If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen – even if it is in the middle of an open field in Yorkshire! Outdoor catering is big business that attracts plenty of second jobbers, but it takes a certain type of person to thrive.

Lesley Saunt is the Company Director of saunts parties & events. She set up her outdoor catering business in 2005, after completing a degree in catering and working in the events world. Here, she gives us the low-down on the world of outdoor catering:

1. You’ve got to really love what you do. Outdoor catering is much harder than normal catering – but that’s why I enjoy it. The events world is a huge business these days and it really pays to get onsite experience to see if you can stand the pace.

2. We work when you want to party. The nature of outdoor catering means we work mainly at weekends on big events, so my social life has been halved. Some people find the anti-social hours difficult but I get a big kick out of seeing an event through to the end.

3. You need to remember everything, including the kitchen sink! Outdoor catering is essentially catering in an unusual place. This is often at venues that don’t have any facilities, so you have to remember to take everything, from the cooker to the water supply to the teaspoons.

4. You’re asking for a lot more trouble. Because you’re setting up a field kitchen from scratch, of course there’s more potential for things to go wrong. Our cookers stopped working once in the middle of feeding 200 guests at a wedding! But you’ve got to stay calm, rise to the challenge and overcome it – everything was fine in the end.

5. You need to be a people person. I enjoy meeting clients and building up a rapport with them. It’s important to enjoy working with people because that’s how you win the job in the first place – they need to trust you and feel confident that you can fulfil what they want.

6. It’s a creative business. We’ve made a name for ourselves with our canapés, which we present in unusual ways; for a party of tennis players, we served everything on tennis rackets, and for an ex-DJ we served things on records.

7. It helps if you know your food. I put the menus together depending on whether the client has requested a BBQ, a finger buffet, a seated buffet or a three-course dinner. We then work from that, taking into consideration any specific requests. We also advise on wine and drinks.

8. Attention to detail is everything. From the quality of the ingredients, to the standard of the equipment, to the training of my staff – I make sure it’s all at the highest standard. When you have people spending a lot of money with you, it’s the least I would expect.

9. It’s not a career for shirkers… As well as being hugely organised, you need to be extremely hard-working. Not only do you have to cook and feed all the guests – often as many as 300 at a time – but you have to load up the van beforehand, set up a working kitchen at the site, work the 16 hours on site, then take it all away the next day.

10. … it’s worth it though! Just to see the bride and groom happy at the end of the day – after you’ve been on such a long journey with them, it can be hugely rewarding.

For more information about saunts parties & events, visit their website.

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