RAF Leeming Families Day
The opportunity
Myself and Danni have strong ties to the RAF as I am a veteran and Danni is still serving. Around May time we got a call from one of Danni’s friends who is stationed at RAF Leeming, and she asked us if we could provide the catering for up to 3000 people for their 15 year anniversary families day. Danni popped her head around the corner and asked can we cater for 3000 Lol? Which I replied let's find out!
With that the planning had started and we were planning menus and logistics.
What we delivered
This is the biggest lamb cook we’ve done to date, 8 lamb frames took some serious skill and attention to cook. It was a constant process of stoking the fire adjusting the height, the angle & regular basting.
The journey from our HQ was long, it took us around 5 1/2 hours so we travelled up the night before and set up the frames, it was around 1900 before we got finished. We stayed over the night before in a local village and after a quick bite and a well deserved beer we didn’t get into bed until around 0000 with a 0200 get up.
We arrived on site at 0300, the fires were lit & the Lambs were on by 0400. Families were arriving 1230 so we had to be ready.
We cooked 500 Kielbasa Sausages & 100kg of Patatas Bravas, 50kg of our signature pink cabbage 1000’s of flat breads it was a mammoth event! We got great feed back on the visual impact of our setup which was amazing. We had lots of great comments on the food which was nice to hear.
The Menu
Mains - Served to Share:
- Authentic Shredded Lamb Al Asador
- Smoked Kielbasa Sausage - Brioche Bun
- Coal Fired & Scooped Butternut Squash
- Pan Roast Patatas Bravas, Smoked Tomato, Garlic Aioli
Accompaniments:
- Mint Salsa Verde
- Smoked Garlic & Herb Labneh
- Harissa Honey Sauce
- Pink Cabbage & Heritage Carrot Slaw
- Toasted Flatbreads
The Outcome
A brutal event of sleep deprivation, there was some serious hours put in. Some serious movement of equipment, wood & meat! Was it a challenge yes, but we smashed it! It was the first time our branded event shelter was on show, the first time our logo was visible in the wild & the first time people were able to properly get a feel for what we do in real life and not just on social media.
We learnt alot of lessons on this event which is all part of the journey, not to mention we defo needed some wheels on site to move the 3 tons of wood form the van to the pits! Lol!!
After the families had gone we all grabbed a beer and toasted a good event. The fair ground operators traded some lamb for a free go on the waltzers so we all jumped on that for couple of rides before jumping in the vans and making the 5 1/2 hour journey home.
