Ten tips for planning your next summer event: |
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Happy New Year! The weather hasn’t been on our side lately, but here are ten tips to make planning your next summer (and hopefully sunny) event a success. Here’s hoping the weather gods will listen up! 1 – Protect your guests from the elements. Auckland is renowned for its stunning summer days with a touch of thunderstorms. Make sure you arrange plenty of shade if you’re entertaining outside or shelter in the case of rain. Marquees, outdoor umbrellas, and natural shade are all great choices. 2 – Sunscreen and insect repellent are crucial. New Zealand sun is harsh during the days, and our mossies love a feed at dusk. The guests who have forgotten to Slip, Slop, Slap will thank you for this! 3 – Hydration hydration hydration. Play around with fun non-alcoholic beverages to keep your guests well hydrated. Try adding cucumber or citrus to your water or add on one of our LittleWolf homemade lemonade dispensers. 4 – Get inventive. Incorporate floral ice cubes, fun garnishes, and a range of tonics at a gin bar. Provide your guests with some fun, interactive experiences. 5 – Organise plenty of ice. Chill your beverages down in ice bins so that the fridge isn’t open every few minutes (we are yet to meet a person who prefers a warm beer). 6 – Consider a roaming menu. A casual roaming option is a great way to provide delicious food throughout the event without guests having to be seated in one place. 7 – Plan your playlist. You can’t go wrong with some kiwi summer tunes (or some 80’s hits to finish up the evening). 8 – Think about incorporating lounging furniture. If you are dining outside, avoid metal seating that will absorb heat (and burn). Provide plenty of seating, lounging furniture, picnic rugs, or pillows to allow your guests to relax. 9 – Outdoor games. We are all competitive and kids at heart. Think Pétanque, Giant Jenga, or Kubb. 10 – Don’t sweat the small stuff (the only sweating should be from the heat if this rain passes). An event doesn’t have to be perfect and planned down to the second; have fun with your friends and family, and the rest will fall into place. |
Happy entertaining! |
event catering
Introducing… the creative force in our kitchen
He’s cooked for British Prime Ministers at 10 Downing Street, heads of state at the Athens Olympics, Elton John at his country manor, Sting at his villa in Florence, and even Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle. Now he’s back in Aotearoa and cooking for you at your place… meet LittleWolf Executive Chef John Nicholson.
It’s a long way from Buckingham Palace to a paddock in rural Auckland, but LittleWolf head chef John Nicholson says the food can be just as good at either.
“A lot of people think catering is not as nice as restaurant food, but I’m a firm believer that you can bring restaurant-quality food to the middle of a field,” he says.
And he should know. Since he graduated from AUT cooking school around the turn of the millennium, his work has taken him around the world, including behind the stove at some of the most glamorous venues and private residences in Europe.
During his six years with boutique London catering company The Admirable Crichton, which held a Royal Warrant, he frequently cooked for functions at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
After moving to equally high-end caterer Rocket Food, which held the warrant for catering at 10 Downing Street, he cooked for British prime ministers, Burberry fashion house and the Royal Academy of Arts, and travelled the world fuelling the AMG Petronas Formula One team.
It was a chef’s paradise, with no expense spared and premium ingredients flown from across the planet, but in 2014 John decided it was time to leave the flamboyant celebrity parties and glamorous society weddings behind and come home.
“My wife couldn’t cope with me working 90 hours a week,” he says. “We had our baby and I decided to reprioritise and put family first.”
He spent a couple of years teaching but missed being hands-on in the kitchen, so it wasn’t long until he followed his heart back into catering, where he’s now head chef at LittleWolf and sharing his world-class experience with Aucklanders.
“I love the variety that event catering offers and the fact that a lot is bespoke and specific to listening to what the client wants,” he says. “I like that every day is different.”
John’s menus bring together classic and contemporary dishes from myriad cuisines, inspired by his travels around the world. “My style is very diverse,” he says. “I wouldn’t narrow it down to one genre because as caterers we need to please such a wide variety of clientele.”
