Pizza Van Hire in Hungerford, Berkshire

Phoenix Wood Fired Pizza serve up delicious pizza from their Berkshire based mobile oven. They've got some really useful points for you to keep in mind when hiring your own caterer, so make sure you read on to find them out.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

For us to provide a comprehensive quote we need to know the number of guests to be catered for at the event, a brief description of the type of event and the location. Access to the venue is key to our service delivery so we need to know if there is enough room for our setup (around 4 square metres). Our oven is mobile but does weigh over a tonne! So if we need to uncouple form the van and pull it into position it is not ideal to be on too much of a hill :)

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

I would ask the catering provider if they have had experience of catering at a similar event for a similar amount of people over the expected service time. We often hear of events where customers have had to queue for food as a result of a caterer not being prepared for the amount of guests. I would want to see good reviews and feedback from previous customers. I would ask what their pizza oven is capable of - how long does it take to come to temperature? How many pizzas can they cook per hour? This will give you a good idea if they can provide quick reliable service for your event.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

We started Phoenix Wood Fired Pizza because we absolutely love cooking for people! Initially we were thinking of Thai food because we are very keen on the flavours and spices in Thai cookery but a friend pointed out that just because we love spicy food, not everyone does! We opted for pizza because it is fun and quick to cook, literally everyone loves pizza (especially delicious fresh wood fired pizza) and there is minimal waste (we hate waste) We were both out of work and instead of getting another 'rat-race' job working for some company we wanted to be our own bosses, work together (we are a married couple) and generally have an amazing journey starting and running our own business. We love what we do and it comes across in our service delivery and our product,

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

Literally every booking we have had through Add To Event has been amazing. We always have fun, meet some brilliant, friendly people and see some amazing venues. Weddings are our favourite and I guess last year it would have to be Verity's wedding in Oxfordshire mainly due to the fact that we were able to commit at short notice as they had been let down by another caterer cancelling at the last minute. We could tell they were stressed when they initially contacted us but we soon put them at ease and delivered an exceptional service to 125 guests who were all wonderful people and loved our pizza. Vibes at weddings are always amazing - everyone is always in a great mood so you always come away buzzing from a wedding knowing that we have contributed to someone's 'special' day.