Behind The Scenes With An Event Planner: Alison Price Catering
Unlike most planners, my background isn’t in catering, or floristry, or venue management. With that in mind, I decided to start a behind the scenes blog series to see what happens at all the different components of building an event.
For the last two days, I’ve been at one of the longest standing catering companies in the business, Alison Price & Co. As one of the industry’s most reputable caterers, do AP actually live up to their reputation, and how do they insure the quality which they are known for?
Well, from my two days of experience, it starts with impeccably organised systems in every aspect of what they do. From the fridges to the meeting notes, everything is methodical and logical to a level which the military would be proud of. I spent some time in the kitchen, pretending and I mean strongly pretending, to be a chef. It was amazing to watch the team wiz around at a speed I could never keep up with and the precision that went into every detail meant that anything that wasn’t being mashed up was beyond me. If you had the fig jam at the event that night, you’re welcome.
I was really impressed with the level of creativity that AP are able to produce, maybe I was a bit blind to it before but this was new to me. Watching the chefs create dishes for an intimate dinner with the theme “sustainability” was fascinating. Nothing was off limits, out of reach, or too complex. Oh and it obviously tasted amazing. Despite the pressure they’re under, everyone remained super calm, and there was still time for a laugh and joke.
The porters are, as porters often are, incredibly modest about their part in the success of an event, but everything was prepped and checked into a van and into the British Museum before you’d know they’d even left. As I’m always managing the event from front of house, I’ve never seen a kitchen be set up, so to see a satellite kitchen built in 11 mins was incredible. The final preparations were made to the canapes and service, and hey presto, drinks reception underway.
In summary, Alison Price absolutely deserve the reputation they’ve spend so many years building. The food is impeccable at every possible point, and creativity skills are next to none.
You won’t be seeing me on Masterchef just yet though…
Thanks to: Richard Cubbin, Rosanna Hollis, Ryan Stafford, Anna Peterson and the whole AP Team!
Stay tuned for the next behind the scenes instalment.