He’s especially passionate about the kind of events LittleWolf specialises in – medium-scale weddings, parties, events and corporate functions, where his creative team can bring restaurant-quality food to any location and LittleWolf’s event managers can tailor a unique experience for guests.
“A real driver for us, and what sets us apart, is our innovation in the way things are presented. I believe you eat with your eyes first. We add a bit of theatre and showmanship in the way our food is plated.”
John’s a big fan of getting out of the kitchen and adding a little theatre to an event with teppanyaki grill at the table, an oyster bar or another type of live action food station. “It’s really great to have that interaction of a chef shucking oysters and someone pouring champagne at an Oyster and Champagne Bar.”
It’s about giving guests a meal and an experience they wouldn’t get at home.
“Even in our ready-to-eat delivered catering boxes we try to appeal to a more discerning clientele, who want something a bit more exciting for their board meetings, corporate lunches, after-work drinks and client functions. The way food is presented in our customised boxes, and with our on-time delivery guarantee, is all about giving a premium service for the same price you’d pay for ordinary catering.
“There are a lot of caterers in Auckland but most of them are fairly generic. We’ve always aimed to be a bit more creative, a little more contemporary, while remaining competitively priced.
“Whether it’s delivered catering boxes or a wedding or special event, I’m happy to write bespoke menus if there’s something you want that you can’t see on our menu. Let us know and we’ll work together to make it better than you could have imagined.”
Managing events responsibly
Keeping our guests and teams safe has always been a priority for event managers and caterers. The last three months has shown how important this part of our job is.
While we may be experts at managing food safety, alcohol and physical hazards, it’s fair to say epidemiology didn’t feature in many Health and Safety plans before March 2020! Suddenly we needed to learn about viral spread and contagion and understand rapidly evolving advice and regulations while creating and documenting covid-specific processes and policies, implementing these and communicating them with staff, clients and vendor partners. All while managing postponements, cancellations, guest count changes and travel restrictions.
Thankfully, the worst is behind us and in level one restrictions have been relaxed or lifted. Now our responsibility is playing our part to make sure NZ doesn’t take a single step backwards in the fight against covid-19. Here are some things we’ve learned and how we’ll be managing events responsibly to keep everyone safe.
- Guest and event safety is the shared responsibility of vendors, venues, clients and the guests themselves
- There will often be a spectrum of opinions on the level of risk among clients, guests and staff
Before events we will
- Provide clients with our on-event covid policy and a one pager to pass onto guests listing etiquette for safe events
- Ask if any guests have tested positive for covid-19 at any time, have arrived from overseas within 14 days of the event, have any cold, flu or covid-19 symptoms or should be self-isolating for any reason at the time of the event . If yes, we’ll ask for more details and reserve the right to ask these guests not to attend.
- Train and brief our staff on our processes, including frequent hand-washing
- Ensure any sick staff stay at home
- Speak with the venue and other suppliers to make sure we’re supporting their policies and they’re aware of ours
- Commit to the NZ Events Sector Voluntary Code
At events we will
- Ensure the venue displays contact tracing QR codes
- Sanitise surfaces such as bar tops, door handles etc
- Make hand sanitiser freely available
- Have more bins available so guests can easily dispose of used napkins or tissues
At events we ask that guests
- Don’t share glasses or cutlery
- Don’t make physical contact with staff or speak too closely into their face
- Don’t replace any food onto platters, shared plates or food stations
- Sneeze and cough into a tissue, or into their elbow and away from people
- Stay out of the kitchen area
For our delivered catering we have
- Updated our dispatch process to include no food handling other than by chefs and increased frequency of cleaning & sterilisation of dispatch area during shifts
- Created new process for drivers including start and end of day process of sterilising vehicle steering wheels, shift levers and door handles
- Started pre-bagging and sealing cutlery and napkins in paper bags
- One driver allocated to a vehicle per day
Some of these actions might change as the situation in NZ changes and we’ll always listen to our clients and be ready to do more if necessary to meet their health and safety policies or just to provide peace of mind so they can enjoy their wedding or event without thinking about covid for a few hours!