A barn has a kitchen. A field has nothing. Marquee catering is a logistics problem before it is a cooking problem, and it is where a competent operator wins and a good cook fails.

What we bring to a field

If your field has nothing in it, that is the normal starting point. We arrive with a complete kitchen and set it up behind the marquee, out of sight of your guests.

• Cooking, and it all runs on gas. Ovens, burners and hot cupboards, sized to the room, so a three-course meal reaches every table in one service rather than in waves. Running on gas rather than electricity is the single thing that makes a field kitchen practical.
• Refrigeration. Our refrigerated van or trailer, running from the moment we arrive. In July that matters more than the ovens.
• Power — and we need very little of it. Because the kitchen runs on gas, the only thing we genuinely have to plug in is the refrigerated van. That is worth knowing when you are pricing a generator for the day: the caterer is not the reason you need a big one.
• Water. We bring our own. We have catered a great many events in the middle of a field with no running water and no building anywhere near, and we are entirely self-sufficient for it.
• Waste. Grey water, food waste and packaging all leave with us. Nothing is tipped into a hedge and nothing is left for the farmer.

Do you need a generator?

Most likely yes, but not principally for us. It depends on where the marquee sits in relation to the house, how many guests you are having, and what else needs power — lighting, the band, the bar. Our own draw is small because we cook on gas.

Tell us the site at the visit and we will tell you honestly what the catering needs. It is usually less than people budget for.

Set-up and strike

We are on site well before service and gone the same night, and the field is walked before we leave.

We need a reasonably level patch of ground for the kitchen tent, close to the marquee, with vehicle access to that point. Access matters more than distance — on wet ground, whether a van can reach the spot is the difference between a smooth set-up and a bad morning. If the ground is difficult, tell us early. It changes the plan, not the answer.

The wet-weather plan

Every marquee wedding gets one, written before the day and agreed with you and the marquee company.

It covers where guests stand for canapés if the lawn is unusable, how the walkway between the kitchen and the marquee is covered, what happens to a barbecue menu if it rains all morning, and at what point on the morning the decision gets taken. Nobody wants that conversation at eleven o’clock on the day, which is exactly why it is had in advance.

Working with your marquee company

We work regularly with Events Under Canvas, Chelmer Marquees, Anglia Coastal Marquees and Great Events, and we will happily speak to yours directly rather than through you.

What we ask for: a catering tent with lighting, a covered walkway to the marquee, and the table plan in good time, so the service route is worked out on paper before anybody is carrying a plate.

Menus that work in a field

Everything on our wedding menus can be cooked on site. Some things are better than others in a marquee, and it is worth saying which.

• Best in a field: the barbecue menu and the informal sharers. A Suffolk ploughman’s with Shipcord and a hand-raised pork pie is a serious lunch and it does not care about the weather.
• Very good with the right plan: a full three-course wedding breakfast. Roast venison loin, Suffolk chicken supreme, cod loin with a pesto crumb — all of it works in a field.
• Later: fish and chip cones, cheesie toast and churros. Evening food in a marquee is not an afterthought; it is the second half of the day, and it comes out of the same kitchen that cooked lunch.

See all six wedding menus, including a full vegan and vegetarian menu.

Where we work

We are based at Mickfield, near Stowmarket, which puts most of Suffolk within forty minutes and reaches comfortably into Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire.

If your field is nobody’s venue — a family farm, a paddock, the bottom of a garden — that is fine, and often better. It is the same job.

What it costs, and what is included

The price per head covers the food and the people — ingredients sourced locally where the season allows, cooked on site, and the kitchen and front-of-house staff to serve it.

Cutlery, crockery and linen are hired separately and deliberately so, because most couples want a look of their own rather than a standard set bundled into the price. There are no hidden costs on our side: the per-head figure is what you pay.

The full picture — including how booking, tastings and payment work — is on what’s included, and the common questions are answered here.

From the Journal

• What a field kitchen actually is — everything that has to arrive on a lorry before anyone can cook in the middle of a field.
• Catering an autumn wedding in a marquee — what changes when the marquee goes up in October rather than June.
• More on marquees and field kitchens

Venues that recommend us

Five Suffolk venues list us on their own recommended or approved caterers pages: The Tudor Barn Belstead, Haughley Park Barn, Boxted Hall, Henham Park and Woolverstone Hall.

Worth naming, because you can check it on their websites rather than ours. Several of those lists are deliberately short.

Most of our marquee work, though, is at places that are nobody’s venue at all — a field on a family farm, a paddock behind a house. That is the same job and often the better wedding.

The same field kitchen goes out to film and television units working on location in the region. It is the identical discipline — no power, no water, a fixed time to feed everyone — and it is described on our film, TV and crew catering page.

Menus

Nothing here is a fixed package. These are where the conversation starts:

• Canapé menus — what people eat standing up while the photographs happen
• Wedding breakfast menus — the seated meal, plated or served to the table
• Sharing and feasting menus — brought to the table rather than queued for
• Barbecue and summer menus — cooked outside, which in a field is the natural thing to do
• Evening and street food menus — later, standing, and smaller than you think
• Vegan and vegetarian menus — dishes in their own right, not substitutions

Or see all six wedding menus together.

The site visit comes first

Before anything else we come and look. At that visit we can tell you how much space you actually need for the number of guests you are expecting, which is the question most couples are guessing at.

We work alongside a number of marquee companies and are happy to recommend one. If you have already chosen yours, we deal with them directly about the kitchen space and what they are providing, rather than passing messages through you. The point is to take it off your plate so you can enjoy the rest of it.

What the marquee company provides, and what we do

They will normally supply the tables and chairs — round or rectangular, and rustic wooden trestles are a popular choice. They should also supply prep tables for the kitchen space. That is a small detail and an easy one to forget, so we check it.

We hire the kitchen equipment, crockery, cutlery and glassware through one company we use for every event. They liaise with us, we confirm the delivery day works for you as well as for the marquee build, and it normally arrives the day before, which gives us time to set up properly rather than in a rush.

What the equipment costs you

Worth being direct about. Once you have chosen the food and we know your numbers, we can advise on the kitchen equipment needed. Equipment hire is a real cost and it can quietly eat into your spend per head if nobody is watching it — so we would rather design the menu around your budget than sell you a menu that spends it on hire.

Refrigerating your own drinks

The detail almost everybody overlooks. You will need to refrigerate your own beverages, and they need at least twenty-four hours in a fridge before anybody drinks them.

Our refrigeration is full of your food and it is not available for cases of wine and beer — that is a firm no rather than an unhelpful one. There is nothing worse than a warm drink on a summer afternoon, so plan for it early with your marquee company or a hire fridge.

Drinks service and corkage

We do not charge corkage. You buy your own drinks and we do not take a cut of them.

Drinks are often served by us as part of the day. If you would rather bring in an independent bar company, that is entirely fine. Where we serve at your own bar, there is an hourly rate for the staff doing it — that is the only additional charge, and we set it out from the beginning rather than at the end.

Clearing down

Our staff stay to the end and clear down. If we have been with you all day and evening, everything is tidied and stacked so the hire company can collect the following day, with nothing left for you to deal with.

If you have a second day of celebrations, we will arrange collection with the hire company for a day that suits you. And if your evening food is coming from a different supplier, we will talk that through with you in advance so it is clear who is clearing what.