Seven Events People Do Not Realise They Can Get Catered

Most people ask too late, or not at all

The two things we hear most often are “I didn’t know you’d do something that small” and “I didn’t realise we could just order it”. Both come from the same assumption: that catering is for weddings and corporate events and everything else is somebody standing in a kitchen at midnight buttering rolls.

Here are seven that are not, with what each actually costs.

1. A christening or naming day

One of the most common things we deliver, and one of the hardest to self-cater because the age range is the widest of any family event. Adults and children want genuinely different food. Order them separately. A buffet from £5.50 a head and the kids party buffet at £8.00 a head, and it costs less than one buffet big enough for everybody.

2. A wake, at two days’ notice

People assume a caterer needs weeks. For a delivered buffet we need the order by 4pm the day before, which is usually well inside what a family has. Funeral catering starts at £5.50 a head and we do a great many of them, usually arranged in a phone call rather than a meeting.

3. A sports club tea

Fixed budget, numbers you find out on the day, a kitchen that is a hatch. It is the hardest recurring catering there is and it is exactly what a delivered buffet is for. Set it up as a standing order and it arrives every home fixture without anybody organising it.

4. A house move or a milestone at home

Twenty people, a Saturday, and nowhere to cook because half the kitchen is in boxes. The £20 minimum on the order value is four people on Buffet 1, so there is no lower limit worth worrying about.

5. A training day or a committee meeting

Not a corporate event, just a room of twelve who need lunch. Working lunches start at £5.50 a head and breakfast at £3.35, delivered between eight and nine. Set up an account and it goes on one invoice.

6. A graduation party

Concentrated into a few weeks in July and again in the winter, and almost always at home with family who have travelled. Works well as a hog roast from £7.25 a head if there are fifty or more, and as a cold buffet if there are not.

7. A children’s party you do not want to cook for

The kids party buffet is £8.00 a head cold or £10.50 hot, and it is different food rather than smaller sandwiches. Parents get the adult buffet at the same time, which is the bit people forget to order.

The common thread

None of these needs a quote, a meeting or a lead time measured in weeks. Prices are published, the order goes in by 4pm the day before, delivery is free, and the platters get collected the next working day.

Every buffet is 30% vegetarian as standard, with vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and halal portions prepared separately and labelled.

If your occasion is not on this list, it is still probably one we do. Tell us what it is.