Summer Garden Party Catering And The British Weather

One question decides everything

Will it rain?

Nobody knows, and every other garden party decision hangs off it. Rather than pretending otherwise, it is worth being clear about which choices care about the weather and which do not.

The food that does not care

A cold buffet is completely indifferent to the forecast. It arrives on covered platters, it goes on a table, and if that table has to move indoors at two o’clock it moves indoors and nothing is lost.

• Buffet 1 at £5.50 a head, sandwiches, eight fillings.
• Buffet 5 at £7.70 with savouries.
• Buffet 9 at £11.00, the full spread with crisps, fruit, cake and juice.

Add a fresh fruit platter at £13.80, crudités at £5.00 or a cheese selection at £16.50 and it starts to feel like summer rather than a lunch.

This is the quiet argument for a cold buffet at a British garden party, and it is a stronger one than people give it credit for.

The food that cares a great deal

A barbecue is cooked on site, in the open, by somebody standing at it. £13.00 a head for barbecue catering, 50-guest minimum, about 3m by 5m of flat ground with no steps to the serving area. We arrive an hour and a half before service; service runs an hour with seconds.

A hog roast from £7.25 a head is the same picture, same minimum, same space, carved as guests come.

Both are considerably better than a buffet when the weather holds. Both need a plan when it does not: somewhere for the cooking to happen with cover, and somewhere for fifty people to eat that is not the lawn. Most people have one of those and not the other.

Either way, 25% deposit secures the date with the balance due 30 days before.

How to decide

If the party is under fifty, the barbecue minimum settles it: cold buffet, and put the money into the better buffet rather than the cooking.

If it is over fifty and you have cover, a marquee, a big garage, a barn, then cook on site. It is the better party.

If it is over fifty and you do not have cover, be honest about your appetite for risk. A cold buffet plus a hired gazebo is a perfectly good afternoon. Fifty people sheltering under one tree while somebody grills in the rain is not.

Things people forget outdoors

• Shade matters more than shelter for most of a British summer. Food and people both want some.
• Drinks run out faster outside. Cans of pop £1.35, bottled water £1.35, fruit juice £2.75 a litre.
• Children graze rather than eat. The kids party buffet at £8.00 a head ordered separately works out cheaper than a buffet sized for everybody.
• Wasps. Keep sweet things covered until you want them out, which is another point in a covered platter’s favour.

Booking

Garden party demand starts in March, and Saturdays in June and July go first. Delivered catering needs 4pm the day before, delivery is free and there is a £20 minimum. Anything cooked on site wants months rather than days, and a summer Saturday wants longer still.

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