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Notes from thirty years of cooking outdoors

Practical guides rather than marketing. Portion sizes that are actually right, timelines that account for speeches running late, and the questions worth asking any caterer — including us.

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30 yrs: Experience behind them

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Guides22 July 20264 min read

How much hog roast do you actually need per person?

The question we get asked more than any other, answered with real numbers — including the two factors that change the answer more than guest count does.

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How much hog roast do you actually need per person?

Guides

The practical questions, answered with numbers rather than reassurance. Portions, logistics and what to ask before you book anybody.

22 July 20264 min

How much hog roast do you actually need per person?

The question we get asked more than any other, answered with real numbers — including the two factors that change the answer more than guest count does.

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9 May 20264 min

Catering in a village hall: the checklist nobody gives you

We have cooked in a great many village halls across Cambridgeshire. These are the nine things that decide whether the day is straightforward or a scramble.

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14 April 20264 min

Eight questions to ask any caterer before you book

Useful whether or not you book us. Most people ask whether the food is nice, which nobody has ever answered honestly.

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Weddings

How a wedding actually runs from the catering side of it, including where the timings usually slip.

18 June 20264 min

A hog roast wedding, hour by hour

What actually happens on the day, from the chef's side of it — including the two points where every wedding runs late and how we build for it.

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Behind the scenes

What the job is really like, and what the harder events have taught us about quoting the next one.

2 March 20263 min

What feeding eight hundred people at a festival taught us

Our biggest job to date, and the four things it changed about how we quote large events. Mostly it is not about the cooking.

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If there is a question about outdoor catering you cannot find a straight answer to anywhere, send it over. If it is a good question it will probably end up as the next article — and you will get the answer by email either way.

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