Good event catering shouldn’t feel as though somebody chose a menu, dropped it into a venue and called the job finished.
The food is part of the event.
Who is attending, why they’re there, how long they’ll be staying, whether they’re standing and talking or sitting down to eat, and even what the organisers want people to remember afterwards should influence what comes out of the kitchen.
That’s why our first question isn’t simply, “What would you like us to cook?”
We want to understand the event.
A menu can look fantastic on paper and be completely wrong for the occasion.
If you’re bringing hundreds of people together to network, for example, giving everybody something that requires a knife, fork and somewhere to sit probably isn’t the best idea.
For a recent film and television industry event we catered, guests would be moving around the room, meeting people and having conversations.
That meant small canapés that could be eaten easily while still showcasing the standard of food we wanted Rhubarb Rhubarb Catering to represent.
Our menu included mini Yorkshire puddings with slow-braised beef, horseradish cream and caramelised red onion; smoked salmon blinis with citrus and dill crème fraîche and pickled cucumber; charred chicken with chimichurri; and a vegan and gluten-free sweet potato bite.
Different dishes, but all designed for the same room and the same purpose.
There is something slightly deceptive about a canapé.
It’s two or three bites.
It can also involve hours of preparation.
For our mini Yorkshire puddings, the beef was slowly cooked before being portioned for service. The onions were caramelised. The horseradish cream was prepared separately. Miniature Yorkshire puddings were cooked before everything could finally be assembled.
The blinis had their own process: making the batter, cooking individual blinis, preparing the crème fraîche, pickling and cutting cucumber and portioning smoked salmon.
Then you repeat that process hundreds of times.
When you’re producing food at that scale, consistency becomes incredibly important. A few extra grams on every portion doesn’t sound significant until you’re several hundred portions into service.
That’s the work guests don’t see.
And that’s how it should be.
This matters to us across all our catering.
If somebody is vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free or has another dietary requirement, their food should still feel as though it belongs at the event.
We don’t want somebody looking across the room at everybody else’s food thinking, “I wish I could have that.”
It means considering dietaries while the menu is being developed rather than trying to manufacture an alternative afterwards.
For events especially, presentation matters.
If every other guest receives something carefully considered and somebody with a dietary requirement is handed an obviously inferior substitute, we’ve missed the point.
Inclusive catering should still be great catering.
Canapés worked for that particular evening.
Another event might call for bowl food, a buffet, substantial handheld food or a completely different style of service.
That’s why we’re reluctant to talk about a single standard “event menu”.
The occasion should determine the food.
A corporate reception has different requirements from an outdoor event. A networking evening is different from a private celebration. Guest numbers, venue facilities, service time and atmosphere all influence what will work.
Sometimes that gives our chefs an opportunity to be creative.
Sometimes the right decision is to keep things beautifully simple.
There should always be a reason behind the menu.
Guests don’t see most of the work that happens beforehand.
What they experience is the finished food and the person serving it.
Friendly, confident service changes how an event feels. Knowing what you’re serving matters. Understanding the dietary information matters. Being approachable matters.
We talk a lot at Rhubarb Rhubarb Catering about genuine hospitality because cooking is only one part of what we provide.
Ultimately, we’re looking after people.
From handcrafted canapés and receptions to larger events, we develop our food around the occasion rather than pulling a standard package from a shelf.
If you’re planning an event, tell us what you’re trying to create.
Then we’ll start talking about the food.
Got a date and a venue in mind? Tell us the guest numbers and the kind of occasion it is. Call us on 07425 221753 or send the details through our contact page and we’ll come back to you.
