Catering
Cooking for parties is how Tanamerah started. And it remains my core business.
Whether you want to hold a dinner party for a few friends and offer them something a bit different, or you’re planning a celebration for hundreds, we can help. Because of the way Tanamerah has developed, largely through word-of-mouth, the majority of our jobs are private affairs. But we have supplied our services to corporate clients too, and would be delighted to cater for a staff party, say, or a client reception.
I can provide a full three-plus-course sit-down meal with waiter service; canapés for a drinks party—including bar staff if you need them; finger-food or bowl-food if you want to offer something more substantial to eat without getting into sitting guests down; a self-service buffet when you want to give your guests a proper meal, but without waiter service; the options are endless.
We can supply any tableware and glassware you might need: if we don’t have it ourselves we will hire it in. We provide serving dishes and any cooking equipment that is needed—up to and including a full catering kitchen for a marquee. If you need them we can also source tables and chairs and/or table linen.
Basically, if you want to be able to offer guests food and drink, whatever the number, we can offer whatever you need, from just the food, to the whole kit and, if you will, caboodle. Most of our work is within 20 miles of Haslemere—so Hampshire, West Sussex, Surrey— but I am doing more and more jobs in London.
Cooking with ingredients that love sunshine, for people who love flavour
Having found your way to this part of the website you probably have some idea of the sort of food I cook. Most my customers know me for my Indonesian-influenced cooking—though there’s no escaping the fact nearly everyone is more familiar with Thai cuisine than Indonesian, and my single most popular dish is in fact Thai green chicken curry.
Like any passionate cook, my repertoire is expanding all the time, but it does tend to be heavily influenced by South-East Asian and Middle-Eastern food. Italian cuisine is never far from my thoughts either, nor that of other southern Mediterranean countries. I have vivid memories of outstanding and original meals in Istanbul, Lisbon, Bologna, Barcelona—even Copenhagen and St Petersburg. Fact is I love food with plenty of oomph, wherever it’s from, and that’s what I offer. As I’ve written elsewhere, I describe what I do as “cooking with ingredients that love sunshine, for people who love flavour”. I know that can make my food difficult to categorise, but I cook from the heart, not from a catalogue.
None of which is hugely helpful if you want some ideas for party food! So below are a small selection of dishes that have proved popular over the years since Tanamerah began.
However sketchy your plans, do call me or send me a note using the contact form. I’d be delighted to suggest some original catering ideas, and to give you an estimate of the cost. On which question, it will come as no surprise to learn that every job is different. Some dishes have more expensive ingredients; some take much longer to prepare (here canapés are often the guilty party); different types of event have different staffing implications. But the biggest factor in determining the cost per guest is without doubt the number of guests. All I would say is that over the years I’ve had far more comments about what good value my food is than how expensive it is!
For examples of my cooking,
to give you some ideas,
click on the relevant panel below
Canapés
or nibbles as they are increasingly called
Bowl food & buffet dishes
any of these would also work for a sit-down meal
Dishes for sitting & eating at a table
to be served individually or as sharing plates for two to four diners
Puddings
And just click an icon
to find me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter
Occasional catering job reports
Tanamerah Takeaway
Six years on from one of my biggest catering jobs, and things are very different. No big events. No small events! So, like many restaurants, I’ve turned my hand to cooking on a much smaller scale. Prompted by requests from friends and old customers, I have started offering takeaway meals. Or rather, dishes that I deliver to people’s homes—which is how my business started, 20 years ago!
The plan is to offer a new menu every week, which I’ll post on Instagram. To keep things manageable I’ll make deliveries on Friday for orders received by the Monday morning before. My initial idea is to deliver to customers within a ten-mile radius of Haslemere—but I’m sure I can be flexible on that.
2017: another year of fun and food!
I've just been looking back fondly at the jobs we've done in the last year. They included 21st, 40th, 60th, and 90th birthday parties; dinner parties for five to 20 people; Christmas parties, private and corporate, and one in January to dispel winter blues; house...
My latest job: our own party!
Every few years Kevan gets together with his old Churcher's College school friends. For some reason or other it tends to...
And… we’re back!
Just this afternoon I had someone call me about a catering job. She’d been given my name by an old friend, for whom I did a job several years ago. What hit home was the fact that the old friend in question didn’t know if I was still in business! That’s how bad I am at...
Happy New 2014!
Well it's been a while. I have to admit that a very busy autumn has led to the sad neglect of my blog. But new years being what they are, it seems only right to start this one with a resolution. Which is, of course, to try and update it more often. I do have quite a...
Fashionable canapés for a fashionable shop.
Last week, I received a request to do canapés for an opening of a lady's fashion shop in Cranleigh: Woodie & Morris The comments received during the two day parties, were very complimentary and encouraging. Here are some photos of the food I produced, taken by...