Wedding Food for Children - What to Feed Kids at a Live Fire Feast

There is a moment in every wedding planning conversation where the couple says, almost apologetically, "oh, and there will be about twelve kids." As if it is a problem. It is not. But it is a question, and most caterers answer it with a plate of beige.

Here is how I think about feeding children at a fire feast, and what actually goes on their plates.

Start With What Age

A wedding with twelve children might mean twelve toddlers or twelve teenagers, and those are entirely different meals. When you send me the guest list, tell me roughly: under fives, primary school, older. It changes the portions, the timing and how much they will eat from the adult boards.

As a rule, children over about ten eat what the adults eat, just less of it, and are often more adventurous than their parents expect. Under that, they need their own food and their own timing.

What We Actually Cook

The mistake is to think children need different food. They mostly need the same food in a different shape. A fire-cooked feast is full of things kids love once you take the sauce off and cut it smaller.

• Sausages from the fire: Venison and pork sausages, split and charred, in a soft roll. No child has ever refused one
• Chicken thighs on the bone: Cooked over the cooler embers until sticky. Something to hold, no cutlery needed
• Flatbreads from the grill: Torn, dipped in butter, eaten in the hand. We make these anyway; kids get the first ones off
• Roasted potatoes and simple vegetables: Ember-roasted new potatoes with salt, sweetcorn on the cob, carrots roasted whole. Nothing that needs explaining
• The pudding the adults have: Roasted fruit and cream, or whatever we are doing, in a smaller bowl. Children do not need a separate pudding, they need it sooner

Notice there is nothing on that list that comes out of a freezer. It is food from the same fire the adults are eating from, and it means a seven-year-old at your wedding will tell their parents they had "the same as the grown-ups," which is what they wanted all along.

I fed a five-year-old a piece of venison haunch at a wedding last summer because she pointed at it and asked what it was. She ate three slices. Her dad had ordered her the chicken. Children are more curious than their parents remember.
- Cai

The Timing Problem

This is the thing that actually matters, and the thing most wedding timelines forget. The adult meal at a wedding is usually served around five or six, after the ceremony and the drinks and the photos. A four-year-old who has been awake since six and eaten a handful of crisps at the drinks reception is not a happy guest at half past five.

So we feed the children early. Sausages in rolls and flatbreads come off the fire during the drinks reception, and the little ones eat at four while the adults have a glass of something. By the time the feast comes out, the kids are fed and playing, and their parents get to sit down and eat a hot meal with both hands. That is the single most useful thing we do for families at a wedding.

Allergies and Fussiness

Tell us about allergies the same way you would for adults, and we handle them the same way. Fussiness is different. We keep the children's food plain by default: no strong sauces, nothing spiced, salt and butter and smoke. A child who will only eat plain pasta can have plain bread and potatoes and be perfectly happy. We do not do a separate menu for one guest, but we will make sure there is something on the table every child can eat.

What to Tell Us

Three things: how many children, roughly what ages, and any allergies. That is enough for us to plan the food and the timing. Children are usually charged at a lower rate, and they are counted separately from your adult number, so do tell us they are coming.

If you are planning a wedding with a lot of families, get in touch and we will work the timing out together. It is easy when it is planned and a headache when it is not.