Private Dining Experience

[Silly Car]

Last weekend we hosted a celebratory dinner for my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday for a total of 14 guests which involved making a new top for the dining table spanning 3400mm x 1000mm and every chair we have in the house.

A mate of mine has recently sold his restaurant and set up lifestyle catering business with Hilda May, his custom built 1967 Citroen HY van, concentrating on running his own life rather than the restaurant running his. Anyway, as part of this new venture, he’s been wanting to provide private dining / kitchen takeovers and we were honoured that he chose us for his baptism of fire!

Canapés

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Smoked Salmon, horseradish on toast

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Tricolore salad on a stick

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[Silly Car]

Starters

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Burrata wrapped in Parma ham

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Rare roast beef filled Yorkshire puddings with horseradish and beef jus

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Classic prawn salad

[Silly Car]

Starters were follow by a gin n tonic palate cleansing sorbet before the mains

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Sea bass with ratatouille veg

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Fillet of beef with peppercorn sauce

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Chicken stuffed with mozzarella

[Mr Moofo]

Looks really good.
We once booked a "Michelin Std Chef" to cook lunch for our clients in South Africa.
It was awful!

Which proves you have to know the chef!

[Silly Car]

Finally dessert!

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French apple and frangipani tart served with condensed milk ice cream

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Lemon Meringue Baked Alaska

There was also handmade brandy snap baskets with fruit and vanilla I re cream (no photos though!)

It was a fab night, the chef thoroughly enjoyed himself although the waitresses said it was just like being back at the restaurant with the stress head!

[Silly Car]

Looks really good.
We once booked a "Michelin Std Chef" to cook lunch for our clients in South Africa.
It was awful!

Which proves you have to know the chef!

We’ve dined for years at his restaurant, got engaged there, had pretty much every significant meal there bar our wedding breakfast (as he just couldn’t accommodate us for private dining).

So yeah, we know him

[Horse]

Looks great!

Go on, scare us, what would the per head price usually be?

[weeksy]

No chips?

[Silly Car]

Looks great!

Go on, scare us, what would the per head price usually be?

This was £45 each with roughly 50% of people having steak/ 25% sea bass / 25% chicken.

No wine included (3 bottles of fizz, 7 bottles of white, three reds). We catered for cheeseboard / after dinner chocolates* / coffee separately

* hand made strawberry ganache in dark chocolate and salted caramel in milk

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[Silly Car]

No chips?

I nearly reported this post (in error) for heresy!

Mains were served with roasted potatoes, carrots, broccoli, buttered Savoy cabbage with bacon and carrot, swede & parsnip mash.

The spuds, cabbage and mash made fabulous bubble n squeak the next day!

[Skub]

Very colourful SC,awesome work and way to posh for simple souls like myself.

[Cousin Jack]

I am now feeling hungry!

Looks amazing, and noo doubt tasted amazing too.

[Mr Moofo]

I do think some triple fried chips could have made for a better experience.

And some mayonnaise ....

[Trinity765]

That all looks very lush and £45 per head is a bargain.

[gremlin]

We did a similar thing for one of our big birthdays (me and the Missus are only 5 days apart in age, so we always have a joint bash) with a chef we'd got to know through wine tasting* evenings. I think there must have been over twenty of us and the chef rocked up with is girlfriend and her mate in tow, served all the drinks, cooked the food, served it and washed up afterwards. I think that was c. £50 a head, which I though twas really good value. Worth doing if you know a chef or can get a good recommendation.



*Get you pissed so you buy loads. The scam bloody works, I tell ya.

[Silly Car]

Yep, sub £50 was a bargain given the amount and quality of the food, I strongly suspect we were given mate's rates as it was their first event of the kind. That or it was priced on ingredients plus a fixed cost for time which brings the per head cost down when compared to dining in a restaurant.

They hand washed and tided everything away before they left as well.

We are already planning a similar event for 8 of us so will report back if the price per head varies dramatically!

Oh, and I knocked this up with some of the left overs

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[gremlin]

Can I just say though....'micro leaves'. WTF?

[Count Steer]

Can I just say though....'micro leaves'. WTF?

Supposed to be more intense flavour. (Nothing to do with the fact that you can crop them more often and charge more. Nope. I think it all started with a growers called Secretts. Seemed to suddenly be all over London and SE restaurant menus - 'Secrett's Leaves'. I heard the shouty bloke from Masterchef was involved with the company but don't know if it's true).

That ^ all looks really for £45/head. Was that mate's rates?

[Silly Car]

That ^ all looks really for £45/head. Was that mate's rates?

I reckon so, although we are in the grim north and I suspect unless the chef is a name, heading towards the ceiling for such an event.

As an aside, the guy who bought my mate’s restaurant turned a well priced Anglo/French/Italian restaurant (think around £40-50 per head for three courses) into a tasting menu restaurant at £70 per head with no concept of their market place, they folded within months - for reference, Tommy Atkinson charges circa £80 ph at House of Tides and he’s got a star (or possibly 2).

As a city we only have one chain restaurant (Nando’s), the rest are independently owned, in respectful competition with each other, and very well priced. A £70 per head restaurant would have to had blown your socks off to survive.

[Count Steer]

That ^ all looks really for £45/head. Was that mate's rates?

I reckon so, although we are in the grim north and I suspect unless the chef is a name, heading towards the ceiling for such an event.

As an aside, the guy who bought my mate’s restaurant turned a well priced Anglo/French/Italian restaurant (think around £40-50 per head for three courses) into a tasting menu restaurant at £70 per head with no concept of their market place, they folded within months - for reference, Tommy Atkinson charges circa £80 ph at House of Tides and he’s got a star (or possibly 2).

As a city we only have one chain restaurant (Nando’s), the rest are independently owned, in respectful competition with each other, and very well priced. A £70 per head restaurant would have to had blown your socks off to survive.

Grim? Why bonnie lad, House of Tides is in N'cassle, it's posh and got a Fenwicks.

Probably changed a bit since I lived there though.