It’s six in the morning in a Kent field. The grass is wet enough to soak your boots before you’ve unloaded the first crate, the marquee looks peaceful, and somebody is already asking whether the smoker can be moved “just a few metres” because it might show in the photographs.
Of course it can. Almost anything can be moved at six in the morning.
What matters is whether it can be moved safely, whether the new spot has sensible access, whether the smoke will blow straight into the drinks reception and whether the power cable will now cross the route the florist is using. That’s outdoor catering. The burgers and ribs are the bit everyone sees; the quiet game of food temperatures, timings, fuel, weather, access and crowd movement is what makes the day work.
We’ve been playing that game in and around Dartford since 1983. The business began as Christopher Anthony Catering, founded by Chris Bowden, before becoming Relish in 2009. BBQ with Relish followed in 2011 as the outdoor arm of the company, built specifically for barbecues, hog roasts and al fresco events.
So when people search for BBQ Catering Kent, we understand why the results can feel a bit muddled. There are talented street-food traders, good general caterers and enthusiastic people with gazebos. Some are excellent at what they do. But serving lunch from a market pitch is not the same job as feeding 400 wedding guests in a field, against the clock, with no second chance if the heavens open.
Rain, obviously. Always rain.
So what actually changes when the guest list hits 300?
What’s different about BBQ catering for 400 people versus a garden barbecue for twelve? Well… nearly everything except the presence of fire.
At home, if the sausages take another ten minutes, everyone opens another drink. At a wedding, ten minutes can push the speeches, the band, the evening guests and the venue’s finish time. At a corporate event, a slow lunch can swallow the afternoon programme and leave half the company queuing while the managing director starts talking to an empty tent.
We’ve had versions of the “300 people in 45 minutes” brief more times than we can count. On paper, it sounds wonderfully simple: cook plenty of food and serve it quickly. In practice, the menu is only one part of it. How many grills? How many hands on them? How many serving points? Are guests arriving as one great hungry wave or in groups? Can the serving team replenish without barging through the queue carrying hot trays? Where are the vegetarian and vegan dishes being handled? Who is watching the food, and who is watching the flow?
You wouldn’t think queue management mattered this much at a wedding. It really does.
For a service like that, we plan backwards from the final plate. Cooking capacity has to match the service window. Salads, sauces and sides need to be laid out so one indecisive guest doesn’t bring the whole line to a halt. More than one serving point may be needed, and each one needs enough stock and enough people. Sometimes the sensible answer is to release tables in a relaxed order; sometimes it is to open several identical stations at once.
That is the difference between a queue that feels like part of the occasion and one that becomes the occasion.
The day the generator decides it has other plans
Here’s where it nearly went sideways on one outdoor set-up: the main generator gave up a couple of hours before guests were due. No dramatic bang. Just a cough, a splutter and then that particular silence which makes every caterer look at every other caterer.
The food was under control. The problem was everything around it — refrigeration, prep lighting, hot holding and the bits of equipment nobody notices until they stop working. That is why an experienced outdoor team does not build an event around one plug and a hopeful expression. Loads are planned, fuel is checked, cables are protected, temperatures are monitored and a contingency is worked out before the first guest arrives.
The supply was switched, the cold chain stayed cold and service opened as planned. Guests knew nothing about it, which is rather the point.
This is where having our own equipment matters. Relish Equipment Hire launched in 2013, so refrigeration, crockery, bar kit and the practical backbone of an event are part of the same operation rather than a collection of last-minute promises from three different suppliers. We offer full-service catering, where our team handles the job from preparation to plating and clear-up, as well as dry hire for people who genuinely want to run their own show.
Dry hire can be a very good option. Just be honest about what “doing it ourselves” means. Somebody still has to receive the kit, position it, operate it, clean it and return it. Uncle Dave may be brilliant with a pair of tongs, but he may also wish to attend the wedding.
Kent is lovely. Kent is also quite muddy.
Outdoor catering Kent-wide means everything from polished venues and office grounds to marquees at the far end of a farm track. We have worked with established venues including Hall Place & Gardens in Bexley, but we are just as used to countryside locations where the kitchen is, for the day, whatever we can safely create behind the marquee.
Tight access changes the order of the load-in. Soft ground changes where vehicles can go. Wind changes where a gazebo can stand and how it must be secured. A venue’s power supply may sound generous until the bar, band, lighting and catering all try to use it at once.
We remember one of those mornings when the weather had turned a straightforward field set-up into a hand-carry job. The service point was exactly where it needed to be; the van, unfortunately, was not getting anywhere near it without becoming a permanent garden feature. So the crew changed the load-in order, kept the refrigerated items where they belonged until the last sensible moment and moved the kit in stages.
Not glamorous. No heroic music. Just enough people who knew what had to move first.
Ask any venue coordinator who has seen a food service overrun and they will tell you the same thing: the best catering teams solve problems quietly. Guests should be talking about the lamb, not watching four people argue over an extension lead.
Proper local produce, not a Kent flag stuck in a burger
Being Kent event caterers should mean something on the plate. We source from the county where we can, including New Romney Marsh lamb, Speldhurst sausages, Whitstable oysters and Kent-grown strawberries.
Those ingredients give a summer event a sense of place without anyone needing to deliver a speech about provenance. Lamb cooked over fire makes sense at a countryside wedding. Oysters bring a bit of theatre to a drinks reception. Kent strawberries need very little interference when they are in season (although a little cream has never caused a riot).
