Monday, 16 March 2015

weekend tasting menu

Dinner @ the town hall
Fri & sat 27th 28th March 

Duck salad 

Crab ravioli 

Champagne sorbet

Fillet of lemon sole 

Trio of beef 

Lemon & raspberries 

Artisan cheeses

£35 pp

www.holdenscatering.com

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

menu

Selection of passed canapés
~
Fillet of sea bass, sauce vierge

Pressed ham hock terrine, Welsh rarebit

Leek & potato soup

~

Fillet of welsh beef with dauphinoise, celeriac puree
Grilled asparagus & port jus

Breast of free-range chicken wrapped in pancetta
With wild mushroom duxelle, grilled asparagus

Wild mushroom risotto
Parmesan & rocket

~

Trio of desserts on a welsh slate
Crème Brule, lemon tart, chocolate brownie salty caramel
~
Coffee





Evening food based on 300


Barbecue
Rump steaks, marinated chicken, prawn brochettes, quality sausages, salmon fillets
Selection of salads and breads


Hog roast
Whole roast pig, applesauce, sage & onion stuffing

Paella
Mussels, prawns, squid, clams, chicken, chorizo


Plus a selection of salads and bread





Holden’s Catering,

Saturday, 15 November 2014

Pigin lovely !

A wonder full day
Hi Tom,

We just wanted to write to say thank you so much for everything you did for us with our wedding!!
All our guests have commented on how much they enjoyed your food and especially how the hog roast was the best they had ever tasted!!
Thank you for the fabulous professional service provided by yourself and your team and for your calm understanding when our timings went to pot!
We cant thank or recommend you enough and look forward to visiting you for more amazing food at the town hall this winter!!!

All the best,


Friday, 14 November 2014

menu

Dinner @ the town hall

Mussel, saffron & dill risotto

Wild boar pate & gooseberry chutney

Pumpkin ravioli, sage butter

~

Fillet sea bass, rosti & hollandaise sauce

Duo of welsh lamb, dauphinoise, red wine reduction

Perl las & leek tartlet

~

Hot chocolate fondant, whisky & Honey ice cream

Spiced date, pudding, caramel sauce, vanilla ice cream

Artisan welsh cheeses

~

£25pp
Gratuities are not included

Sunday, 9 November 2014

Menu November

Dinner @ the town hall

Wild boar pate & gooseberry chutney

Steamed mussels, white wine, garlic & parsley

Pumpkin ravioli, sage butter

~
Roast rump of welsh lamb

Fillet of John Dory, rosti & béarnaise sauce

Perl las, leek & hazelnut risotto

~

Lemon tart, Prosecco sorbet

Hot chocolate fondant, whisky & Honey ice cream

Artisan welsh cheeses

~

£25pp
Gratuities are not included

Sunday, 1 June 2014

Singing Waiters Wedding

May is a popular wedding choice.  From Cardiff to Caersws, different weddings (Pembrokeshire, Cardiff, Ceredigion and Powys) from sea views of Pembs to a farm homestead in mid Wales, from a small local Ceredigion wedding to a larger one in Dyffryn Springs Cardiff, set on a beautiful fishing reserve. Holden's Catering covered all corners of Wales.

I personally headed north to Caersws (the rest of my team went to their areas) and stayed in a 15th century lodge near Newtown the night before setting up the kitchen marquee and briefing the two supporting chefs helping me to deliver to 100 guests, a 3 course wedding breakfast and evening hog roast buffet.

There were a couple of entertaining twists to the day and some very nice touches.  Nice touch number one - a pianist playing al fresco on arrival with champagne and canapes being served by our waiting staff.  The second nice touch was the huge opulent marquee with a red carpet, huge flower archway entrance and white carpets throughout (and posh portaloos playing 70s discotheque, with porcelain basins and perfumes and handcreams on tap).

The first twist of the day was the roast beef platter carried out by waiting staff to each table with cavery kit.  This involved tables voting in a nominated carver for each table to dress up in the chef's pinstriped apron and tall white hat and doing the honours with provided carving kit.  Popular with a lot of laughs.

The big twist was booked entertainment in the form of The Singing Waiters.  Three talented west end actor/singers arrived early with their perfected Russian guises (accents impeccable) in place, with names like Alexandrov.  They dived into Holdens Catering aprons (and their Russian guises) and started handing out canapes with the champagne as guests mingled and built a rapport with these waiters from Russia.

When desserts arrived, the Russian singing waiters blew their cover and burst into song and dance - the crowd went mad as they whirled around singing numbers like 'I think I want to marry you' (Bruno Miles) in Russian accents and providing Russian dance moves and roses in teeth!  The guests by this point were up clapping and cheering.  The service involved some banter with the bride and groom, more songs and then a love proposal to a mature female guest.  Five songs later and the waiters left them to their speeches.  All evening they talked about the singing waiters (and how lovely food was).


One of the Singing Waiters under cover serving canapes 



Singing waiters in full swing...



The carvery kit on each table



The roast beef platter...


One of the guests (the groom!) carving for his table.


Tables laid



Carving kit
Toni our front of house wedding manager counting champagne flutes

Salmon canapes

Slates of canapes served on arrival with champagne...


Photographer gets a birds eye view from JCB!

Chefs prepping for 100 starters.


Chef making up starters (garlic mushroom on sour dough or a king prawn retro salad)

Myself on right with another head chef - testing the roast beef.

Prepping for the trio of desserts (chocolate torte, egg custard/brule and eaton mess)

Dessert prepping...


Et voila!


What an evening for hog roast - following evening guest arrival and first dance (to the band).

BBQ for evening guests - a hog roast and buffet.

As sun set...we quietly packed and left them to it as the volume increased with the new band's arrival.