£6.75
Cold buffet from
£8.50
Hot buffet from
30%
Deposit to book
50+
Five-Star Reviews
What event catering actually costs in Cornwall
Salt Wind Catering runs out of Redruth and covers every postcode in Cornwall plus most of Devon. We are not VAT-registered, so the numbers below are the numbers on the invoice — there is no 20% added at quote stage and no admin fee tagged onto the bottom. Here is the honest breakdown of what each catering type costs per head, what moves the price up or down, and what is and is not included.
Most enquiries land in one of five buckets — cold buffet, hot buffet, BBQ, hog roast or giant-pan paella. Per-head ranges below are pulled from our live menu data; itemised quotes are returned within 48 business hours.
Cold buffet
Delivered, set up on platters
from £6.75 per head
Finger sandwiches, sausage rolls, savoury bites, salads, cake. Set up at your venue on disposable platters. Minimum order £30. Suitable for office lunches, wakes, small parties, christenings.
Hot buffet
Delivered hot, in insulated boxes
from £8.50 per head
Curry and rice, chilli, slow-cooked beef, lasagne, veggie tagine. Arrives hot in insulated transit. Suitable for corporate lunches, larger family events, film/TV unit lunches.
Charcoal BBQ
On-site cook, 50-guest minimum
£14–£18 per head
Real charcoal, cooked at your venue. Burgers, sausages, marinated chicken, halloumi, pulled pork, salads, sauces. We bring the grill, gazebo and full cook team. 50 guest minimum on-site; smaller groups go via delivered BBQ packs.
Hog roast
Whole pig on the spit, on-site
£14–£22 per head
Free-range Cornish pork, slow-roasted on-site. Rolls, apple sauce, crackling, stuffing, salads. The headline number depends on whether it is rolls-only or a full plated hog roast with multiple sides.
Giant-pan paella & street food
Live cooking station, on-site
from £10.95 per head
A 1-metre paella pan cooked in front of your guests, or rotating street-food stations (loaded fries, halloumi wraps, vegan chilli, bao buns). Theatrical, weatherproof, and works for 30 guests up to festival-scale.
What pushes the per-head price up or down
1. Guest numbers
The biggest single lever. A hog roast for 40 carries the same fixed cook-team and equipment cost as a hog roast for 120 — so the per-head number drops sharply as headcount climbs. Below the 50-guest on-site minimum the maths stops working; that is where delivered packs make more sense.
2. Distance from Redruth
We are based on the A30 corridor in Redruth, which makes Truro, Camborne, Hayle, Falmouth, St Ives, Penzance, Newquay and St Agnes effectively local. Events past Bodmin, on the North Cornwall coast, or into Devon (Plymouth, Exeter, Bideford, Bude) attract a travel supplement — itemised on the quote, never hidden in the per-head rate.
3. Menu complexity
A single-protein buffet is cheaper to run than a multi-station spread. Adding live carvery, a dessert station, or premium ingredients (Cornish lobster, day-boat seafood, slow-cooked beef brisket) moves the per-head up. We always quote two or three menu tiers so the trade-off is visible up-front.
4. On-site vs delivered
On-site cooking adds a cook-team day rate (typically £180–£280 depending on hours and headcount). For groups over 50 this is absorbed cleanly into the per-head rate. Delivered hot or cold buffets have no cook-team fee — just the food, transit, and any travel supplement.
5. Date and seasonality
August Saturdays and bank-holiday weekends sit at the top of our pricing band because cook-team availability is tight. Mid-week dates and shoulder-season (March–May, October) often run at the lower end of the published range. Christmas-party season carries its own pricing — see the Christmas catering page.
“The catering for our wake was well received by our guests, all of them gave back good fed back on selection of sandwiches, cake and scones. Thumbs up all round. Pasted on your details to several people who enquired as to who do the food.”
“Can't thank you enough for the spread you put on today will highly recommend and will pass on your details to everyone I know for any future events”
“We had bbq catering for a surprise 40th birthday. The team arrived on time & had a prompt & professional set up. There was a great range of food & it was all delicious. Everyone waa raving about the food. Will definitely be recommending them to everyone & will use them in the future.”
“Catered for our wedding and would highly recommend. Amazing service and really good pricing considering the amount and quality of the food. We catered for 40 guests and there was still way more than enough.”
“I recently booked Salt Wind Catering for one of our corporate events and I can honestly say they exceeded expectations in every area. From the initial enquiry through to the event itself, the communication was excellent.”
Vegan, vegetarian & gluten-free options available on request — info@saltwind.catering
More on the cost of catering in Cornwall
- → How much does catering cost in Cornwall? — the long-form guide
- → Catering prices guide — live calculator and full menu pricing
- → Hot vs cold buffet — which one and what it costs
- → BBQ vs hog roast — menu and price comparison
- → How to hire a caterer in Cornwall — what to ask
- → Catering for large groups — pricing at scale