Unlike the vast majority of the population, who are making the most of the beautiful weather and enjoying BBQ’s and delicious treats, we’ve decided in this household to take this opportunity to eat healthily, buy our fruit and veg from the local farm shop (to support our local businesses……) and for some crazy reason, do a juice cleanse!! Don’t ask!!
With this in mind, my rumbling tummy has really got me thinking about all of the incredible street food options we have available here at Wootton Park. I know it can be really difficult to make your decision on which option you’d like to go with, so I thought you might like the chance to get to know the suppliers a little better. Kicking it off, we have our wonderful BBQ van, Red Banger…
Red Banger Catering
Name…
Red Banger Catering
Who are you…
Nell (me) Will (husband and chief burger flipper) Harry (son and occasional burger flipper))
How long have you been running…
We started in 2012 as a sideline, we’ve been dig it ever since and love it – especially weddings , it feels great to be a part of such happy events
What do you do…
Hand made pork sausages, home made lamb burgers and pork burgers, slow roasted pork cooked in locally produced cider, slow roasted lamb with herbs from my garden, halloumi fries, veggie and vegan food
What makes you stand out from the crowd…
All of our meat comes from our farm in Warwickshire. We buy our cheeses direct from small producers who we have got to know and trust, because their philosophy is the same as ours: traceability and quality. Our lamb is organically produced as is the halloumi that we offer. Our pigs are free range, we only have a few and we avoid at all costs meat that we don’t know the provenance of.
What is your most popular choice…
Sausages, halloumi, lamb burgers, slow roasted pork or lamb
What is the weirdest request you’ve ever had…
Sausages with a dollop of slow roasted lamb on top – hey, we don’t judge!
What is your favourite dish you offer…
I am very proud of everything that we offer – I know the meat is really high quality, but I also love cooking vegetarian or vegan food – I believe that you should celebrate the ingredients and source the very best you can, and prepare and cook it with love
Something that you would love to offer that isn’t on your menu…
Burgers with locally produced blue cheese -it’s on the way! Tapas, after a trip to the Pyrenees taking in the Basque country, France and Spain we found the most wonderful tapas and I’d love to offer those
Tell us your best food related joke…
What cheese can you use to hide a horse? marscaponi.
What did the cheese say to the mirror? Halloumi
How do you get a bear to move? Camembert
Sprinkles Hire
Name…
Sprinkles hire
Who are you…
Shane and Sian Burgess
How long have you been running…
Since September 2016
What do you do…
Ice cream tricycle serving ice creams and sorbets, not forgetting the choice of sauces and toppings
What makes you stand out from the crowd…
The stunning look and accessories of the tricycle.
What is your most popular choice…
Ice cream flavour- Salted Caramel and Sorbet- has to be the gin!
What is the weirdest request you’ve ever had…
Pedalling the tricycle into the wedding breakfast singing ‘Just one Cornetto’
What is your favourite dish you offer…
With 35 flavours of ice cream to choose from, Ice cream in a cone or tub topped with sauces and toppings!
Something that you would love to offer that isn’t on your menu…
We just love ice cream!
Tell us your best food related joke…
Knock knock,
who’s there?
Ice cream
Ice cream who?
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
Platinum Pancakes Ltd
Name…
Platinum Pancakes Ltd
Who are you…
This is a family business run by myself, Anthony, my wife Xanthe, sister Joanie and Mum. Our newest recruit, Ibrahim is running our second setup, he is a real gent and some people say his pancakes are better than mine!
How long have you been running…
We have been in business since 2012
What do you do…
We make #flippinfantastic sweet and savoury pancakes/crepes from amazing local ingredients.
What makes you stand out from the crowd…
The quality of our ingredients makes the humble pancake sing and the way we make them is a lot of fun.
What is your most popular choice…
The classic, Lemon and sugar.
What is the weirdest request you’ve ever had…
Haha! “Chocolate sauce and egg please”!!!! (Oh, and I’ve been asked for a burger too)
What is your favourite dish you offer…
Apple Crumble Pancake. The apples are from my brother’s garden. “The most appley apples!” . The stewed apple is paired with crumbled biscuit and custard.
Something that you would love to offer that isn’t on your menu…
Some whacky seasonal fillings like spiced pumpkin jam, which are delicious, but nobody is ever brave enough to order!!
Tell us your best food related joke…
Why didn’t the waffle go to the pancake party?… He was a square!!!!
Food Genie
Name…
Hello everyone! We are a mobile event caterer called Foodgenie based in South Littleton in Evesham who specialises in providing unique food vans and top quality street food, mainly fish and chips for private, corporate , caravan sites and village events.
Who are you…
We are a great team made up of owners myself (Vicky) and Rich who is also the The head Chef, and then Chefs Stuart and Anne and assistants Holly, Sam, Alex, Mary, Kerry, Ann- Marie and Hannah – plus invaluable people who work in the wings such as my mum Jackie and our two sons Harvey and Alex!
How long have you been running…
We have been established for 11 years now, where the business has become more of a lifestyle now being a part of people’s weddings and special events with many a story to tell!
What do you do…
Fantastic fish and chips
What makes you stand out from the crowd…
We were lucky enough to start Foodgenie before street trading catering exploded in popularity, we literally had no competitors doing what we were doing, therefore we very quickly became very busy as the new party food option to impress their guests with.
Word spread and we had nearly every caravan site in the area wanting us to provide fish and chips at their site on a Friday evening.
To keep up with demand we bought a fleet of very basic catering trailers, which were very ordinary but did the job! Several years and chip vans later and with the street trading industry now booming and knowing that appearance of this industry had started to evolve very much into the a vintage style and was very much about the look of your cooking unit, in 2017 after years of towing around a little box trailer but amazed the crowd with the speed of its frying output, we purchased a brand new all singing all dancing “Rocket Airstream” fish and chip van.
