The Brief

Create an interesting part-day’s activity for 20 guests, mainly female but including some males, whose partners were attending a conference in Wellington. The idea was to show them Ruth Pretty Catering in action, with visits to the many activities taking place around Springfield daily, in a relaxed and friendly environment.

The Result

We started by organising a coach to collect guests from their Wellington hotel at a leisurely 9.30 am for the hour’s drive up the Kapiti Coast to Te Horo. On arrival the group was welcomed with fresh fruit juice and the house speciality Springfield Lavender Lemonade at the commercial kitchen, and one of Ruth’s chefs explained the day’s programme.

They toured the catering kitchen, meeting staff and finding out how a large catering business works as they watched dishes in various stages of preparation for upcoming functions. One of the chefs demonstrated some of the kitchen’s "most used in our kitchen” appliances and gadgets: male guests were fascinated by the old-fashioned apple peeler/corer and the Microplane graters.

Everyone appreciated the optional extra of a brief cooking demonstration of one of the lunch items, with many comments about "it’s great to watch an expert in action”.

After some light shopping in the Kitchen Shop (the graters were very popular), and a walk around the 2 acre garden including an area for salad leaves and herbs used daily by the chefs, guests arrived at Ruth and Paul’s beautiful home for a glass of wine and finger food lunch. With the conference dinner that night, a light lunch was ideal and the sunny verandah at Springfield perfect for relaxing over a cup of coffee.

The coach collected everyone at 2.00 pm for the return journey to Wellington – a relaxed, better-informed and well-fed group who’d had a lovely day out in the country.