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Hampton Court Palace Festival kicked off in true style last night as Liza Minnelli and her tour crew wowed the crowd at what has to be one of the most stunning event venue locations in London. Hundreds of guests picniced in the beautiful grounds as they literally prepared to ‘eat to the beat’, and despite the UK weather trying to ruin the party everything went exactly as the planners expected, and the crowd loved every minute right from the very first beat of this long standing London music festival. As well as having to cater for the great crew from PWR Events and their entire production team, Red Radish are also in charge of the artist catering for Ms Minnelli (and the rest of bands and artists) and her entourage at this ten night music extravaganza. Feeding tricky artist can sometimes be a challenge but Liza and her crew knew exactly what they wanted to eat and her Stage Manager, Matt Berman even gave Red Radish a mention in the ‘thank you fax’ he sent to PWR the next morning. Praise like that is hard to beat!

Our specialist mobile kitchen catering marquee sits nestled nicely in the heart of the Royal Palace next to the Royal Tennis Court. Tennis has been played at Hampton Court for almost as long as the Palace has stood there. Present knowledge suggests the first court was built in Tudor times by Cardinal Wolsey in the early 1500’s and it is one of the only courts in the world catering for spectators. We feel very lucky to have been chosen by PWR as the caterer for the crew and artists at this wonderful location and simply cannot wait for tonight’s artist Jools Holland who apparently has a couple of special guests who know EXACTLY what they want to eat!

Was Chef Lucy that mean? Of course she wasn’t and it is safe to say that the clients absolutely loved the food and as they enthused at every dish, Lucy and I marvelled at how easy it was to load the dishwasher as our wonderful private clients sent back eight courses worth of totally empty plates.  The Provençal villa they had rented was magical; the table spectacular and needled to say ‘Chef Lucy’ and Red Radish had come up trumps once again with the catering. Yet more delighted Red Radish clients with the added bonus (for me) that as part a recently implemented new drive (by me!) to keep our cooking standards at the same gastronomically high levels I had managed to enjoy at least a spoonful (or three) of every delicious course and all in my official capacity as Chef’s assistant and taster.

The drive back along the A8, looking out to Cannes was a joy and before we knew it we were back at Villa Aurita (our French Riviera Bed and Breakfast) sipping a glass of our favourite rosé on the terrace from UK owned winery Chateau Léoube. It had been hardwork but we had enjoyed every minute of it. Boy oh boy do I love my job (and Chef Lucy!)

Check out our Provençal taster menu here.

I absolutely LOVE food and the great thing about running a catering company between London and the French Riviera is that Chef Lucy (as she now likes to be called after watching too much Gordon Ramsey!) constantly gets an excuse to cook with the very best ingredients available, whilst I just hang around the kitchen in my capacity as the official ‘Red Radish Taster’. I was therefore obviously delighted when a client looking for a private villa chef recently Googled ‘French Riviera Catering Company’ and ended up contacting Red Radish about creating them a ‘French Taster Menu’ for a birthday party at their beautiful rental villa in St Paul de Vence.

The thought of eating I mean serving such delicacies as Pan-Fried Fois Gras and hand-dived scallops in their shells set my taste buds tingling to almost Philharmonic proportions.  It was as much as I could do to concentrate whilst typing up Lucy’s delicious taster menu as she constantly and rather meanly reminded me not to get too excited because the catering was for a clients birthday party and not actually for me. That’s right; I could choose the wine, walk around the wonderful Forville Market in Cannes picking the best produce money could buy, but I was not actually going to be allowed to sit down and enjoy any of it! Surely she could not be that mean, could she?

Why not find out here….