Saturday 4th July: Independence day, right?
Well this year something else also happened. We held the official launch party of our new production kitchen for the Edinburgh Catering Company and Russell Up.
Many of you joined us for the night, but for anyone who is not up to speed, I’ll fill you in:
Nearly three years ago, I returned to Edinburgh having worked in France and Portugal. I set up this very website, Russell Up, working as a private chef in Edinburgh and all over Scotland. Much fun was had, and I built up a reputation and took on more and more exciting jobs. However, the more I took on, the harder it became to juggle everything out of a very small production space.
Fast forward to October 2014. I viewed unit 12, New Broompark. A lot of back and forth, solicitors, and waiting, I finally got the keys on 20th February 2015. Around the same time I launched our Kickstarter campaign. I needed to raise some extra money to help fit out the kitchen. Kickstarter had helped other Edinburgh businesses, and was becoming more widely known. It was tough, but we surpassed our target, raising nearly £14500.
The next four months was spent ripping out the old office, floor, and fittings, and building a new production kitchen. We managed to do a lot of the building work ourselves, and have ended up with something I am very proud of. I still run Russell Up, and love cooking privately for people. This new space allows me to do even more interesting an exciting things in these situations. However I decided to launch a new brand at the same time. Welcome The Edinburgh Catering Company. The ethos is exactly the same; bespoke menus of fantastic produce cooked from scratch by skilled chefs. The only difference is that this new brand will be able to cope with large events; weddings, hog roasts, business events, and corporate functions.
So to toast this occasion, we invited about 80 people who have helped us along the way. Some people supported the kickstarter, others helped with promotion or offered invaluable advice. We also had some current wedding couples along. I’m happy to say that everyone who attended contributed something to the development of the business.
So to give back to them, we had a (huge) hog roast, and magician, and frankly a ton of alcohol. We dressed our humble kitchen up, and partied until the wee hours. I’m going to be eating leftover pulled pork and cheese for a while, but I can live with that!
I’ll upload some more photos as I collect them from everyone, but I like to think the evening was a huge success. I would like to thank everyone who attended as well as everyone who helped set the party up; I certainly couldn’t have done it without you.
The kitchen has returned to normal, and we are pressing on with the business development. We are also busy working on the outstanding Kickstarter rewards. The new website will be live in the next week, and we are very excited for the year ahead.
Please get in touch if you have any questions, or indeed any ideas for an event.
Russell