu as overlarge canapes - a cross between canapés and finger buffet but served like canapés on individual mini plates by waiting staff as guests stood chatting. The bride and groom to be wanted to go for very much the same kind of idea for this event, but for the guests to be seated at the table.

What was more this was to be served up from an open kitchen - while we do lots of events in houses where the dining area is open plan with the kitchen so you're effectively cooking in front of the guests it is not so common for marquee weddings - but we'll try anything! The guests seemed to love looking over at what was coming to their table.

 "I love the sky in this one!" said Alys - part time chef, part time photography student. This was the real colour of the sky at around 2pm. You can guess what happened next.......

Weddings in tipis - I love them. This was the bar/ lounge/ dancefloor area with a more traditional marquee tacked on to the back for dining. So much more character than just a normal marquee!

As guests arrived we served mulled cider - a great winter warmer!

Open kitchen - almost ready to go........

English street food

If only street food was as popular in this country as it is in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and so on. If it was, I think these dishes might be something street vendors might serve.......

Mini beef wellington with red wine sauce

Beef wellington around midnight the night before.

Beef wellington - before the top - spinach, wild mushrooms and chicken liver pate inside

Chicken in Herefordshire cider and apples - served in individual bread tartlets

With so many different dishes I wanted to serve each on a different style of plate - this one we served in bread tartlets - 1 per person. You butter the bread, mould them into yorkshire pudding tins and bake them. So if you're really hungry at the wedding you can even eat the bowl!

Lancashire hot pot

Bubble and squeak cakes on watercress salad in bamboo boats

Found these bamboo boats for the bubble and squeak above - looked quite good!

Good old english fish (goujons) and chips 

There was also leek and potato pie which we served on mini sur le plate dishes with a heart shaped puff pastry lid - but unfortunately with so much going on we didn't manage to snap that one.

Mini desserts 

After so much food the bride suggested fruit salad which we served in a shotglass

The all time english favourite - sticky toffee pudding with sticky toffee sauce

Mini lemon meringue roulade and  mini chocolate torte

Also in background left were mini wild elderberry (had fun picking those in the rain a couple of days before) and white chocolate cheesecake and mini pecan pie

0

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

4

Catering for a birthday party in a bedouin marquee

"So what have we got?....." asked one of the guests
"I chose all my favourite things" said the host, whose birthday it was, just behind her. That's what birthdays are for isn't it!?When your parents live in such an amazing house which lends itself to entertaining, it seems crazy not to use it. We were cooking in their garden - felt uncannily like camping, but that might be more because we were based in our own tent which has seen some times - the night of the heaviest ever thunder storm going overhead ('that lightning is getting rather close') is rather memorable - it's a hardy tent.

• Thai chicken curry


• Lamb tagine - see more here


• Lamb cutlets with hoummous


• Patatas bravas


• Basmati rice


• Asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon


• Tex-mex salad in crisp taco bowls (see more here)

The whole night was about a relaxed atmosphere - the inside of the marquee was decked out as a bedouin tent with comfy floor-level chairs around the side where guests could sit and eat - or stand outside as the weather went in our favour. No waiting staff - we just served from a buffet.

I also found out in real terms the benefits of the hard flooring we get in normal kitchen marqee tents. As the evening ran on the oven was sinking deeper and deeper at the front into the grass till it was on a serious lean. So finishing the chicken and lamb dishes on the top, they started edging forward and forward as I was doing something else on the adjacent table. And then.... phew - good job I have lightning reactions.....


Dessert

Dessert was a relaxed affair too - Japanese spoons of creme catalan and rosewater scented fruit salad in watermelons (less fruit is more - pineapple, mango, strawberries, blueberries and some of the watermelon middle)
Then, as the daylight faded down, the music faded up and so the real night began - what a perfect summer's night event.

0

Afternoon tea and hog roast wedding catering, Fladbury near Evesham and Pershore, Worcestershire

Springhill Barn in Fladbury may look unassuming from the outside
But inside it is transformed into a beautiful wedding venue:
The good thing about church weddings are you know when the wedding is starting and finishing due to the bell ringing, and when you hear them the second time you know it is time to get a shift on.

We served afternoon tea on the terrace as guests arrived back from the church. Here the Party Angels are just finishing the set up.
Scones were topped with Cotswold clotted cream and hedgerow jelly from Dove Cottage in Broadway. Delia collects all the berries from the fields around Broadway to make the fabled jelly which she uses for her B & B guests.
We also served elderflower cordial too - another Dove Cottage 2010 vintage from the elderflowers in the fields on the Broadway hills. And my legendary chocolate brownie - how can you resist?

Hog roast wedding buffet

I had picked up the pig around 8am from Home Farm. I passed Mickey the farmer on the way up as he was off to the Stroud Farmers market driving the opposite way. Just a tad too late for him to help lift it out of their fridge. But as luck would have it there were a couple of cyclists waiting for breakfast as B & B guests at the farm. One of them and Anne the farmer helped lift it on to the roasting tin. I was halfway through sawing the legs off the pig so it fitted in the tin when Mickey rushed back in "QUICK! Get the dogs and get up to the top field!" he said to Anne hurriedly. "130 sheep have broken out of the field, if we leave them they'll be all over the village!". It all happens on Saturdays. Anne rushed off in the car with the dogs, Mickey showed me how you reduce the height of the pig (that's not for here) so it was the 8in high that they need for the height of the bakery oven, and the cyclists were left to their own devices for breakfast as Mickey rushed back off towards the Stroud farmers market - can't afford to miss the stand. Meanwhile I rushed to pig back to the Tewkesbury bakery, picked up the larger hire van and went back to the kitchen to finish preparations for the other 2 parties we had going on that day - so much happens before 9am.Crispy crackling - along with pig tail (along with the cheeks & ears one of the tastiest parts)

Potato salad

Beetroot, fennel and radish mixed leaf salad

Tomato, basil and olive salad

Cous cous salad with grilled vegetables

Dessert was their wedding cake which we served with berries and raspberry coulis. And Adam used their cheese to make a cheese wedding cake which we served after the dessert and guests ate throughout the night.

XXXXXX

Dear James

Apologies that it is quite belated but David and I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your help in making our wedding day so special and unforgettable.
All the guests loved the food, especially the crackling from the hog roast which was claimed to be 'the best - EVER!' by several people. My fussy Dad even ate cous cous for the first time and went back for seconds! We really appreciated that you were so organised and we could trust to leave you to get on with things and not worry about anything on the day, and also that you were able to help us suceed in our ethos of using local produce where possible.

Best wishes and all our thanks
David and Joanna Kelly

4