Wedding season is full of beautiful moments; For us these include meeting and getting to know you, inviting you in for a tasting and ultimately helping you helping you pick your perfect wedding breakfast. Canapes that delight, mains that are completely reminiscent of that amazing holiday you had together – these are all the tiny details that help make your dream day a reality!
As caterers though, we are just one slice of the wedding pie and in a year, we work with hundreds of different people whose job it also is, to ensure your first day of wedded bliss is the best it can be.
We meet these other suppliers, primarily, in hot, crowded kitchens in between courses. Sometimes we help them add an extra last-minute string of fairy lights to get that perfect shot across your twinkling table displays. Sometimes they send some much-needed refreshments in for our brilliant chefs.
We see them for planning meetings, and de briefs. We salute to them as we clock off for the night from their venue, or they signal to us that they’re heading home after photographing your first dance, with a promise to catch up next time.
These people are the front line of the wedding industry, a large portion of them are self-employed, and as we all know, wedding season is now an all year-round affair. As we began to wind down from the manic Summer season, we thought how lovely it would be to have an opportunity to get them all together and give them a chance to let their hair down.
Our passion is food and we thought what better way to thank our venues and suppliers, without whom, we literally wouldn’t have a business, than with a wonderful evening of dining, and entertainment for a good cause!
We have been fortunate enough, through our corporate arm Strong Flavours, to work with the phenomenal Chestnut Tree House, who offer respite and care for children with progressive life shortening conditions and their families.
There are potentially 1,000 families with life-limited children in Sussex. Chestnut Tree House offers support for the whole family including psychological and bereavement support, end of life and short break care and sibling support.
It currently costs over £3.9million each year to provide all the care services offered by Chestnut Tree House. Families are never charged for their care and less than 6p in every pound is funded by the government, so Chestnut Tree rely heavily on the generosity, help and support of the people of Sussex. If you would like to find out more about their work, you can do so here.
We have also recently joined the suppliers list at the unbelievably beautiful Balcombe Place, a 19thCentury mansion gifted to Lord & Lady Denman on their wedding day in 1905. After 64 years, Balcombe Place has returned to the management of Lord and Lady Denman’s descendants, three generations of them in fact. It was very important to the family that after so many years of the property being in the hands of others, the house’s next adventure would be one that complements its features while ensuring the survival of the property as part of the Balcombe Estate.
The venue has recently reopened following a stunning refurbishment and is now taking bookings for 2019 & 2020 (You can contact Emma here).
With all the creative cogs whirring we decided to host an event that honours all these things: Thanks, our wonderful suppliers, raises awareness and donations for the brilliant work that Chestnut Tree House do, and gives Balcombe Place a chance to see what we do best – feeding people!
Our amazing kitchen team let by head chef Graham Strong designed a menu that hit all the right notes. Indulgent, and hearty with as much local and seasonal produce as possible! Delicate flavours of brown crab perfectly complemented the decadent hit of local Dukes moor Sussex beef with a heady offering of Autumnal plums and ginger to finish!
With a little help from our dear friends: To Have and To Hire, PEP Print, Teddy Pig Photography,Bluebell Vineyard, Backyard coffee, Place Setting’s, Nell’s Flowers, Co-ordination Hire and with amazing prizes donated by some many exceptional businesses across Sussex we were ready to rock and roll!
Here are all the details from our End of Season Charity dinner for Chestnut Tree House at Balcombe Place.
Colour Scheme: Autumnal! With the event taking place on 30th November, event co Ordinator Pippa didn’t want to submit to anything with a Christmas vibe!
Table Cloths: Navy Blue,
Napkins: Pumpkin – Both Just4Linen
Cutlery: Co ordination’s beautiful Rose Gold Liza cutlery
Charger Plate: Gold charger plate – Place Settings
Navy Blue & Gold foiled menus: Pep Print
Flowers: Nell’s Flowers
Decorations (Lanterns, candles, terrariums): To Have and To Hire
Tables & Chairs: Coordination Hire
Photography: Teddy Pig Photography
Casino: AKA Casino’s
The Menu:
Amuse Bouche
Set brown crab posset with a white crab salad
fresh pink lady apple, confit chilli, cucumber
Starter
Smoked salmon cannelloni
fresh dill, salmon caviar, beetroot slaw, beetroot crisps, horseradish blini
Mains
Poached Dukes moor beef loin with a braised beef oxtail bon bon celeriac puree, crispy onions, sauted spinach and thyme butter poached carrots
Dessert
Warm sticky plum tarte tatan
Ginger bread syrup, plums sautéed in port syrup, ginger crumble, blood orange sorbet and yogurt
If you would like to enter into the Christmas spirit and donate to Chestnut Tree House please do so here.