Read time - 10 mins
When it comes to the wedding industry so much of what goes into making the day happen is never seen or spoken about. One such aspect which is super important is the food! It comes out on time, immaculately presented and tastes delicious and then you get on with the celebrations, right? But have you ever thought about what goes on behind the scenes? Linda and Colleen from A Passionate Pear were kind enough to answer a bunch of questions (there are a lot) that I sent them with thoughtful, honest answers along with a bit of humour.
This conversation covers everything from how early food starts arriving for the wedding, to how they design their menu and what happens long after you’ve finished your meal and are back on the dance floor. There is also a funny story that involves a tea towel!
Do you mind giving a brief introduction about yourselves?
We first met as fresh faced 18 year olds in the 80's when we started working at the Westpac Bank in Warrnambool.
Marrying in our mid 20's and starting our families saw us move to different locations, but we always shared a love of food and feeding people.
We both ran our own successful Catering Companies whilst raising our children before having a break to explore other avenues.
We always talked about doing something together but we were never in the same location. When Linda and her husband Sam sold their farm and moved back to Warrnambool, it created the perfect opportunity, being in our 50's, it was now or never!
Where are you based?
We are home based Caterers, working out of our own kitchens in Warrnambool.
How far do you travel?
Given our food is transported in a coolroom, we don't like to travel more than an hour away. We're alo conscious of our staff having to travel home late in the dark on country roads.
Do you have a commercial kitchen at home? Where is your work space?
We don't have a Commercial Kitchen, our kitchens are generous, with Linda actually having 2 kitchens.
When does the food start rolling in for an event and when do you start prepping?
Typically if we were Catering for a Saturday Wedding, we would start receiving produce from the Tuesday and start prepping from the Wednesday.
Do you prep everything yourself or do you have staff to help?
We do all the prep ourselves in our own kitchens. We do up a prep spreadsheet, then divide it half, playing to our strengths.
How big is your fridge and oven in your work space? I just know my fridge doesn’t hold much when it’s Christmas and you have a heap of people here so I can’t imagine what yours looks like.
We operate using 2 domestic 900 ovens and 1 600 oven so needless to say, our ovens get a fair workout!! Between the 2 kitchens we have 7 fridges and 2 freezers. In the days before our weddings, we hire a coolroom for extra storage and transportation/refrigeration on the day.
How much equipment do you take with you to an event?
The coolroom is packed with all our prepped food and taken with us to the event. When we have assessed the venue, we let our clients know the equipment we require from the hire company, eg trestles, roll top ovens and warming ovens. Anything else we could possibly need to put together, serve the menu and clean up, is taken from our own kitchens.
Do you supply wait staff?
We do supply our own wait staff. We are very blessed to have an amazing team made up of family and friends who work with us and are every bit as passionate about the success of the event as we are.
What vehicles do you drive to an event? Fridge van? How many vehicles to get all the food and your staff there and back?
We always like to arrive at the venue nice and early, so we drive our own cars. Lindas husband Sam tows the coolroom for us, he's the slowest driver when he's towing but it always arrives perfectly in order!
We're allowed to tow it home when it's empty.
Our staff coordinate a carpool, so depending on the number of staff required, that could be 2 - 3 cars.
It always amazes me what comes out of a tent that sometimes just has a few trestles and maybe a hose and a make shift sink! How much equipment do you need to pull off a 100 person wedding? Or is it dependant on what’s being served?
Our marquee requirements are pretty simple. To pull off a sit down banquet wedding of up to 150 guests, we only need 6 trestles, 2 roll top ovens and 1 warming oven. A tank of water with a tap/hose is a luxury, otherwise it means all the dishes come home to wash!! We supply the crockery/utensils required to serve the menu, and we ask that the client supply the crockery & cutlery.
Your favourite dish to prepare and cook?
Favourite dish to serve - at the moment we're having a lot of fun making spice pastes and creating some delicious curries for our home meals.
Your favourite dish to eat?
Our favourite dish to eat is anything that someone else has gone to the trouble to cook for us.
Would you rather sweets or savoury? And salad or veg?
We both have a preference to savoury food, although Colleen does enjoy creating some nice dessert options. We actually like both a salad or a veg dish, and try to incorporate both into our Banquet Menu.
Do you stick with specific menus or are you open to doing anything?
We do have a suggested Banquet and Cocktail Menu that we give our clients as a guide, but we love getting together and tailoring a menu just for them. There's nothing worse than the same guests at different weddings catered for by the same Caterer and eating the same food time and time again. Our first wedding together was a Greek Banquet for 160, that we put together with our client. We practised the dishes so many times in the leadup, that we couldn’t look at, let alone eat Lamb Sharwarma for a long time.
What things do you consider when creating new menu items?
When we're testing a new recipe, we just like to make sure it can be prepped in advance, and that it doesn't lose any flavour, tenderness or visual when it's reheated.
Then it's tested on our families, who are very forthcoming with their critique, it's like being judged on Masterchef.
Would you rather cater for a cocktail reception or a sit down meal?
We love either a cocktail or a sit down wedding, both are a great option and have their advantages and disadvantages for the Catering Crew. Generally the venue speaks towards one or the other, so we actually love both. It allows us to create the perfect food for the venue.
How much time do you need at an event before it starts? I’ve seen people stressing over where the caterer/band etc is because they aren’t there when they think they need to be. I always assure them you guys do this every weekend and know how much time you need!