Our airstream was an instant hit with especially wedding couples as polished and dressed with flowers and bunting it is beautiful! Wedding couples and guests love to have their photo taken in front of it and it always gets positioned in a prime area of the wedding venue.
What is your most popular choice…
To keep in with our company name Foodgenie we like to offer a great menu choice and as Rich is a very experienced chef having worked in top establishments all of his career prior to foodgenie he likes to add as many homemade products such as pies and puddings to our menus. However the traditional freshly cooked lightly battered cod and chips will always be the favourite on our menu.
What is the weirdest request you’ve ever had…
Our strangest request was to take the chip van somewhere to set up and cook for just two people at our normal price but hence we didn’t oblige.
Our strangest booking was a bank holiday Monday Jubilee village event that we thought would be a typical village do, where things just tick over. There was also another caterer going to be there serving burgers and the weather had caused the other events that weekend to be very flat and quiet so we pretty much gathered this would be the same but we didn’t want to let them down so just I went by myself to keep costs down. I got there having nearly burnt my clutch out as it was on top of the steepest large hill I had ever driven up nevermind towed up ! Luckily this was pre Airstream days and I was towing our little converted box trailer so I wasn’t having too many kittens over it.
So I start leisurely setting up in the mindset of I wouldn’t be there that long, chatting with the other caterer all nice and chilled. I then don’t see outside for a bit as I’m getting the kitchen set up and the front hatch is down. The fryers are quite loud and the music is playing outside so I don’t really hear anything else what’s going on outside. Anyway someone pops their head in the door and asks what time I am starting to serve. So I casually say in 5 minutes thinking well I might as well open now and catch the early trade. Well I opened the hatch and the total look of horror and shock was obvious on my face as I saw a lot of people snigger and chuckle . There was only what I could describe as a sea of people queuing hungrily – the biggest queue we had ever had bar none in the whole time we had been trading and I was by myself in the tiniest chip van ever!
Well I must have turned into an octopus as I began cooking and serving like a total maniac and trying not to look at the crowd. I don’t know to this day how I did it, it was all a bit of a blur ! Customers were refilling vinegar and sauce bottles for me and taking orders for me down the queue. I just didn’t stop cooking until I had sold every single bit of food I brought with me.
It was a fantastic event, we still to this day have not done a “village” event that’s ever been close to being that busy and I was just glad it happened when I was 7 years younger than I am now!!
What is your favourite dish you offer…
Fish and chips have always been my favourite food since I was a child, so fish and chips with lots of salt and vinegar and with the fish being taken straight out of the fryer, mushy peas and tartar sauce will always be my favourite dish!
Something that you would love to offer that isn’t on your menu…
I would love to offer a more exclusive menu such as salt baked fish and mussels in a homemade garlic and white wine sauce with chips.
But then I love to serve fun food so I would love to have freshly made donuts, candy floss on a stick – I just love freshly made candy floss and I would love to have a Mr Whippy Ice cream machine! Maybe one day when I have more willpower not to eat any of it!
Tell us your best food related joke…
We always like to hear all the jokes from our customers but the best joke is …….What did the cheese say when it looked in the mirror? ………… Hello me lol – (halloumi hahaha boom!) I also like – if you don’t like fast food…..eat snails haha !
The Whole Hog Pig Roast Company
Name…
Hi all we are the whole hog Pigroast Company
Who are you…
We are a local family run company with myself (Paul or Tubby as most people call me) Jan the wife and Libb our daughter.
How long have you been running…
We’ve been running now for nearly 12 years with the help of some top quality staff members without whom we wouldn’t be where we are today.
What do you do…
We started off with just one roasting machine and now run 4 having expanded from just doing traditional hog roasts to now doing lamb roasts, burgers, sausage, chips, pulled bbq pork, pulled minted lamb as well as sweet and savoury crepes and fresh ground coffee.
What makes you stand out from the crowd…
What makes us stand out from the crowd, well some would say the size of me as apparently I could never hide behind a lamppost, but I reckon I could, no seriously I think we provide a great service, use local produce as much as possible like all our meat and bread products, we love the banter with the clients run a good quality outfit and have held a top five star rating since we have been registered with the EHO
What is your most popular choice…
Most popular choice has to be the pork rolls I would say.
What is the weirdest request you’ve ever had…
The weirdest thing I’ve ever been asked for was when we were doing a hog roast with sweet crepes for a dessert. When it came to the crepes we had a guy, who I must say seemed to have enjoyed quite a quantity of alcohol and wanted a crepe with all of our sweet fillings as well as some pork and crackling. Who was I to argue so the customer got what he wanted and as we looked on in amazement it seemed to go down really well.
What is your favourite dish you offer…
Well that’s a tough one, I eat everything we do including our vegan and vegetarian options but I think I’m going to have to plump for the minted pulled lamb for which we use our home produced lamb.
Something that you would love to offer that isn’t on your menu…
Something I’d like to offer but we don’t is another dessert option churros, I have looked at it several times but it’s quite an investment in the equipment, but who knows one day, watch this space.
Tell us your best food related joke…
Going back to the banter with the clients it always raises a smile and gets the queue laughing when our guys ask the customer if they’d like stuffing, never fails that one.
I’m fairly certain that rather than helping, they have just made your decision a whole lot harder!! (sorry, not sorry!)
If you’re still making your choice, why not come along to our next Wedding Fayre on 4th October, they will all be there and you can sample their amazing dishes for yourself.
Lots of love,
The Wootton Park Team