Film, TV and Crew Catering
Feeding sixty people well, on time, somewhere with no kitchen, no power and no water, in whatever the weather is doing — that is the job we do most weekends of the summer. On a wedding it is called marquee catering. On a shoot it is called unit catering, and it is the same discipline.
What we bring to a location
Everything, because locations rarely have anything.
- Cooking. Ovens, burners and hot holding, sized to the unit.
- Refrigeration, running from the moment we arrive rather than from when we start cooking. On a hot day this matters more than the ovens and it is the first thing a food safety inspection looks at.
- Power. The kitchen runs on gas, so our own power draw is small — the refrigerated van is the only thing that must be plugged in. We do not draw off the unit’s supply and we are not competing with the genny that matters.
- Water for cooking, and a wash-up with hot water.
- Waste. Grey water, food waste and packaging all leave with us. Locations get handed back as they were found.
The day, in the order it happens
Breakfast from crew call. Hot rolls, porridge, eggs done properly, and tea and coffee running continuously from the moment the first vehicle arrives rather than from when we are ready.
Something mid-morning. On a long shooting day the gap between an early breakfast and lunch is the one nobody plans for.
Lunch, in the window the schedule gives us. This is the fixed point of the day and everything else is arranged around it. Hot, served fast enough that the back of the queue is not eating cold food, with a vegetarian and a vegan option that were designed as dishes rather than assembled by subtraction.
Afternoon. Hot drinks again, something sweet, fruit that has not been sitting in the sun since seven.
Wrap. If the day has overrun into the evening, people should not go home hungry. Tell us in the morning if it looks likely and we will plan for it rather than improvise at eight o’clock.
Why we ask for the schedule, not just the numbers
Your day has an agreed meal break in it. If catering is not ready when that break lands, the break slips, and the cost of a unit standing around is not ours — it is yours. That is the entire reason we ask for the call sheet rather than just a headcount.
It also means we would rather know early that the schedule has moved than be told at midday. A morning phone call costs nothing. A lunch that is forty minutes late costs a great deal.
How it scales
A unit of twenty-five, sixty and a hundred and twenty are three different jobs, not the same job three times. The kitchen changes, the number of service points changes, and above about a hundred we would want to talk about splitting the service rather than lengthening the queue.
For context, cooking for a hundred and fifty people in a field with nothing in it is a normal summer Saturday for us — see marquee wedding catering. Tell us the number and we will tell you what we would bring.
The bit that actually matters: time
Catering is judged on a shoot by whether it holds the schedule, not by whether it is delicious — though it should be both.
Breakfast has to be ready before the first call, not at it. Lunch has to land in the window it was given, and it has to keep landing when the window moves, because it always moves. Holding hot food at temperature for an unpredictable period without it deteriorating is the whole craft.
We do the same thing on shoot days through the winter, where a drive overruns and sixty people still need a hot lunch that has not dried out. See shoot lunch catering.
Dietary requirements at scale
On a unit of sixty there will be a dozen requirements and two of them will be genuine allergies. Both get taken seriously and they get handled differently: preferences are catered as a proper option, allergies are prepared and plated separately and labelled.
Our kitchen handles all fourteen declared allergens and is not a nut-free or gluten-free environment. We say so rather than imply otherwise — on a unit that distinction matters more than anywhere.
A full vegan menu is a menu here, not a substitution.
Where we work
We are based at Mickfield, near Stowmarket, which puts most of Suffolk within forty minutes and reaches into Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. Close enough for an early call without an overnight.
What we need from you
- The call sheet, or at minimum the crew call and the meal break
- Crew numbers, and how firm they are. Twelve either way is fine if we know; twelve either way as a surprise is not
- Dietary requirements in writing. Not “a couple of vegetarians” — names and requirements, because allergies are handled differently from preferences
- A recce, or photographs of the unit base. We need to know vehicle access, what the ground is like after rain, where the kitchen can stand, and how far that is from where people will eat
- Somewhere to eat if the weather turns. If there is no cover on the location, say so early and we will bring it
Booking, short notice and invoicing
Productions commit later than weddings do, and we understand that. If you have a date that is not confirmed, ring anyway — we would rather hold a conversation about a job that may not happen than find out afterwards that we could have done it.
We invoice the production directly against a purchase order. Nobody is collecting money from crew on the day.
Discretion
Closed set is closed. We are happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement before a recce, our staff are briefed not to photograph or post anything from a unit, and we do not name a production on this website or on social media without written permission. If you would rather we were not credited at all, that is fine too.
What to tell us
Unit size, shoot dates, location, and what the day looks like — call time, when you want to break, whether you are moving. That is enough for a straight answer on whether we can do it and what it costs. 07493 867857, or info@reevesevents.co.uk.
Contact Us
Reeves Events
Stonham Road
Mickfield
Stowmarket
IP14 5LS
United Kingdom
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