How early we arrive can depend on the facilities we have to work with. If we are working remotely in a marquee, we like to do a visit the day before, just to make sure all the equipment we need has been delivered, and to set up the kitchen so that on the day, we're ready to go.
And then on the day, we like to arrive a good 3 hours prior to Canape service. And we always make sure we arrive before our staff have left so that if we've forgotten anything (despite lists, lists and more lists, still a regular occurance), they can bring it.
I’d imagine you try and cook with the seasons in mind. Do you have any local suppliers or is that too tricky?
Like the Italians, we are very passionate about using seasonal produce, flavour wise, there's nothing better than produce harvested at its peak. Where possible, we support local, some particular favourites being the Union Station Beef and Mitch's Preserves
What do you think works best for a wedding to have everybody fed and happy? Canapés, food coming out later? Dessert or no dessert? Grazing tables?
Call it old fashioned, but we love nothing better than to start off a wedding with round after round of lovely Canapes, it just sets the scene. A glass of bubbles, and some easy to eat bite sized morsels being passed around, could it get any better!
We also love sending our bridal party off for their photo session with a box of the Canapes being served at the reception in their absence, so they're not missing out on anything.
If Canapes are not being served until the bridal party return, some nice scattered cheese platters are a great option to get the party started.
We are not fans of the grazing table! While they can look amazing before they've been attacked, they get messy pretty quickly. Not to mention set up duration, leaving food over exposed to heat and flies.
Dessert is an absolute must, once again, perhaps a bit old fashioned, but we think it is still expected.
We love using the cake as dessert, and always serve it up with coulis and cream. So much love and expense goes into the cake, it's always a shame not to use it.
What timeline works well from canapés through to dinner and dessert? Sometimes things blow out (speeches etc) so any tips there?
In terms of timelines, we are happy to work within our clients timeframe to make sure their night runs exactly as they imagine. We are a bit strict on the stand up cocktail option. This scenario needs a good few hours (preferably before speeches) uninterrupted to allow as much food as possible is passed around. Speeches do tend to run over time, and once the dancing starts, it's very hard to get food circulated.
How long does it take to pack down/clean up?
Packdown actually happens pretty quickly. We have 2 human dish washers who spend the night picking up after us, cleaning and packing as they go, they're a well oiled machine. If we can't locate something, they know exactly where it is. Once the wait staff have cleared, we all pitch in and wash up (assuming we've got running water).
How late are you usually at the wedding for after service has finished? I’m sure you end up home late! Do you end up with a work hangover? I’m absolutely exhausted after an event and feel hungover without even having a drink.
We stay until our job is done, so depending on the menu style, it can be as early as 10pm or as late as midnight. Our favourite part of the night is just after the main meal has been served to the guests. That's when we serve dinner to our staff, band, photographers, bar crew and anyone else needing dinner. And that's when the champagne and wine comes out, a celebration of another job well done. We're always exhausted, but generally on a high to have pulled off another event. At the end of the day everyone is in awe of what the other does, there is so much setting up and packing down for the hire company and stylists, we all compliment each other and we love playing our part in creating memorable days.
Any hacks for us home cooks?
Hacks for home cooks, that's funny, we're only home cooks ourselves! Biggest tip though, if you can read a recipe, you can cook. Cook with love and try to enjoy the process, then the proof will definitely be in the pudding.
What is one thing people should know about wedding catering that they might not know?
The effort that goes into preparing, packing, traveling remotely, working in less than ideal makeshift kitchens, then serving dinner to a lot of people in not a lot ot time is a massive task.
With weddings comes a high expectation for a faultless service and it's stressful, even when nothing goes wrong.
We don't sleep when we get home, instead we go over every aspect again in our minds. And then when we wake up in the morning, there's all the vehicles to unpack, and a lot of dishwashing!!
Any funny/horror stories? You don’t have to share if you’d rather keep these ones to yourself!
We grow all our own herbs, so we have them readily available for picking at the last minute so they're always nice and fresh.
Recently on a country drive to a job, we were discussing each course to make sure we had everything packed (probably a bit late for that discussion), when we realised we forgot the mint. As luck would have it, we were driving past the country school where Linda used to work and remembered they had a kitchen garden. So we drove in and soon saw mint was plentiful so we helped ourselves.
Panic mode sets in when the time comes to get all our banquet proteins evenly heated in time for service. There is always some crazy moments shuffling hot trays around roll top ovens from top shelves to bottom shelves to warming ovens and around and around and around. Recently we accidentally left a tea towel used for handling the trays on the tray, setting it on fire in the back of the oven. We managed to get it out without compromising the food, only for it to land on the gas bottle! Quick thinking from our dish washer who threw a bucket of water over it to put out the fire, lucky, given we had only served 10% of the guests. The burning, extinguished tea towel made a mess on the cement floor so we had a bit of scrubbing and cleaning to do before we finished that night.
What these ladies do is nothing short of amazing! If you ever have a chance to peer into the little catering tent and then sit down and enjoy the meal that appears in front of you, your mind will be blown!
A big thank you to Colleen and Linda for taking the time to do this. I really appreciate it and I hope you found it as interesting and entertaining as I did.
To find out more about A Passionate Pear and get in touch with them you can find their website here or follow them on Instagram here
All images by Kylie Farley and Alexis Stone or via A Passionate Pear’s Instagram