The team at Spitting Pig Essex were so excited to cater for Nick and Gemma’s wedding. They were taking their vows in a beautiful church only three miles away from Gemma’s parents’ home, this was where the reception was being held, in their beautiful garden in the Ardleigh countryside. Such an idyllic setting for the perfect English Country Wedding.
We arrived on site early to get a head start, the day was going to be super busy for us! We were asked to provide a hog roast with all the trimmings for the wedding breakfast and then an evening BBQ. As usual, for weddings we had a check list for the whole day, we find that this makes for a stress free day and nothing is forgotten or overlooked, it’s the smallest of details that make a perfect wedding.
The first thing as usual is to the get the hog roast Ardleigh cooking, once the pig is turning and cooking to perfection its time to prepare the rest of the meal. For this wedding we were asked to provide large sharing bowls of salads on each table, so we had twelve bowls of each salad to prepare. The Bride and Groom opted for a very tasty summer menu, fresh green leaf salad with cucumber, cress and radish to add a little spice. Fresh homemade coleslaw and tomato and mozzarella salad with basil infused oil and cracked black pepper, along with new potatoes in butter and fresh mint, seasoned to perfection.
For their vegetarian guests we made fresh onsite, individual asparagus tartlets with pesto, baby tomatoes, mozzarella and black olives. Delicious! Whilst the catering team were busy in the kitchen the waitressing staff were getting to work on laying the tables and setting up the tea and coffee station, everything looked so pretty.
Before we knew it, the time had whizzed by and the guests started to arrive back after the ceremony. As they enjoyed glasses of bubbles in the glorious sunshine we set to work on carving the hog roast Ardleigh ready for their 4pm breakfast. We had spoken with their usher and he was going to announce that the food was ready, he also arranged for two tables to come and get their hog at one time, as this makes for fast and easy serve. The whole meal went down a treat, so many guests came out to commend us on taste and quality, we were overjoyed with the feedback…….. but what would they say about our BBQ?!
After a few guests had had their fourth plate of food, we cleared the tables ready for the speeches. There was no rest for us, we quickly and quietly cleared away and cleaned all of our kitchen ready for the next batch of food.
The BBQ menu that was decided upon was, Cumberland sausages with fried onions, beef burgers, chicken skewers, vegetable skewers and tasty Halloumi Burgers with a tangy homemade red pepper relish. All of the meat that we provide is from our local butcher. The quality is fabulous, and the guests agreed. One very merry guest loved the sausages so much he was contemplating putting two in his pocket for “later”. For the burgers we also provided cheese slices, lettuce and sliced tomatoes, as well as mayo, tomato ketchup and burger sauce. This was a massive win for the youngsters among the wedding party. We had fluffy dog rolls for the juicy sausages, along with fried onions and American style mustard. The vegetable skewers were sprinkled lightly with Italian herbs to add to the fresh flavour. We know that the vegetarians were very happy.
The whole day went along so smoothly and the food was received with such good feedback. A big high five to the whole SP ESSEX Team.
Hog Roast Essex