Photography by Keiko Oikawa
The first of a two part series on how to celebrate in style for your wedding – next month select venues from hotels and restaurants to golf clubs. This issue we take a look at outside catering and the very different styles of wedding feasts on offer.
Your wedding day must be high on the list of milestone occasions along with the birth of a child or crossing the threshold of a dream home. The choice of the dress, the church, the reception venue, the cake, all often seem to get more attention than the choice of caterer, which ironically is almost as important as the nuptial ceremony and certainly takes more time. If you want something more personal than a fixed venue, there is much to be said to having the caterer come to you. But who are you going to choose to put all your trust in, preparing this most important of banquets…
The guest list is always a real cross-section, a disparate blend of people as one could find in the same room – age, class, taste, fussiness – there is no one perfect solution for what you all should eat. It is all to easy to choose on price or simplicity or how many they can cater for. As someone who only had 11 guests, his bride and a teddy bear at his wedding reception in a tiny chapel seating a maximum of 14, we could push the boat out with our indulgences. But if a party for 150 or 200 distant relatives and erstwhile colleagues (who you may not see for another 10 years, ahem…) is your thing, then budget can be more of an issue. But my plea is to provide a meal whose memory will stand the test of time and which suits your and your nearest’n’dearest’s usual filter when you go out for any other celebration. If for Granny’s 80th you went to the best restaurant in the county, why choose ‘any old’ catering company from a list of ubiquity in the telephone directory. Recommendation is everything, ask those recently married in your trusted circle of acquaintances who they used. Do also demand that potential caterers give you a tasting of the proposed menu and above all, take your time getting to know them – professional operators won’t mind one little bit.
Here’s three suggestions for experienced personal caterers, the first two in Bespoke Events and Food Creation are larger specialist concerns covering East Anglia and the third, Lawson’s is an example of how one can find a very eco-friendly feast of local ingredients cooked on your doorstep.
Food Creation of Halesworth
Having spent many years as a traiteur chef in the food halls of Harrods and Selfridges, London’s loss is East Anglia’s gain with Franck Pontais and his business partner wife Jude’s venture, Food Creation. Asking what makes them different from the norm, Jude explained “we aim to do things properly, home-made ingredients, pastry, stocks, ice creams, sauces, all made from fresh by us here” and “the glamour of a fancy menu is properly thought out and proven on the plate… as opposed to the cheaper end of the market where it may have come in deep frozen from a factory… We treat our clients how we would want it to be, getting fully involved with the whole event, not just the food. Franck can even crystallise the same flowers as the bride’s to go on top of the pudding”. One of Food Creation’s specialities is spectacular buffet displays, perhaps on a Far Eastern theme with chefs cooking Japanese teriyaki as a back-drop in front of the guests. Another is their unique verrines – not done elsewhere in the UK, these are a huge variety of miniature dishes served in a glass with a spoon. Served as either canapés or a whole meal, they offer the likes of foie gras cappuccino mousse and brioche soldiers or diver scallops with smoked kipper, fennel and spinach, followed by thyme and lavender mousse with cherry coulis and parsnip ice cream or fresh cherries, figs and raspberries in port and orange vinegar.
Food Creation, 16-17 Halesworth Business Centre, Norwich Road, Halesworth
T: 01986 874884
Lawson’s of Aldeburgh
Now joined by renowned Suffolk chef Peter Harrison (ex Leaping Hare at Wyken and Harrison’s at Kelsale), husband and wife team Claire Bruce-Clayton and Richard Lawson are well known foodie figures in these parts, having previously run the catering for Aldeburgh Music at Snape Maltings and owned 152 Restaurant on the High Street until 2002. Whilst still restaurateurs, they created a ‘compact but bijou’ delicatessen at the front of the building. In 2006 they garnered the opportunity to move it to a larger home all of about hundred yards or so up the street. As part of the new look Lawson’s, they are extending their outside catering services, still mostly around East Suffolk and typically cooking for up to 50 people. But makes it so special is their interest in the wonderful locally produced or wild foraged ingredients they make good use of. If you love shopping at farmers markets or your village farm shop then for your wedding why not spread the green message further? Working with local chefs with such a keen interest in the rustic goodies of the around them, it can be a real foodie affair. Good friend of Lawson’s and our very own Forager columnist, Jason Gathorne-Hardy of Alde Valley Food Adventures is very much part of the creative process. Together he and Claire have done true field and hedgerow feasts – for example, wild garlic bread, nettle risotto, rabbit and pheasant terrine, Alde Valley lamb, Aldeburgh blueberries and Marybelle Suffolk crème fraiche. What a romantic bucolic picture that would paint for your country wedding celebrations…
Lawson’s Delicatessen, 138 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
T: 01728 454052
Bespoke Events of Bungay
By taking the busy award-winning Earsham Street Café on the road, chef-restaurateur Stephen David and Rebecca Mackenzie’s aim is to replicate their restaurant experience and quality of food for their clients albeit in a marquee. “I cringe at typical function food, a dry chicken breast, often silver served, covered with mushroom sauce, soggy roast potatoes and overcooked vegetables in the middle of each table” so says Stephen when elaborating what makes them stand out. “Our style is modern, a mix of modern British and Mediterranean gutsy flavours, the hearty yet chic dishes come complete to the guest, and with a little ‘wow’ factor thrown in” How about starting with a selection of rolled sushi in nori, perhaps tuna with pickled ginger and wasabi, to dip into soy or other canapés such as carpaccio of beef with cornichons and parmesan or shooter glasses of chilled gazpacho and oysters. Guests sit down to adapted menus drawn from the restaurant carte, a typical meal might be crisp roast sea bass with nicoise style samphire, soft quails eggs and aged balsamic; pink seared lamb cutlets, spinach and gruyere dauphinoise potato, sticky red cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli with sherry vinegar-tarragon-olive oil juices; a savoury of Suffolk Gold rarebit with Adnams Broadside ale, Worcester sauce dressing and crisp streaky bacon; finishing with baked honey and ricotta tart with caramelised pinenuts, lemon curd and vanilla mascarpone.
Bespoke Events, 11-13 Earsham Street, Bungay, Suffolk NR35 1AE
T: 01986 893103
