The Benefits of Matcha
Matcha tea has a long and distinguished history in the East, spanning early Chinese Dynasties all the way to Zen Buddhist Monks in Japan.
Tour catering companies award Winners and Losers!
So….. The TPi Event award for favourite tour catering company went to…. someone else! OK, OK, so Red Radish (the UK’s fastest growing crew catering company) LOST! That’s right, we didn’t win the award, but to be honest we were excited and chuffed to have even made the shortlist alongside great, established UK caterers like Eat to the Beat, Sarah’s Kitchen and Popcorn in the first place. As usual, Eat to the Beat (Global Infusion Group – GIG) won best caterer, which was no surprise after their excellent thirty-year service to the touring and crew catering industry. Sadly we couldn’t make the actual awards ceremony on the night as we knew we wouldn’t win we were unloading our catering truck into an arena-touring gig with Live Nation in Oslo, Norway on the same evening.
We heard it was a great event though and as Red Radish goes from strength to strength, winning festival after festival we are sure our time will come. So from one great caterer to another, well done Eat to the Beat and watch our lads because we’re on your tail!
Thanks also, by the way to everyone who voted for us. Your cheques are in the post!
Email [email protected] or call +44 (0)7532 427033 if we can help you with some festival, tour or crew catering.
| in Crew
Red Radish secure another great 2015 Festival – Secret Garden Party
Despite being on a twenty hour ferry crossing between Arena tour catering gigs in Rotterdam and Norway, the wonders of satellite communications means we have just received a great email letting us know that Red Radish has today been confirmed as the back-stage crew and artist caterer for SECRET GARDEN PARTY 2015. The devil is always in the detail (and these guys certainly plan well) so it is no surprise that is has taken a couple of months of meetings, negotiations and going back and forth with menus before we finally got today’s decision.
As a “VERY SERIOUS CATERING COMPANY” we are really pleased to be involved in what Secret Garden Bill as “A SERIOUS PARTY” and we literally can’t wait to spend the last two weeks of July catering for everyone at this exciting festival in their super-beautiful Cambridgeshire location.
The festival kicks off on Thursday 23rd July and finishes on Sunday 26th July. The venue is Mill Hill Field, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire and if you aren’t lucky enough to have a ticket, but have serious hospitality, desire or chef skills then drop us a line with your CV because we will soon be recruiting festival staff for this and a whole host of exciting other summer festivals. – [email protected]
Wonderful Events whilst tour catering in wonderful Romania
The latest adventure for the Red Radish tour catering team has seen our truck and mobile kitchen head off on the (very) long road east to a wonderful arena in Bucharest, Romania. It has to be said that it was with some trepidation that we packed our flight cases and sent off on the 2000 plus kilometer journey from our mainland European base in France. The weather had been kind in Cannes and we knew we were heading for some snow on what was just about our deepest catering trip into one of the old East European iron-curtain countries. Our ultimate destination and the first venue on this leg of the tour was Romexpo which first opened in 1961, and boy were we excited.
After a seemingly effortless trip through Italy, Slovenia and Hungary things started to get a little more complicated once we hit the somewhat bleak European border town of Timisoara. Whilst there was the obvious benefit of Romania joining the EU and us not having to deal with a laborious carnet, there were still the inevitable questions and queues as we explained where we were heading and why we had an entire catering operation and kitchen in the back of our van! Once through the border and on to the somewhat potholed roads we were absolutely amazed by the beautiful surroundings, fantastic scenery and lovely people. We loved Bucharest, the venue was great and the tour promoter, the aptly named ‘Wonderful Events SRL’, turned out to be one of the most helpful production crews we have ever worked with on tour. They simply could not do enough to help as we installed our mobile kitchens and set about finding our way around the Bucharest markets and cash & carry. It was a great gig and we can’t wait to go back and cater (or holiday) there again!
Mulţumesc mult Alexandra, Dan and everyone at Wonderful Events!
PS: Also, to set the record straight, in ten days we saw no more than half a dozen stray dogs, not one gypsy and never got robbed once!
Happy to be back Crew Catering at Lovebox, Wilderness & Somersault 2015!
We are delighted to have just been re-booked for this year’s crew and artist catering for the 2015 Mama Group Festivals. Last year was our first at Wilderness, Global Gathering, Lovebox and the exciting new Somersault Festival. Our journey with Mama saw our crew and catering trucks travel from one of Inner London’s most wonderful parks, down to the glorious Cotswolds and on to the beautiful wilds of Devon, and it has to be said that we loved every minute. Having won the contract from their existing catering company Eatopia back in the spring of 2014, it was great to know such an established festival company were so pleased with our service and crew food that they did not even bother asking anyone else to quote for their catering this year. We reckon you can’t get much more of an accolade than that. Our hardworking team are all delighted and absolutely can’t wait to cater for their lovely crew again this summer. – Email [email protected] or call 07532 427033 if we can help you!
TPi Awards 2015 – We made the shortlist for the Favourite Tour Industry Catering Company
2013 saw us pick up one of the most prestigious catering contracts in the industry, the European tour for Cirque du Soleil which got our production team and chefs packing our road-cases and off touring arenas all over Europe with both Dralion and Quidam. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, in early 2014 Red Radish picked up the backstage crew and artist catering contracts for the super cool Mama and Co festivals, Lovebox, Global Gathering, Somersault and the award winning Wilderness in Oxfordshire. So imagine how chuffed we all were when we found out that we had been nominated for a TPi award for Favourite International Tour Caterer. All the big names were on the list of nominees including Eat to the Beat, Global Infusion Group, Eat Your Hearts Out and even the Cirque du Soleil North American caterer Spectrum.
