Fire in Winter - Why the Cold Months Are Made for Live-Fire Catering

Every year the enquiries slow down around October, and every year I think the same thing: people have got this completely backwards. They imagine live fire catering as a summer treat - a sunny garden, a barbecue, a marquee. And then the clocks change and they assume the fire goes out.

It does not. If anything, winter is when fire is at its absolute best. Here is why the cold months are made for live-fire cooking.

Fire Is Warmth, Light and Theatre

On a long summer evening, a fire is lovely. On a dark, frosty night in December, a fire is magic. It draws everyone in. Guests gather around the flames with a drink in hand, faces lit orange, smoke curling into the cold air. You are not just feeding people - you are giving them warmth and a place to stand together.

No marquee heater in the world does what an open fire does for the atmosphere of a winter party. It is the difference between guests enduring the cold and guests loving it.

Anyone can light a fire in July. The cold is where live fire really proves itself - and where guests remember it for years.
- Cai

Winter Is Peak Game Season

There is a reason game and winter go hand in hand. The game season runs through the colder months, which means venison, pheasant and partridge are at their very best exactly when you want hearty, warming food. Rich wild meat, slow-cooked over fire, with roasted roots and deep savoury flavours - it is the most seasonal food you can serve, as we set out in our seasonal menu guide.

Christmas Parties That Nobody Forgets

The corporate Christmas party is crying out for this. Your team has sat through enough beige hotel buffets - and I have made the wider case for that in why your corporate event needs live fire. Picture it instead around the flames: fire-cooked sharing boards, mulled drinks, the whole team warm and talking. It is a world away from a function room and a lukewarm carvery.

The same goes for winter weddings, which are having a real moment. A frosty morning, fairy lights, and a fire at the heart of it all is genuinely breathtaking.

But What About the Weather?

This is the question everyone asks, and the honest answer is: it is our job, not your problem. We cook in rain, wind, frost and everything in between - I wrote a whole piece on the truth about cooking in the rain. We bring the right shelter for the kitchen, the fire does not care about the cold, and your guests stay warm beside it.

So do not put the fire away when summer ends. The cold months are when live fire does its best work - warming your guests, lighting up the dark, and serving the richest, most seasonal food of the year. Just book early, because winter dates go quickly.

- Cai