Written by the Salt Wind Catering kitchen team from our base in Redruth, Cornwall. Our guides, pricing notes and recipes come from events we have actually catered across Cornwall and Devon, corporate lunches, welfare meals on site, hog roasts, film-unit catering, and every piece is checked against how we really work before it is published.
How we write our guides
Everything is written by the people who actually cater the events, from our kitchen base in Redruth, Cornwall.
Pricing notes, guest-number guidance and logistics come from real jobs we have run across Cornwall and Plymouth, not from generic templates.
We only publish figures and claims we can stand behind. If we can't verify it, we don't print it.
Recipes are tested in our own kitchen before they go up.
Not a price list and not an industry average. The real figures from 382 events we catered across Cornwall and Devon in 2026: what people paid, how many they fed, and how little notice a quarter of them gave us.
Hog roast, charcoal BBQ, giant pan paella or a delivered buffet, the four routes to a Cornish wedding menu, what each costs per head in 2026, and worked totals for 50, 80 and 120 guests. No wedding surcharge, ever.
A behind-the-scenes case study: how Salt Wind Catering catered two back-to-back Rosamunde Pilcher feature films for ZDF in 2026, 42 shoot days, up to 60 cast and crew a day, across 14 locations all over Cornwall.
Our self-contained mobile kitchen carries its own LPG appliances, power, water, refrigeration and waste, feeding film crews on remote clifftops, beaches and moors with no mains power or venue kitchen needed.
Book your location caterer as soon as shoot dates and unit base are confirmed, 3–6 weeks for a standard shoot, earlier for summer or multi-week productions. Short-notice bookings welcome too.
The five questions every procurement officer should ask a caterer, and what genuine answers look like. Evidence from a working Cornwall catering operation.
'Approved' gets used loosely in catering. For a site manager running a utility or civils job in Cornwall or Devon it has a specific meaning, and getting it wrong creates real risk. Here is what compliance for a welfare caterer actually involves and how to verify it.
If you are a procurement manager or site lead approving a welfare caterer for a utility contract in the South West, the criteria are not always obvious. Here is what an experienced welfare caterer should bring to the table, and how to test it before you sign.
If you have never hired a location caterer before, the whole thing can look opaque. The call sheet shows times. The contract shows numbers. But what actually happens on the day? Here is a complete walkthrough of a typical Salt Wind Catering film catering day in Cornwall, start to finish.
Devon does not get the same press as Cornwall when it comes to filming locations, but anyone in the industry knows it punches above its weight. Dartmoor's wild granite tors, the rolling green of the South Hams, and the dramatic cliffs around Hartland have all been on screen, repeatedly.
5am call. Pitch dark. Cold rain horizontal off the Atlantic. Forty crew arriving in convoy expecting hot food, strong coffee, and a kitchen that is already running. Breakfast on a film set is the most important service of the day, and the easiest to get wrong.
Standby catering is the quiet workhorse of a film day. It is not the hot lunch service that everyone queues for. It is the constantly-replenished hot drinks station, the fruit bowl that never empties, the bacon roll that appears at 10am when the focus puller is running on fumes.
Feeding an international cast and crew on location in Cornwall is less glamorous than it sounds and more precise than you'd think. Here is what a full day on set actually looks like from the catering truck, and the small details that keep a German TV production running on time.
September in Cornwall means the hedgerows are full of damsons and the orchards are dropping windfalls you can barely give away. This chutney uses both, sharp Bramley apples and tart damsons slow-cooked with cider vinegar, brown sugar, onions and warm spice. It jars beautifully, keeps for a year, and is what a Cornish ploughman's is built around.
Cornish fudge is sold at every gift shop in the county and most of it is not worth eating. Properly made fudge, with actual Cornish clotted cream, butter and sugar cooked to the soft-ball stage, is a completely different thing. It is dense, slightly grainy in the best way, and rich without being sickly. This is how it is made.
In Cornwall, you put the jam on first. Then the clotted cream. That is not up for debate. This is the classic Cornish cream tea scone recipe, light, barely sweet, with a good rise and a slight crust on top. The clotted cream should be thick enough to stand a teaspoon in. The jam should be strawberry. The debate should end.
