In a nutshell
Burbs Kitchen is a family and friends run event catering business in Bournemouth and a Christchurch Restaurant, led by The Burb (Wayne) a passionate chef,with over 10 years experience in the trade. Praised for their high-end restaurant quality food for a number of events, from weddings to corporate fun days, private parties to festivals, film shoots to sport team functions. With this experience and knowledge they are able to create bespoke menus to suit a variety of tastes and budgets and make your event a success.
Where it all began?
The lifestyle quotes: “Do more of what makes you happy!” and “All of our dreams can come true if we dare too to pursue them” are the catalysts of Burbs Kitchen.
Wayne (The Burb) ditched the day job (Electrician) in 2020 to focus on serving up dishes packed with flavour with locally sourced ingredients to our local community. Having previously worked in a number of high-end kitchens, being a butcher, a baker, (but never a candle-stick maker!), setting up a business that resolved around his true passion, was a no brainer.
Starting with outdoor catering events in 2019 under the banner Burb-Bar-Q and after receiving a 5-star hygiene rating in March 2020 for our prep kitchen, we moved to home delivery with our prepped meals when Covid-19 hit! We had loads of fun, made new friends, delivering menus based on customer feedback, asking what they wanted to see / eat via Facebook lives. When the world re-opened this kick started our event catering business and we haven’t looked back!
Our aim
Our aim with our event catering is to transform our customers local food experiences and serve up the freshest flavour-some food indoors and out, for their home dining, party, wedding or event.
Skilled chefs will create dishes unique to our customers budget, event and personal requirements; “Your food, your way.”
“The dream is to set a standard for the best quality and best value event catering experience possible”. The Burb
We endeavour to develop menus as seasonally as possible and with minimal impact to the environment and community around us.
Who are we?
We are a small family and friends team, living in the South Coast, passionate about great food, big flavours, locally sourced ingredients, customer involvement, fun vibes, food memories and food education.
Wayne (Burb) is a skilled chef, butcher and baker. Primed at problem solving, having previously run an electrical business. Wayne’s role as Head Chef is to source, prepare and cook the perfect food for your big day and co-ordinate all the equipment and staffing needs to make your event a success.
Sarah joined him in 2022, giving up her corporate marketing job to manage the all important business administration, that is required in any successful business.
We also employ chefs and service staff, who all know about our aim and follow our ‘good vibes, good times’ mantra.
Where we are now?
We are event caterers located in Dorset, serving up some amazing food at weddings, festivals and private events throughout Dorset, Hampshire and beyond. We make people’s party planning easier by supplying them with menus to suit their tastes and budget and supporting them with crockery, table linen etc hire. Since February 1st 2024, our customers can meet us to chat about their event and also dine with us Thursday to Sunday at the stylish and historic Dirty Gerties Gin Parlour in Christchurch.
Since we started the business in 2020, we have developed our outdoor and indoor event catering services. Sourcing the best cooking equipment to provide our customers with a wide range of food choices and food styles.
At events we can offer three choices of setup either from our black portable gazebos or our 16ft matt-black food trailer or converted horsebox pizza trailer. Having this flexibility means we can pop up almost anywhere and be ready for whatever the great British weather has to throw at us!
We are proud to have been caterers for NHS teams, Film and TV, Sport teams, Universities, Large corporations, Major UK Festivals and some of the very best wedding venues in our region.
Our outside catering experience includes catering for weddings, families, crews, festivals, stately homes, holiday homes, corporate events, fun days, birthday parties and bespoke dinner parties.
We also supply party platters, prepped meals on request, Christmas time is when we get our most bookings. Find out more here: Hire Burbs Kitchen.
We have run a number of Supper Clubs at local venues and have freelanced ourselves out to high end restaurants and other event caterers. We have now settled down with a Burbs Kitchen residency at Dirty Gerties Gin Parlour in Christchurch. This collaboration with Lyndsey and Will at Dirty Gerities is really exciting, as they share the same values as ourselves. Here we get to showcase our small plates menu (5 – 9pm Thursday to Friday and 2 – 9pm Saturday), along with our highly rated Sunday Roast (12 – 3.30pm). We will also be developing some fun food and drink events for the local community to get involved in.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page for all latest menus, events and where to find us. Visit: Burbs Kitchen Facebook.
What type of food do you do?
Our food is straightforward, but packed with flavour, inspired by the food heroes we all know and love, Rick Stein, Hugh Fearnley Whittle-stall, Jamie Oliver, Raymond Le Blanc, Gordon Ramsay, James Martin and the late Keith Floyd.
