West Midland Wedding Show at The St. Johns Hotel 26/09/2010, welcomes Kemp & Kemp Catering
Karen Kemp, like many people, had always dreamed of running her own
business, in her case a catering company. On the one hand she adores
cooking, secondly she loves cooking for other people; she believes that too
many people eat badly and not enough people eat fresh, great tasting food,
and finally, she thinks that wedding catering is all getting a bit standard and
predictable these days.
Like many of us she also wanted to be free of other people telling her what to
do at work, to be free from the daily commute, no longer be deskbound etc.
She’d dabbled as a housewife with a catering company in the 1990’s but
didn’t really take it that seriously, treating it more as a hobby.
Following her divorce Karen started working full time again (for others), and
this sustained her for a number of years where, although she enjoyed success
and the buzz of the workplace at a sub-prime mortgage broker, the desire to
‘go it alone’ kept surfacing.
Her chance came as the sub-prime mortgage market slowed down in late
2007 with the credit crunch, and the company she was with faced inevitable
difficulties and in fact folded. Karen took her small redundancy package and
with a deep breath, started out on her own.
The problem was how to get started in catering and earn something without a
huge delay, and without huge outlay (probably the two main reasons most
people don’t make their own ‘bid for freedom’). She came up with the idea of
making individual tarts with savoury toppings at home, and selling them on
farmer’s markets in the Stafford Area. This meant she had little outlay and the
risk was low. She called the enterprise ‘The Local Tart Company’ and got
quite a reputation on the streets of Birmingham and beyond!
This was a huge success and Karen (and husband Richard) have now made
and sold over 50,000 tarts in nearly three years and made a decent living
doing so.
In 2008 came their lucky break. A chance conversation with a cake maker
who was looking to wind things down quickly, meant Karen got the chance to
buy a fully fitted, self-contained kitchen unit. The Local Tart Company was
ready to expand.
So, she and project manager husband Richard decided to form ‘Kemp and
Kemp Catering’, and immediately specialised in the up-market, high quality
end of the outside catering - particularly gearing themselves up for wedding
and event catering.
The Company now operates throughout the Midlands, from Cheshire to
Warwickshire and their unique selling point is Karen’s very special brand of
fresh, passionate and inspiring food. Karen commented “My food is heavily
influenced by Nigel Slater, with some Ruth Rogers, Rose Gray, a sprinkling of
early Jamie, all underpinned by good solid Delia. It’s a matter of a series of
simple combinations that delight the palette and the eye”.
And the food (the important bit) is going down a storm, with wedding parties
bowled over by the completely innovative approach to wedding food. Richard
(chief taster and event manager of Kemp and Kemp Catering) commented,
“Wedding food has got a bit of a reputation of being very ‘samey’ recently with
at best - option A, option B etc. Karen’s amazing approach to food just stops
you in your tracks, and whilst not wishing to upstage the bride on the big day,
the catering we provide regularly makes itself a talking point at many events
we’re at”.
So, are either of these two missing full time jobs, salaries, commuting, being
answerable to a boss – what do you think? Both Richard and Karen agree
that the joys of catering on happy occasions like weddings sure beats working
for a living any day.
Kemp & Kemp Catering will be at the Midland Wedding Show at The Belfry on Sunday 3rd October 2010, should you wish to discuss your needs with them further.