Fresh Cornish crab, linguine, lemon, chilli and a knob of proper Cornish butter. This is one of those recipes that sounds fancy but takes under 20 minutes and tastes like you're eating at the harbour edge in St Ives. White crab meat only, the brown meat goes into a sauce you'll want to eat straight from the pan.
Cornish saffron buns are one of the oldest baked goods in Britain, saffron was traded into Cornwall via the tin and copper trade routes centuries before it reached the rest of the country. These are soft, lightly spiced milk buns with a vivid yellow crumb, studded with currants and mixed peel. They are called revel buns in West Cornwall and are still made for feast days.
Where the saffron bun is a celebration snack, the saffron cake is a keeping cake, a large, enriched loaf studded with currants, mixed peel and cherries, fragrant with saffron, that improves over several days wrapped in greaseproof paper. It is the cake that sat on every Cornish farmhouse table for generations. This is the proper version.
Elder trees flower in Cornwall in May and June, lining the lanes and hedgerows with clusters of cream-white blossom that smell like the best version of summer. Pick them on a dry, sunny day and you have the base for a cordial that tastes nothing like the supermarket version. This is one of those recipes that makes people ask if you actually made it yourself.
Stargazey pie is a Cornish legend, a deep-dish fish pie with whole pilchards or sardines baked into the pastry so their heads poke through the crust, gazing upward at the sky. It comes from Mousehole in West Cornwall and is traditionally eaten on Tom Bawcock's Eve, 23rd December. This is the recipe: fish heads gazing out of a golden pastry crust, just as they should be.
A proper Cornish pasty is not a pie. It is not a "pasty-style" snack from a service station. It is raw skirt steak, sliced waxy potato, sliced swede and onion, seasoned well, folded into shortcrust pastry and crimped along the top. That is it. No pre-cooking. No gravy. No added vegetables. This is the recipe.
Vegan & Plant-Based Event Catering Across Cornwall Every event has vegan guests now. Whether it's two people at a birthday, half the team at a corporate lunch, or an entire wedding party, plant-based catering isn't niche anymore. It's expected. The problem is how most caterers handle it. A sad side salad. A plate of hummus and carrot sticks while everyone else eats properly. A token veggie option that's clearly been thrown together as an afterthought. That's not catering, that's an insult....
From urgent office lunches to film shoots and family gatherings, here is how to get premium Cornish sandwich platters delivered with just 24 hours notice. Last-minute catering happens. Meetings get scheduled late. Film crews suddenly need feeding. Guest numbers double overnight. When you are searching for next-day sandwich platter delivery in Cornwall, speed matters but not at the expense of quality. That is exactly where Salt Wind Catering comes in. We specialise in fresh, locally made...
When the red weather warnings for Storm Goretti were issued, emergency plans across Cornwall were pushed from theory into a brutal reality. As a proud member of NCASS (The Nationwide Caterers Association), the UK's professional body for independent food businesses. Salt Wind Catering was officially deployed and paid on behalf of the National Grid to provide emergency welfare support . We were fully operational and on-site in Penryn within 3 hours of the call. However, over the four days...
There's a moment at every Salt Wind Catering giant pan event that I live for. The burners roar to life. The oil shimmers. And then, that first sizzle as ingredients hit the pan. Suddenly, every head turns. Conversations pause. People start drifting over, drawn by the sound, the smell, and the sheer spectacle of watching dinner come together right in front of them. That's the magic of giant pan catering . It's not just food. It's theatre. But how do you actually pull off cooking fresh food for 100...
Cornwall's dramatic coastlines, wild moors, and ancient woodlands make it one of the UK's most desirable filming locations. From Poldark to House of the Dragon, the South West offers backdrops you cannot get anywhere else. But as any Location Manager knows, the very landscape that looks great on camera is a nightmare for logistics. Narrow single-track lanes, soft sandy beaches, and remote cliff-tops make standard catering trucks a liability. If your food truck is parked half a mile away on a...
