For Cooper’s 13th birthday party, he asked his parents for a party with a difference – a hog roast Bugle for him and his close friends. While hog and spit roasts are becoming more and more common these days, and for every kind of event imaginable, it’s not often that a young teenager will request one. However, a few weeks ago, Cooper’s parents called us to book us in for one of our winter warmer menus cooked at their house in the back garden, and let us know that it was just for the birthday boy and his guests (as his parents and sisters were not invited!)
Our winter warmer hog roast Bugle consists of a freshly-roasted pig, which we cook in one of our excellent machines to produce delicious pork slices and crunchy pieces of crackling, as well as seasonal vegetables. For the latter, Cooper’s parents asked us to provide a ratatouille dish, with aubergines, peppers, courgettes, onion, garlic, and tomatoes, which would also serve as the vegan meal for one of his friends, as well as be the side dish for everyone else.
For this small party of 8 young guests, I could easily cater it by myself. I went along to Cooper’s home early on Sunday afternoon, armed with a hog roasting machine, gazebo and serving station, as well as a small hog and the rest of the food. Service would be around 5pm and it takes a few short hours to cook a small pig, so I got on with preparing the meat for its roasting. Cooper and most of his friends took a break from playing video games to watch in amazement as I prepped the meat with water and salt and scored it all over, and then it was all ready to be cooked. I needed to keep an eye on it, and then later on it was time to freshly prepare the veggies to roast away underneath the hog.
Once the meat was done and was resting, the guests gathered round, as the amazing smells had brought them back outside. It was then a real pleasure to serve a group of pleasant, well-behaved teenagers, who loved the food and couldn’t stop complimenting the chef and asking for more! Another great day for hog roast Bugle!