Based in Bedfordshire, Happy Herefords provides gourmet gluten free BBQ food. Covering a 120 mile radius, they cater for corporate events, birthday parties and festivals. Producing quality food straight from their farm, they also offer hog roasts.
What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?
For Happy Herefords to provide an inclusive quote to a potential customer, the most important piece of information for us is the event date. Secondly we need to know the type of event that is being planned and thirdly the number of guests. We can cater for almost all budgets, timings and locations so once we have the three key pieces of information we can put together a realistic and fair quote for the organiser. Accommodating special dietary requirements, hiding down a backstreet until the special guest has arrived before we set up and taking payment in any (legal) form is part and parcel of what we do!
What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
When looking for a caterer on the Add to Event site make sure you check them out thoroughly. Look at their reviews on the website, as they are the real deal. Check out their profile page and their website, make sure you are happy with the service they are providing, if you are unsure - just ask! Don't be afraid to pick up the phone, caterers are all humans you won't be diverted to a call centre! If you are looking for a caterer then please check out their FHRS rating - 4* or 5*, nothing less.
Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.
Happy Herefords was born out of a love of cows and farming. I am a first generation sole trading farmer and caterer. I have spent the last 10 years building up my herd of pedigree Hereford suckler cows and turning them into burgers and sausages! With every burger that is cooked by Happy Herefords we will be able to give you the name of the animal it came from! I have a very dedicated team who cook and serve our handmade burgers, sausages, steaks and bacon alongside me. All of us are involved in the butchery, and burger/sausage/bacon curing process - we really are birth to bun caterers! We absolutely love telling people about our cows and our burgers, and we also love the look on their faces when they bite into a burger, steak or a sausage and realise that we truly are the real deal and our food is amazing. Happy Herefords prides itself on arriving at an event, setting up quickly, with no fuss, getting food ready to serve on time, serving guests within the required time frame and clearing up quickly.
Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?
I can categorically say I've never had a bad Add to Event booking. All of the event details are sorted
out before we arrive, the customer knows what to expect from us, we know what to expect when we arrive, we get to serve lovely people our amazing Hereford Beef burgers & steaks and everyone remembers the event with a smile. One of our biggest Add to Event booking challenges was to feed 310 hungry year 11 students on their last day at school within 1 hour - we nailed it! We do so many smaller events 50-80 guests for surprise birthday parties, these are always fun from the early hour emails from the 'secret' organiser, to hiding out of sight until the 'special guest' has arrived. Add to Event has added a new avenue to my business and has enabled me to extend my catering to a year round operation. I've been with Add to Event more or less since the outset, the site has really taken off in the last 18 months or so and I recommend it as the 'go to' to both customers and fellow traders, it is a breath of fresh air within the hospitality and events sector.