Home entertaining made easy

Getting Chef Phillip Heka of Wild Chef was not an easy task; he is a busy man but despite his busy schedule, he made time for an interview just before we went to press.

“I am sorry I couldn’t pick your calls, I was catering at a wedding yesterday, a dinner in the evening and breakfast this morning,” he says by way of apology for his tardiness.

It’s a busy time of year and he has a list of things to do every day, mostly home catering and food production training for clients who want to learn various cuisines in the comfort of their homes. Apart from that, Heka gets orders to make packed foods for most of his clients who want to have different meals prepared and stocked in the fridge, for those who do not have time to cook.

Home entertainment is one of the oldest traditions of this season and while others love cooking, there are those who prefer getting help in the kitchen or not even going into the kitchen at all if they can help it.

Getting a caterer to do your cooking is a sure way of not having to deal with the hustle of preparing lunches, dinners or even breakfast when entertaining.

“Last week, we had a family who put up guests in a furnished apartment and wanted us to prepare all the meals for them,” says Phillip.

His assistant, Elizabeth Wambui who worked with him at the Tamarind Group of companies before he left to set up his own business, helps him in preparing meals for clients but they also have a team of 30 for big functions.

Outside catering as most people call it, has made entertaining easy, a service that is both convenient and affordable for many who have house parties.

“Whether it is an elaborate five-course dinner with all that comes with it or a simple buffet meal for 20 guests, hiring a caterer will help you throw a party during this holiday season without all the stress,” says Edgar, the executive chef at Pims Catering Services.

Edgar says that the demand for hired chefs is growing as more people prefer getting an outside caterer to prepare meals for their guests, leaving them with time to entertain without a break. It could be a birthday party, dowry payment event or traditional wedding ceremonies or a family get-together, where the service of a caterer is needed.

Edgar started the catering service after he got orders from home owners to do dishes for them during his free time. At the time, he had worked his way up from a grand cook to a chef in hotels around East Africa before choosing to venture in the private catering business.

It is through cooking at house parties, barbeques and grills that he got his company established; now he gets orders most weekends for home catering services of guests up to 500 guests.

They offer various services, from food preparation to serving using their own cutlery if need be and doing the dishes after the party. Getting these services takes the workload from the host of the party, who can now concentrate on entertaining visitors.

Joseph Maina of Joey’s Kitchen also started cooking as a hobby where he and his friends would prepare meals during their free time. It then gradually turned into a business venture supplying food in Thika town during week days and on weekends they would take up catering services for small events.

They are now known to provide home catering services for all types of events. The service involves sitting down with the caterer and discussing the menu before the day of the event and, in some cases, the client will want to sample some of the dishes beforehand.

This can be arranged through the chef preparing the meal at the client’s home or in their catering kitchen and bringing it to the client.

“Most of us will emphasise on getting the best quality products, as this will determine the end result,” says Edgar.

Most chefs will want to be informed about the food to be prepared a few days before so that they can list down all the ingredients they will need. They also want to be involved in shopping for the ingredients.

“Discussing the menu is most important as it not only ensures that the meals are balanced but also gives the chef an opportunity to introduce better recipes to the client if they feel the need to,” says Phillip, and gives an example of substituting the usual roasted chicken with stir fried, chicken curry, Tandoori chicken or Moroccan chicken.

This way, the client provides the guests with an array of foods to choose from as well the right quantity for all to get a decent serving.

As for Edgar, he says he does not limit himself and provides whatever the clients need. There are clients who will only need the food preparation after buying the food stuff while others will leave all the purchasing and cooking to the caterer.

The kinds of foods to be prepared and the number of guests expected determines the number of staff the chefs will need in food preparation. Most chefs have their staff help in preparing the meals but the client can opt to provide the chef with people to help with the preparations.

The chefs service fee ranges from Sh4,000 to Sh50,000 depending on the number of guests, the amount of foods to be prepared as well as the chefs culinary skills and experience.

One also has a choice of getting the food prepared by the caterers within the home or away from the home. However, most caterers will insist on the latter as it is easy to use their equipment such as the charcoal grills which the client may not have. In this case, most caterers will charge extra for transporting their equipment to the venue especially for those outside Nairobi.

The Caterers ‘911 page on Facebook is abuzz with both caterers and clients making enquiries on the best deals during this season.