Everything people ask before they book

Summer Saturdays go six to twelve months out, and the two August bank holiday weekends are usually the first to fill. Midweek dates, winter events and corporate lunches are often available at a few weeks' notice. If your date is inside a month, phone rather than fill the form in — it is quicker and Adam will tell you straight away whether it is free.

A date is held when the deposit clears, not when the enquiry arrives. Until then we will happily pencil it, but we cannot turn away another booking for the same day. You get a confirmation email with a reference number the moment payment goes through — that email is your confirmation.

It depends on the menu. Buffets and the vegetarian grill start at 25, barbeques at 30 to 40, and hog roasts at 60 because a whole hog needs the numbers to make sense. If you are under the minimum, ask anyway — a smaller joint or a different menu usually solves it.

We regularly run 300 to 400 guests and have done 800 at a festival with a second kitchen and extra staff. Above roughly 250 we will want a site visit or at least good photographs and a chat about access, power and service points.

Yes. Final numbers are confirmed 14 days before the event and that is the figure you are charged for. Small movements before that are no trouble at all. Large jumps are usually fine too, but tell us as early as you can — the difference between 80 and 140 guests is a different hog and another member of staff.

Yes, at no extra charge. Bank holiday weekends book up earliest, so if you are planning one, get in early.

A level patch of ground roughly 5m by 3m with vehicle access, and permission to put up a gazebo. That is genuinely it. We bring our own gas, power, refrigeration, lighting, service equipment and hand-washing facilities, and we take all our waste away with us.

A hog goes on seven hours before carving, so for an evening meal we are on site around late morning. Barbeques arrive around three hours before service, buffets around two. We work quietly and stay out of the way of photographs.

Nothing. The cooking is under a gazebo and the hog does not care about the weather. Worth thinking about where your guests will stand, though — we can point you at marquee hire locally if you have not sorted that.

Yes. Fields, woodland, paddocks and barns are normal for us. We are entirely self-sufficient — gas, generator, water containers and refrigeration all travel with us.

Yes. Our service area goes back the way we found it, all our equipment and rubbish leaves with us, and if you have hired crockery through us we take that away dirty so you are not washing up at midnight.

Both, depending on the menu. Hog roasts are carved to order by the chef with a queue that moves fast. Buffets and grazing tables are laid out and topped up by us. The larger packages include a uniformed front-of-house team who plate, clear and keep an eye on drinks.

Yes. We hold public liability insurance and all staff hold current Level 2 food hygiene certification, and the business is registered with the local authority. Certificates go out with your invoice as standard, because most venues ask for them.

Of course. Give us the venue's email address and we will send insurance, hygiene certification, risk assessment and method statement directly. Village halls and licensed venues usually want all four, and we would rather they had them a month early than the day before.

Yes, both, and they are written for outdoor cooking with LPG rather than copied off a template for a restaurant. Ask and we will send them.

Adam Skinner and a small team he trained himself. The same handful of people do every job — no rotating pool of agency staff who met an hour before your guests did. Adam is on site for every event he quotes.