Corporate
Big companies have a Christmas party problem that is mostly about scale. Small teams have a different one: the restaurant option feels like an ordinary Thursday, the pub option feels like nothing at all, and the budget does not stretch to a venue that would make it feel like an event.
I cook for a lot of teams between ten and thirty people in December. This is what I have watched work, and what I would do if it were my own team.
The biggest shift I have seen in the last couple of years is timing. Companies are moving the Christmas party from an evening dinner to a long afternoon. Start at two, finish by seven, everyone gets the last train and nobody has to nurse a hangover through a Friday.
For a small team this is a gift, because a winter afternoon outdoors is beautiful in a way an evening in a restaurant never is. The light goes gold at three, the fire comes into its own at four, and by the time the food comes off it is dark and everyone is standing close to the flames holding a drink. That is a Christmas party.
Small teams do not need entertainment. They need something to do together that is not sitting in a row. The trend across corporate events this year is towards hands-on, low-pressure activities, and cooking is top of the list because it is social without being competitive, and everyone eats the result.
What we do is put the team around the fire and give them jobs. Someone is on the grill, someone is turning the lamb on the cross, someone is making flatbreads. It is not a masterclass with a clipboard. It is an afternoon around a fire with a chef showing you things, and at the end you sit down to a feast you had a hand in. Read more about how a cook-your-own day runs.
You do not need a venue in the traditional sense. A fire feast for twenty needs a patch of ground, somewhere to be under cover, and a willing landowner. Places that have worked for us:
If you have somewhere in mind, send me the details and I will tell you whether it works.
December is game season, and a winter fire feast writes itself. A whole leg of venison over oak. Pheasant wrapped in bacon. Slow pork shoulder with crackling. Roasted roots straight from the embers. Mulled cider warming on the edge of the fire, and hot puddings because it is cold and they are the point. I have written about why winter is the best season for fire, and a December afternoon is the proof.
The best Christmas party I did last year was fourteen people from a design agency, in a field outside Oxford, in the dark, with a fire the size of a car and a whole lamb on it. They said it was the first work Christmas thing in years where nobody looked at their phone.
- Cai
A fire feast for a small team is usually less than a restaurant meal once you count the drinks, and considerably less than an event venue. The cost is mostly food and the team cooking it; there is no venue hire unless you choose a venue, and there is no minimum spend on a bar.
For a team of twenty, a full afternoon with a fire, a feast and a chef showing you around the grill starts at a per-head figure that would not get you a starter and a main in a lot of London restaurants. Ask and I will send you a real number for your group. Have a look at what we do for companies, or just get in touch.
