The Wealden Kitchen is a small catering business based in Buxted and run by the owner, Jane Midgen from her 5-star approved home kitchen, and ably assisted by a small team. After experiencing a few redundancies in a consolidating food packaging market and encouraged by friends and family for whom I had regularly cooked, I decided to follow my passion and start my catering business. As a child, I had been surrounded by cooking as my Mother also ran a catering business but things were significantly different then and life is no longer filled with vol-au-vents and tipsy trifles (two of the staples of Mum’s menus!)
Nowadays, we need to adapt to a multitude of dietary preferences and/or needs such as intolerances or allergies to all the major allergens and styles of eating such as being vegan, a vegetarian or a pescatarian. However, we take this all in our stride and see it as an opportunity, not a challenge. We are blessed with wonderful local produce in this area and we pride ourselves on using this wherever possible and supporting local business. Having supplied packaging to the suppliers of the big retailers in the past, I know first-hand the pressures they are put under, so small as I am, I will do all I can to support these suppliers.
Whilst we are not of a size or scope to cater for events above 150, we will supply dinner parties for as few as two so our range is quite wide and very personalised. Our menus are not designed to be prescriptive but more suggestive as a starting point, and our aim is to ensure the finished product is exactly what the client wants, and if there is a particular dish or ingredient, they would like included, we will endeavour to do this within reason. Every menu is different. Events range from family parties celebrating all life events, christenings, birthdays, anniversaries, marriages and funerals, to events in the corporate market such as launches, networking or celebrations. Our food types range from canapes to sweet and savoury fork or finger buffets, to fully served seated dinners with any number of courses. We will also source any appropriate equipment that we may not have ourselves or that is not supplied by the venue chosen by the client, be it their home, office or a venue they may have hired for the event.
In addition to all the above, we have a vast array of vintage china which we do offer for hire, with or without our catering.