Private events in Tuscany, cooked outdoors.

Pizza parties

Dough made that morning, a wood-fired oven, and pizzas going out continuously for two hours while people eat standing up and come back for more. It is the single most reliable way to feed a mixed group of adults, teenagers and small children without anyone complaining, which is why it has become the standard welcome-night request for wedding weekends.

Six years as an artisan baker sit behind the dough, which is the part most pizza catering gets wrong. Guests can stretch their own if they want to: most do, after the second glass.

BBQ nights and welcome dinners

The BBQ is Tuscan rather than international: bistecca and sausages over wood, grilled vegetables from the garden, beans cooked slowly in the embers, bread rubbed with new oil. It runs long and nobody is rushed to a table.

Welcome dinners sit somewhere between the two (a served antipasto and primo, then something from the fire), and are designed so guests who have just landed can meet each other without a formal seating plan. If the wedding itself is with me too, the two menus are planned together so nothing repeats.

Good to know

• · Outdoor formats need a wet-weather plan. I will ask about it early: Tuscan Septembers are not always what the brochure suggested.
• · Wood-fired pizza needs an oven on site or access for a mobile one; tell me the venue and I will check.
• · Dietary requirements are handled as standard, including gluten-free pizza dough with a separate peel and station.
• · Doing the whole wedding weekend? Start with wedding catering and we will plan the events around it.