Afternoon Tea Catering in Cornwall. Proper Cream Tea Country Cornwall wrote the book on cream teas, jam first, obviously. But a proper afternoon tea goes beyond scones and clotted cream. It's finger sandwiches with real fillings, cakes and pastries, fresh fruit, and a spread that looks as good as it tastes. Whether it's a baby shower, a hen party, a milestone birthday, or a retirement celebration, afternoon tea catering brings a touch of class without the stuffiness. Salt Wind Catering...
BBQ Catering in Cornwall: Proper Charcoal, Proper Cuts, No Messing About There's a big difference between a BBQ and a good BBQ. Anyone can chuck some cheap sausages on a disposable grill from the petrol station. What we do is something else entirely, premium cuts of locally sourced meat cooked over proper charcoal, sides and salads, and food that makes people come back for seconds and thirds. Salt Wind Catering BBQ is built for outdoor events across Cornwall. Garden parties,...
Baby Shower Catering. Beautiful Food Without the Fuss A baby shower should be about celebrating, not stressing over food. At Salt Wind Catering , we deliver beautifully presented baby shower food across Cornwall so you can focus on the mum-to-be and the party games. Afternoon Tea Style Our afternoon tea catering is perfect for baby showers, finger sandwiches, scones, cakes, and fruit platters that look as good as they taste. Add a Pimp Your Prosecco station for the guests who aren't...
Organising a children's party is chaotic enough without worrying about the food. Salt Wind Catering provides kids' party food across Cornwall that children actually eat, delivered fresh and ready to serve so you can focus on party bags, pass the parcel, and keeping twenty sugar-fuelled six-year-olds from climbing the walls. Food Kids Actually Eat Our children's party food collection is designed around what kids actually eat at parties. Mini pizzas made with real dough. Chicken goujons that...
Schools and charities in Cornwall run events year-round, summer fetes, fundraising dinners, sports days, award ceremonies, open days, volunteer appreciation lunches, and end-of-term celebrations. At Salt Wind Catering, we provide professional catering for schools, charities, and community organisations at prices that respect tight budgets. School Event Catering School events come in all shapes and sizes. Summer fetes need food that can be served outdoors to hundreds of visitors. Award...
Cream Tea Delivery: Fresh Scones, Clotted Cream & Jam, Delivered Across Cornwall There are few things more Cornish than a cream tea. Fresh scones still warm from the oven, a generous pot of proper Cornish clotted cream from a local dairy, and strawberry jam: jam first, obviously. Salt Wind Catering delivers cream tea platters across Cornwall for everything from baby showers to retirement parties , office treats to hen weekends , and holiday cottage welcomes . What's Included Every cream...
Office Lunch Delivery. Feed Your Team Without the Faff Someone's got a meeting. Someone's running a training day. Someone's just decided the team deserves a decent lunch instead of the usual sad meal deal. Whatever the reason, Salt Wind Catering delivers proper working lunches to offices, meeting rooms, and business venues across Cornwall. What We Deliver Our sandwich platters are the go-to for working lunches, freshly made, varied fillings, ready to put out on the table. Add savoury...
Match Day Buffets & Club Catering Across Cornwall Every rugby club, football club and cricket club in Cornwall has the same problem on match day, presentation night or end of season: someone's got to sort the food. And it's usually the same volunteer who did it last year, cobbling together supermarket platters in the clubhouse kitchen at the last minute. There's a better way. Salt Wind Catering delivers ready-to-serve buffets, hot pasties, sharing platters and match day food direct to...
Breakfast Catering: Start Your Event the Right Way Most caterers don't want to know about breakfast. It means early starts, tight timings, and food that has to be perfect at 7am when nobody's had coffee yet. At Salt Wind Catering , we've been doing early morning catering for corporate clients, film crews, and event organisers across Cornwall for years. It's one of the things we do best. What We Offer Hot breakfast baps stuffed with proper bacon, sausage, egg, or all three. Croissant and...
Real Salt Wind Catering pricing for wakes at three guest counts: 30, 50 and 100. What the spread looks like, what it costs, and what people actually eat. No upselling, no surprises.
We are not a venue. We cater at yours. Which means we have seen what goes wrong. Here is what to check before you sign for a Cornish office Christmas party space.