Our staple event catering menus are wedding breakfasts, hog roasts, BBQ, Paella, Pizza, but anything is possible following our mantra “Your food, your way”.
“Taking inspiration from my food heroes, every day I try to challenge myself with my cooking, I want my food to excite people and evoke memories when they eat.” The Burb.
Menus
Our menus are based around the ingredients best at that time and change seasonally. We love making them, and we value your feedback even more.
We will forever be dedicated to supporting local producers, sourcing the best local produce and demanding the highest cooking, presentation and food hygiene standards; this reflects the excellent customer reviews we receive.
Take a look at our menus here: Burbs Kitchen Sample Menus.
Why customers choose Burbs Kitchen?
– Experience and passion for good food
– Customer-focused bespoke menus
– Friendly, professional staff and reliable service
– Competitive quotes
– Ethical values on sustainable and seasonal produce
– Established local family catering business
Community
Community is at the heart of everything we do at Burbs Kitchen, which starts with buying local and networking with local businesses and suppliers. We have also started to run events at local venues to bring communities together and support local charities.
“There is so much we want to offer here, educating our community that creating food for your family doesn’t need to be difficult”. The Burb
Ethics
We try to do things the right way at Burbs Kitchen, not because it’s trendy and cool. We do it because we need to – as President Macron said: “There is no Planet B”.
“We want to do the best we can in the time we have available, growing our own veg, ideally near our prep kitchen is a dream we want to achieve. Before this we will consider our waste and mileage and how to reduce this for each event we attend” Sarah – Mrs Burb.
Our business values & goals
These are the values and goals that we will refer back on from time to time to ensure we are on track with our business choices.
Fresh / Friendly / Fast / Family / Fierce / Flamed / Food Education / Fun.
“Your food, your way”
We will not deviate from our aim to transform your local food experiences and serve up the freshest flavour-some food indoors and out. In extension to our event catering, a longer term goal is to work with the local council in some way to promote home cooking and share advice on being a happy cook. We would also love an office away from home, in the form of a shop potentially selling kitchen must haves and BBQ equipment.
Fresh
To serve locally sourced, freshly made food, handmade in our trailer, prep kitchen or a potential shop kitchen (forth coming).
To encourage pre-orders to limit food waste.
To work with NCASS to keep our training up to date.
Friendly
To provide our customers and event diners a personal, relaxed, fun and informative service.
Offer tasting plates for weddings and event catering functions.
For our team to be the perfect accompaniment to a lovely day.
Fast
To reduce food miles buying local and delivering close to home.
To make sure food goes out hot and on time.
To keep queues low, keeping trailer menus simple and focused at festivals and events.
Family
To create dishes that the whole family can enjoy.
To meet most dietary requirements.
To socialise with our suppliers and business partners.
Fierce
To create dishes, snacks, relishes, and sauces full of flavour that pack a punch with your taste buds.
To end our customers best-laid diet plans! Our customers will choose the level of fierce.
To provide the quality and quantity. Gut-busting heaps will be available!
Flamed
80% of food at outdoor events, will be either wood-fired, cooked on hot coals or smoked.
To design the perfect accompaniments to complement our meaty feasts.
Focus on BBQ within retail aspect (forth coming shop).
Food education
With live food cooking at events, we can teach your whole family that recipes are a guide and not an instruction.
“Food doesn’t need to be difficult. It doesn’t need to be fussy, just get on with it and enjoy it! “ The Burb
To work with our local council to support projects relating to food poverty and cooking education.
To create new dishes, work with new flavours to meet customers expectations.
Fun
To let the good times roll.
Provide food that’s as big and bold as the music in the trailer, restaurant, gazebo, mixed with games and happy memories what more could you ask for!
“Friends inspire fun, and we want our customers/friends to join us with community-inspired projects” Mrs Burb
To offer pizza making parties, low cost and lots of fun.
Why did you change your name?
During lockdown one and homeschooling! Wayne had a friendly chat with Jim from Jimmy’s Ice Coffee about his goal to set up a business amid Covid. We received a lot of helpful advice, one of the ‘ok, I think you are right!’ take-outs from Jim was “change your name from Burb-Bar-Q”. A later interview with Radio Solent, the presenter mentioned he struggled with pronouncing Burb-Bar-Q. It wasn’t the first time we heard this, so we settled on the name ‘Burbs Kitchen’. And glad we did!