It was a great surprise and the perfect end to a wonderful year of work with exciting new clients and our old favourites Shangri-La and The Common at Glastonbury, plus of course Hampton Court Palace, Electric Picnic and Carfest to name but a few. Things could not seemingly get any better and then… we found out that we had been voted on to the renowned TPi awards SHORTLIST alongside established industry FAVOURITES like Aggreko, Popcorn Catering, Gallowglass and Rock-It Cargo, plus world famous artists including Ed Sheeran and One Direction. How lucky are we!!!
| in Latest News
Festival Catering out in the Wilderness of Cornbury Park
We have to admit that (maybe because of our age!) The Wilderness Festival at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire was quite possibly the 2014 crew-catering gig that we were looking forward to the most. Production catering at Glastonbury’s Shangri-La plus Lovebox, Global Gathering, and about a dozen others had been great, but there is only so much bass our ears can take these days and to be on location in such a tranquil setting was a real treat.
Wilderness had been billed as bit of a Poshstock for food lovers and whilst we are definitely not posh we are generally always prepared to walk over hot-coals for a good bit of grub! That coupled with some great grown-up music meant it was definitely one for us and it certainly did not disappoint on any level. It was our last festival of new series of four from new supplier Mama and Co and we were determined to go out with a bang after the success of Lovebox, Global Gathering and newbie festival Somersault down in Devon. Mama had been great to work with, so to end up in such a beautiful setting catering for the likes of stars such as Gregory Porter and Burt Baccarat (photographed below with Lucy Brown) made it a bit of a dream job.
Over the years we have been lucky enough to cook for a huge list celebs across a massive spectrum of legends including the likes of Sir Cliff Richard, The Beach Boys and Liza Minnelli through to Hollywood superstars including Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Robert Redford, and then more current heroes like Nas and David Guetta. In fact, you would never quite believe what we have seen on some of our more demanding artistic dressing room riders but being at Wilderness was definitely one of our special memories of a wonderful summer and one that we can’t wait to repeat in 2015!
| in Festivals
The First Crew Catering Company to survive Shangri-La!
After just two years crew and artist catering at Glastonbury the crew and chefs of Red Radish are proud to say that we feel like part of the Shangri-La furniture and can’t wait to get back for hat-trick of festivals in 2015. Here is what one of the key creators had to say about our catering and general performance….
‘A Big shout out to Wayne and Louise from Red Radish, our first crew caterers EVER (and we are talking right the way back to Vagueness here) not to break on site. Must be due to their enormous warmth and big heartedness – they have generosity of spirit par excellence. Plus the food was really nice. And the coffee. And the banter. BIG THANKS to all their lovely and quite fit crew too, who took care of our motley family of misfits in great style. See you next year we hope xxx’
Festival Crew and Artist Catering for Shangri-La at Glastonbury
Some would say that there are possibly easier places to cut your festival catering ‘teeth’ than Glastonbury’s infamous Shangri-La. In fact, no caterer has ever returned and many have literally sunk head-first into the infamous Somerset mud along the way. Robin Collings from Shangri-La first contacted us back in 2012 and explained how he had heard good things about Red Radish from the guys at Block9 who we had catered for on a couple of events on-off festivals. Robin explained how they were looking for crew and artist catering over a month long period. Numbers would be around 500 per service and they wanted a good Full-English breakfast option followed by some great lunch and dinner choices. Queues had to be kept to a minimum and the food needed to be hearty and substantial as their production team worked incredibly hard, especially during the build and the break.
Red Radish needed to supply a complete field-kitchen including everything from the ovens through to the knives and forks and even the kitchen-sink(s)! They were obviously worried after the problems they had suffered with catering companies in the past, but our organised approach and excellent references gave them the confidence to award us the gig for 2013 and guess what?…….. We went back in 2014 as well. In Debs Armstrong’s very own words Red Radish were the first crew catering company EVER to not break on site!
Being awarded the Cirque du Soleil European Tour Catering Contract
It was June 4th 2013 and we had literally just arrived in Glastonbury Festival to start setting up our mobile kitchens for a very busy crazy month long crew catering contract for the iconic Shangri-La. Obviously ‘unusual’ things are an everyday occurrence at Glasto (and particularly Shangri-La!) but it was more than a little dreamy when the mobile rang and we were greeted by a French-Canadian voice asking if Red Radish were interested in tendering for some tour catering work with the world famous Cirque du Soleil. Yes, the world’s biggest circus had checked us out and was asking us to give them a proposal for a quick three-weeks of catering for an approaching DRALION tour leg in France! We were unbelievably proud to say the least! The French venues were stadiums in Nice, Amneville and Nantes and the start date for the catering was to be just a few days after we finished at Glastonbury.
We had first seen the Cirque du Soleil at Battersea Power Station in London absolutely eons ago; we think it was probably Alegria but can’t be sure, as it was that far in the past! What we do remember however was the sheer size of the production and also the incredible and unbelievable talent of the performers involved. It was a breathtaking organisation and the thought of working with them was just incredible.
We knew it would certainly be our most challenging project to date and that their current caterer, Eat to the Beat’ were almost certainly one of the most established tour catering companies in the industry. We were determined to give it our best shot and grab the opportunity with both hands, even if the tour was only were going to be feeding their production team and artists for a quick three-week experience, AND grab it by hands we certainly did! The initial very short tour went so well that it turned into a long-term contract and Red Radish are still on the road with Cirque du Soleil some eighteen months later!
Two simultaneous tours, eight European arenas and still counting……
