Delightful weddings

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It’s our utmost pleasure to cater for people’s weddings – we get to meet fantastic people and see wonderful venues. It’s amazing how differently people decide to celebrate their nuptials. This year we have done a wedding at Exeter Museum which was great! A young, fun wedding among the fossils and exhibits! Very unique and exciting.

The other day we went to a stunning house overlooking Bantham beach for a small, intimate, waitress served 3-course meal. We had two fantastic staff work with us to serve the food and drink. We made rare Devon wood pigeon with Fungi Futures gourmet oyster mushrooms and local salad leaves or roast organic squash soup with local yoghurt swirl for starters. The mains were herby nut crumbed, locally caught lemon sole with a homemade salsa verde, slow cooked free-range pork belly with apple saffron puree or gardeners pie; spring local veg in a white wine sauce topped with puff pastry served with seasonal roast root veges, braised red cabbage and creamed leeks – lovely seasonal and local accompaniments! The desserts were rich chocolate torte with rhubarb compote and clotted cream or blood orange cheesecake.

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The atmosphere was lovely – the decorators had made the dining room really beautiful and the 29 guests enjoyed the flowing wine, candlelight and conversation.

It feels like such a privilege to provide food for people on their special day. It makes it all the more wonderful when we have the kind of response we had the other day – the bride and groom told us that the meal was the best wedding food that some of their guests had ever had! We can’t wait for the other weddings booked this year at various venues in South Devon, with different styles of ceremony, food service, decor, flower arrangements and dresses.

Contact us if you’re planning your special day – we’d love to cater it! We can provide a free quote for the kind of food you tell us you’d like.

And contact Hetti at Babes in the Woods if you’re planning your hen night for something totally unique and brilliantly wild! And Amy at School Farm Cut Flowers for gorgeous, local and interesting bouquets.

Things we’re excited about!

This Thursday we have a farmer, a butcher, a grower and a competition winner coming round for a 3 course meal of offally good Devon meat – a starter of brawn, followed by stuffed lamb hearts, homemade haggis and delicious locally grown vegetable sides finished with an amazing Rhubarb Torte.

Then, Saturday sees us catering our first wedding of 2013 at Exeter Museum – how exciting to be at such a wonderful venue?! Can’t wait

Saturday 2nd March 2013 we’re running the cafe at the second fantastic YogaFest at Birdwood House, 10-6pm where you can buy a tea, coffee, homemade chai, a variety of cakes (including gluten free, dairy free, vegan and sugar free options) and savoury treats; even if you’re not attending the classes. For more information about the festival, cotact maite_alonso@yahoo.com

And just in case that all wasn’t enough to be excited about, we’ll be at the Moretonhampstead Festival on the 9th! See you there? We’ll be selling fresh seasonal salad boxes to eat at the festival or take home as well as a variety of other fresh and homemade delights. It looks like a great festival so I’m really pleased we’ll be there!

Hannah at The Ashburton Food Festival. We do like a good festival! :)

Hannah at The Ashburton Food Festival. We do like a good festival! :)

Spring has sprung

I’m pretty sure it’s almost exactly this time last year I was writing a post with a simliar sentiment – Spring!!! The glory of sunshine, daffodils, blue skies and fresh air! But it never ceases to please me. This year, my relationship with the winter has been very different from any other… Normally, I am clawing my way to Spring, desperate to leave the darkness and cold of Winter behind me. This year, we took January off (in case this passed you by somehow! We went to Morocco) and came back to a fairly mild and relatively sunny February which seems to be quickly turning into March and the year seems in full swing! Yesterday was the springiest day we have had this year so some friends and I went to Noss Mayo and did a short but lovely coastal circuit, with a brief stop-over at the pub. John had local roast beef and seasonal veg while the rest of us, full from our cliff-side picnic of free-range pork salami from Riverford, fresh baguette, organic local carrot sticks, apples and Moroccan olives, enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine.

The walk takes you along the cliff path in the open air with stunning views of the sea, through a little woodland to Noss Mayo itself and back to the National Trust car-park where we’d started (and bought honesty-box veg from Wurzell farm)

Long may the sunshine continue! Looking forward to many a roast lamb supper, wild garlic and nettle dishes and of course, more tajines – of all descriptions! This month sees our first of many weddings and next month we’re at Moretonhampstead Festival – so there’s lots to look forward to!

Circuit walk to Noss Mayo

Circuit walk to Noss Mayo

Local, local, local!!!

Our fledgling outside catering business, based in Totnes has been focused from the outset on using local Devon suppliers and being true to our tagline ‘Conscious Catering’. The Kitchen Table has been up and running now for more than half a year! Unbelievable! We’ve spent that time learning, meeting, eating, cooking, learning some more and really getting to grips with the business. I think Hannah, myself and KT (as we affectionately refer to our little business) are trully becoming bosom buddies! We have several repeat clients and a growing and diverse client base. It’s so pleasing to meet new people, plan their business and community meetings, public and private events, celebrations, weddings and family festivities with them and to come up with menu’s which sing the praises of our local growers and producers in tune with the seasons.

This last month has seen us hosting our very first (of many!) Kitchen Table conversation cafe’s hosted by Embercombe which was a rip-roaring success and we’re so excited to be planning the next one already for July – watch this space to find out who will be hosting the summer conversation!

It’s also seen us involved in organising a coffee festival in Totnes, to celebrate the towns independent cafe’s and send a clear message to any conglomerates, that we’re doing just fine thank you!! This festival is a joyous celebration of our diverse and ungentrified high street (as well as an opportunity to drink a lot of coffee!). Hannah rocked the airwaves today, talking on Totnes FM about the message behind the festival and she’s played a key role in organising the exciting barrista competition being held in the Civic Square Sunday 20th May.

In addition, this rainy spring has seen The Kitchen Table doing a trialCannellini, local purple sprouting broccoli and black olive salad run of supplying Sacks Too on the Plains with healthy, affordable and delicious lunch options.. each week we’ve made a scrumptious quiche, sumptious salad and sensational dip and veg sticks! They’ve been selling well and I’m excited that people have something healthy and creative for lunch – because though we all love a pasty, it’s nice to treat our bodies sometimes too.

So, I’m really enjoying this season of collaboration, mutual benefit and support. We’re in the process of putting a suppliers page together so you can see some of the wonderful people, projects and businesses that supply us to use their delicious produce in our cooking.

If you want a sample of our food, why not pop into Sacks Too Wed-Fri this Wild garlic, nettle and Sharpham brie quicheweek and try a wild garlic, nettle and Sharpham brie quiche, a cannellini bean, purple sprouting broccoli (grown just outside Totnes) and black olive salad or a mildly spiced carrot and red lentil dip with carrot sticks?

Also, next month we’ll be at The Dartington Food Fair, so come say hi?!