With a desire to create a unique catering offer with year round appeal Steff’s Kitchen at Fairweather’s Garden Centre in Beaulieu, Hampshire prides itself on producing affordable and good quality food, the workshop audience at the HTA Catering Conference heard.
Wanting to be aspirational and special the ethos is very much centred around homegrown cooking and once the kitchen had been transformed attention was turned to small half acre site opposite which was developed into Patrick’s Patch - a unique learning garden.
Now a visitor attraction in its own right Patrick’s Patch attracts over 500 school children a year and employs a head gardener along with a loyal army of volunteers. Along with providing produce for Steff’s Kitchen (with any surplus being sold in the garden centre) they run courses and drop in GYO clinics helping to create a real community around the business.
Their supper club, which runs every six weeks, is always sold out and they invite guests chefs to cook up dishes using seasonal items from the garden.