Look, I’ll be honest: local produce does not rescue poor organisation. The finest sausage in Speldhurst is still disappointing if it reaches the guest lukewarm after a 35-minute queue. Ingredient quality and event logistics have to work together. Type BBQ Caterers Kent into a search bar and that distinction can be hard to see, but it is what separates a specialist from a generalist who has added “barbecue option” to the bottom of a standard buffet menu.
The specialist understands fire, batch cooking and holding without ruining the food. They know that chicken, seafood, vegan dishes and ready-to-eat salads cannot all drift around the same prep space. They know the difference between an attractive amount of food on display and enough food in reserve to keep 500 people fed. And they bring enough crew — not the number that works if absolutely nothing changes, but the number the service actually needs.
Outdoor barbecue at scale is a restaurant service with no walls, no fixed power and one shot at getting the timing right. Slightly wonky analogy, perhaps. Accurate, though.
The hygiene question is not the boring bit
There is a reason couples and events teams ask to see a caterer’s hygiene rating early. Outdoor service creates more variables, not fewer: longer service windows, changing weather, temporary work areas and food moving between a professional kitchen, transport and the event site.
Relish holds a Food Hygiene Rating of 5, recorded by the Food Standards Agency. It is not a decorative badge we awarded ourselves; it is public, current and checkable. For a wedding organiser or corporate events manager, that is useful evidence before anyone starts discussing whether the coleslaw should be creamy or sharp.
A wedding barbecue still needs wedding-level organisation
The relaxed feel is one of the reasons people love wedding BBQ catering Kent couples can shape around their day. A barbecue can be generous and informal without feeling casual in the wrong way. Guests can see and smell the cooking, talk across tables and go back for another spoonful of salad without waiting for a three-course dining room ritual.
But relaxed for the guests takes planning behind the scenes. Speeches run long. Photographs overrun. A bride’s mum asks whether service can move by twenty minutes, then moves it back. We expect timings to flex; the trick is knowing how far they can flex before the food quality suffers, then agreeing the new plan with the venue and the person actually running the day.
Helen and Nick put it neatly after their wedding: “The day went brilliantly — not least because of Relish.” They also said the organisation meant they could enjoy it without stress. That, to us, is the job. Not simply putting food on plates, but protecting the couple from needing to manage the caterer on their own wedding day.
The same principle applies to corporate BBQ catering Kent businesses book for summer parties, team days and client events. The food can feel easy-going; the operation cannot. Lunch needs to land inside the programme. Dietary requirements must be clear. The queue must keep moving. If 800 staff have travelled in from different sites, “we ran out of chicken at six” is not a charming bit of rustic theatre.
And what about a hog roast?
A hog roast Kent guests can gather around is brilliant theatre and a very good way to create a centrepiece. It is not, however, a magic machine that removes the need for planning.
Numbers still matter. So do cooking time, carving speed, accompaniments, alternative dietary choices and the route from the roast to the plate. For larger events, the roast may be one part of a wider service rather than the only source of food. Again, specialist judgement beats optimism.
Before we wrap up, here’s what people actually ask us about this…
What happens if it rains?
We carry on — with the right cover, safe positioning and a plan agreed before the forecast starts misbehaving. Rain affects access, flooring, guest flow and equipment as well as the cooking area, so “we’ll put up a gazebo” is not the whole wet-weather plan.
How many guests can you cater for?
From 50 to 2,000. A 50-person party and a 2,000-person event are very different operations, but neither should feel under-served. The equipment, team and service layout are matched to the numbers.
How far ahead should we book?
For a spring or summer Saturday, especially during Kent wedding season, earlier is kinder to everyone. Popular dates can go well in advance. Corporate dates can sometimes be arranged on a shorter lead time, but a large guest count, complicated access or a bespoke menu deserves proper planning time.
Can you cover vegetarian, vegan and allergy requirements?
Yes — tell us early and give us accurate final information. We can plan suitable dishes and how they will be prepared and served. The warning is simple: do not leave serious dietary information until someone is standing at the barbecue with a plate in their hand.
Do you only provide the food?
No. Full service can cover preparation through to plating and clear-up. We can also help with the equipment side through Relish Equipment Hire, including refrigeration, crockery and bar equipment. If you only need equipment, dry hire is available too.
Is a specialist barbecue caterer more expensive than doing it ourselves?
It depends what you include in “ourselves”. Food, staffing, refrigeration, cooking kit, transport, fuel, service equipment, waste, cleaning and somebody missing half the party to run it all have a value. Compare like with like, not a complete staffed service with the supermarket receipt for burgers.
Can we tailor the menu?
Of course. Menus are a starting point, and the right answer depends on the event, season, guest mix and service style. We will also tell you if a lovely idea is going to create a terrible queue. Lovingly, but plainly.
Choosing a proper BBQ caterer is not about making an event fussy. It is about making the difficult work disappear so the day feels easy.
We have been doing that from Dartford for more than four decades: weddings, private parties, corporate days, street food, hog roasts and outdoor services from 50 guests to 2,000. Real fire, proper kit, enough crew and a weather plan — because British summer has no patience for shortcuts.
To talk through an event, call 01322 221159 or email [email protected]. The office is open Monday to Friday, 9am–5.30pm. You’ll find us at Unit 4 & 9, Millside Industrial Estate, Lawson Road, Dartford, Kent, DA1 5BW.
