Wow, what a day -summer sunshine and no sign of rain. We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the school year and a busy few days in Kent. Ramsgate Spitting Pig has been all over the place in the past few weeks – all around the coast from Whitstable to Margate, Broadstairs and even a delightful weekend in Deal. But the weather for our garden party meant the whole team was on a high for the whole day.
Getting to the gardens early and setting up was a real joy with the fine weather. We all know the smell of crackling and sizzle of meat spitting on the fire is a universal treat, but when the sky is blue and the sun shines it adds a little extra sparkle. I even caught myself whistling – which was a first this summer.
Setting up the party has never been as much fun, some of the kids helped carry some of the equipment and held the poles while we put up the gazebo. They were fascinated by the suckling pig we brought out the back of the van – we even had a small audience whilst we prepped the machines and blasted up the cookers. I’m not sure I’ve had an audience before whilst setting up!
The kids continued to watch us as we got the pig spitted and prepped the barbeques for the chicken and ribs, in fact I think most of them wanted to join in – but health and safety comes first, unfortunately. This was a big family occasion in a rather grand garden so the surroundings were marvellous, although the number of dogs around after a free treat ended up being a full time job – we had to have eyes in the back of our head to prevent the food getting picked off.
Occasionally on these kinds of jobs we are just in the background serving food and then packing up at the end of the day, but most of the time we are treated like guests at the event. People really went out of their way to ensure we were all okay and likewise we kept the food rolling and the guests made short work of the roast. In fact it was a perfect day and the guests finished just about everything by the end of the evening and that makes clearing up and going home that bit easier – which when the weather’s nice is always a bonus. Once cleaned and packed up I dropped off the guys and headed back home. An early night awaited, as the next morning was an even earlier start and bigger event – no rest for this catering team and roll on the good weather.