A Load Of Old Hog Blog

Bringing you direct into the sitting room of the hog with a blog

So, just reporting in finally after a long hot summer and a short cold Christmas of cooking pigs! Is it just me or is the summer getting later each year? My busiest month of the year is now September so before you know it bonfire night has arrived, the winter woollies are out from the loft, the wife is cooking a roast dinner at any given opportunity and the kids are treading muddy wellies across the carpet. No sooner has the sparkler been extinguished than we then are inundated with scary children demanding all our sweets or we'll get tricked...The wife then starts her 'Christmas Party Season' around mid-November culminating in the 'works do' (what happens on these dos stays on these dos) usually the week before Christmas and recovering in time for the small matter of putting up the Christmas tree (slightly wonky of course) and the wrapping of the Christmas present mountain. This can't be done without drinking lots of mulled wine (it's illegal to drink it any other time of year isn't it?) and listening to Sammy, Dean and Frank (this CD mysteriously hides itself from January until November). Once we've done the usual Greenaway road trip around various family and friends and have eaten our body-weight in turkey we then watch every single childrens film known to man. The year of course ends with everybody drinking copious amounts of alcohol again, promising not to touch another drop ever, and singing the only known line to Auld Lang Syne...

Why do I tell you all this I hear you ask, well it's all good news for The Fat Pig Co. as it means people want a hog roast, bbq or some form of outdoor catering. I recently had a request from a Russian Oligarch wanting a pig one metre long, cooked in advanced and delivered to his penthouse in Wimbledon for New Years Eve for him and his two guests to enjoy! Apparently money was no object! I had to communicate via his English speaking concierge so I never did find out whether he was a wealthy owner of a football team in West London.

The events this summer have ranged from the sublime (cooking for the rich and famous in stately homes and castles) to the unusual (being towed by a tractor across a field to cook a pig in our wellington boots). We witnessed a wedding couple having their picture taken performing the 'first cut of the pig' with a sword, and not so long back we cooked a pig for a customer whilst their 2 pet pot-bellied pigs roamed free in the garden beside us!

The diversity of my job is what keeps me interested, I've recently set up a franchise and now have The Fat Pig Essex operating successfully from their base in Chelmsford so my dream to conquer the universe one day is still very much alive.

On a more serious note The Fat Pig Co. has recently been chosen to receive support and funding from a 'Local Business Accelerator' scheme backed by David Cameron and championed by Deborah Meaden of Dragons Den. Through this we will receive much needed advertising funds plus valued business mentoring from Pinewood Studio's Chief Executive Officer Ivan Dunleavy. The scheme launched last October will give 1500 firms across the country 15m pounds worth of free advertising to help boost their businesses.

On a rather more relaxed note and coming back down to earth from my recent business successes my two lovely boys are now embarking on their early years at school so we at The Fat Pig are teaming up with the parents and governors to come up with weird and wacky ideas of how we can make money for the school. When it comes to catering nothing is straight forward with The Fat Pig Co. so just watch this space. I've sworn The Fat Piglets to secrecy on this but word is already reaching the playground of forthcoming events.

And of course none of this can be achieved without the support of my good wife Catherine. Although not actively involved in the day to day running of the business she does continually make sure I keep my feet on the ground and is relentless in her pursuit of me taking the recycling to the local dump at least once a week, so I thank her for this.

So a belated happy new year to one and all and wishing you a very successful 2012. And I can't finish without a quick plug, if you're having a wedding, birthday, anniversary or simply want some catering just for fun remember...... The Fat Pig is waiting.....