What I Learned Feeding Paramount Pictures on Set

I am going to be straight with you. When I got the email from Paramount Pictures asking if we could cater their Yellowjackets season premiere event, I assumed it was spam. I nearly deleted it. Then I Googled the email address, confirmed it was legitimate, and spent about thirty seconds staring at my phone before calling Deb to tell her.

Her response was "Do not mess this up." Helpful.

But she was right. This was not a garden party for 50 in Eastbourne. This was a global entertainment company with a very specific vision, a very tight schedule, and zero tolerance for anything less than perfect. And they chose us. A wild game fire cooking company from Sussex. Here is what happened.

How We Got The Call

Paramount's events team had been looking for something that matched the Yellowjackets brand. For anyone who has not seen the show, it is about survival in the wilderness. Cannibalism. Fire. Raw, primal human behaviour. Their creative team wanted the premiere event to feel visceral - not a standard canapé reception with waiters in black ties.

They found us through Instagram. Specifically, they found a video of me cooking a whole deer on the Argentine cross at a wedding in Kent. The fire, the smoke, the spectacle of it. That video had about 40,000 views at the time. It was exactly the aesthetic they wanted.

Lesson one: your content is your shopfront. I did not pitch Paramount. They found me because the work was visible online, doing what we do every week.

When a company like Paramount calls, you do not say "let me check my diary." You say yes. Then you figure out the logistics. Opportunities like this do not come around twice.
- Cai

The Brief

The event was at a private venue in London. Around 200 guests - press, cast, crew, industry people. The brief was specific: whole-animal fire cooking as a theatrical centrepiece, with canapes and a main course that tied into the wilderness theme of the show. Everything had to be cooked on site, on fire, in front of the guests. No kitchen. No reheating. No shortcuts.

They also wanted it to feel dangerous. Their words, not mine. They wanted guests to feel the heat, smell the smoke, and see the flames. They wanted the cooking to be part of the entertainment, not hidden away behind a partition.

That is literally what we do every day. But doing it for Paramount raised the stakes considerably.

What We Cooked

The menu was designed to feel wild but taste refined. We served:

• Whole fallow deer on the Argentine cross - the centrepiece. Cooking started at 5am for an 8pm service. Guests arrived to find it turning slowly over glowing embers.
• Venison tartare canapes - hand-cut, seasoned with juniper and served on charcoal crackers. Primal but precise.
• Fire-roasted bone marrow - split lengthways, roasted on the plancha, served with sourdough toast. This was the one everyone photographed.
• Pigeon breast poppers - our signature. Wrapped in bacon, hit with smoked paprika, cooked to order on the flat top.
• Wild boar ribs - slow-smoked for six hours, finished with a cherry and bourbon glaze on the fire pit.
• Charred vegetable platter - whole cauliflower, baby beetroot, heritage carrots, all cooked directly in the embers then dressed with chimichurri.

Every single dish was cooked over fire, in full view of the guests. No exceptions.

What I Learned

Three things stayed with me from that event.

First: standards travel. The pressure of cooking for 200 industry professionals and press is different from a wedding, but the standards are the same. Every steak medium-rare. Every plate immaculate. Every interaction with a guest warm and professional. If you deliver at your standard regardless of who is watching, you will never be caught out when the audience is Paramount Pictures.

Second: spectacle is substance. The whole-animal cooking was not just for show. The deer on the cross produced the best venison of the night - slow-rendered, smoky, impossibly tender. The bone marrow was not a gimmick - it was the most flavourful thing on the menu. When the spectacle IS the cooking method, it delivers on both fronts.

Third: say yes, then figure it out. I had never catered a Hollywood premiere before. I did not have a playbook for it. But I knew how to cook over fire, how to handle large events, and how to read a room. The rest was logistics. Do not let imposter syndrome talk you out of opportunities you are qualified for.

The Paramount job opened doors we did not know existed. It led to conversations with other production companies, with agencies, and with brands who wanted the same visual impact for their own events. It proved that what we do scales from a garden party in Sussex to a London premiere without losing any of the quality or theatre.

And it all started with an Instagram video that someone on a creative team happened to scroll past. Put the work out there. You never know who is watching.

- Cai