Goujon Monkey is a wedding and private event caterer who specialise in hand prepared beer-battered fish and chips served from a mobile catering unit throughout Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties. With all street food prepared and cooked from scratch in the lovingly restored Citroen H van, Goujon Monkey are able to provide their catering services at all types of events from weddings to birthday parties to large-scale festivals.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

For us to provide a comprehensive quote to a customer, ideally we need the event date, a brief explanation of the type of food the customer is looking for, the estimated number of guests, potential venue and approximate time the food service is required from/until. From this, we can use our experience and expertise to put together a suitable proposal and quote.

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Firstly, ask the provider about the menu they are offering, for example will they be using fresh, quality ingredients or frozen, cheaper ingredients? Will they be preparing by hand or using pre-prepared products. The answers may explain the difference in quotes you are receiving and you can make an informed decision on the amount of money you want to spend and the quality of food you want to receive. Also, make it clear to the fish and chip caterer what you are looking for from the food service, a fast service where your guests are all eating together, or a more relaxed, informal service where your guests can choose to eat at any point throughout longer period of time say 2 to 3 hours.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

Goujon Monkey was created firstly from a desire to do something completely different to the office jobs we were both working at the time but also from a passion for great customer service and amazing tasting, fresh, hand prepared, yet simple food. The majority of our events are weddings, birthday parties and corporate events and it's great to be a part of these special events and add another unique element to the day with our classic van and tasty food.

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

We have now had several bookings through Add to Event in the short time we have been using the platform. We recently provided the wedding reception catering for 100 hungry guests at a lovely lake-side location. The trees lining the lake had been decorated with some amazing lighting and the whole venue looked fantastic, especially with our classic van perched right in the middle. The bride and groom had created such a unique wedding and were delighted with the quality of our food as well as the friendly service. We received some lovely feedback from the wedding guests and in fact have since been booked to cater for a 60th birthday party for one of the guests next year.