The thing people assume they need for a party is a venue. They rarely do.

A garden with a marquee in it, a barn on the farm, or a house with twenty people in it is a better party than a function room. The only reason it usually is not on the table is that most caterers cannot work without a kitchen — and yours almost certainly is not big enough to cook for eighty.

Ours arrives on a van. That is the whole difference.

Autumn is the right time for this

Summer parties compete with everybody else’s summer parties. An autumn one does not. People turn up, because there is less on.

The food is better too. Braises, pies, game and roots are what this part of the year does well, and they suit a party where people are moving around rather than seated in a heatwave.

Three shapes that work

Drinks and canapés, then something substantial. An hour of canapés while people arrive, then bowl food carried through the room. Nobody sits down, the conversation keeps moving, and everybody eats properly. For a fortieth or a fiftieth this is almost always the right answer.

A long table. Twenty to forty people, food down the middle, everyone reaching across it. Less formal than a seated dinner and considerably better for the mood. Our sharing menus are built for this.

A proper dinner. Eight to twenty in your own dining room, three courses, served to the table. Private dining at home is the most underrated thing we do, and the reason people do not do it more often is the two hours of washing up. That is the part we take away.

What your house actually needs

For a dinner: an oven, a hob and a sink. That is it. Everything else — crockery, glassware, linen — comes with us if you want it to.

For anything larger, we bring the field kitchen and set it up outside, out of sight. A lawn, a paddock, a courtyard or a yard all work, and none of them needs anything doing to it first.

The weather conversation

Have it early rather than late. Anything outdoors in autumn gets a written wet-weather version agreed in advance: where people stand if the lawn is unusable, what is covered, and at what time on the day the decision is made.

It is not pessimism. It is the difference between a plan and a scramble.

Or come to us

If you would rather not host at home, The Outlook at Fox’s Marina in Ipswich is our own waterside café, bar and restaurant, and it can be taken privately. The kitchen and the team are ours, so the food is the same food we would cook at a wedding.

More on party and event catering and milestone birthdays.