Kalm Kitchen tasting evening at Micklefield Hall

In order for bride’s and groom’s to pick their menu choices for their wedding, most wedding caterers offer a tasting evening.  Here at Micklefield Hall, we host tasting events in collaboration with wedding caterers Kalm Kitchen, to show case just how beautifully our venue works alongside our exclusive caterers and our other fabulous suppliers.  In this blog post, we hear from Sarah, who attended our tasting evening held in February 2020.

“My fiancé and I were really excited to attend the tasting evening at Micklefield Hall. We had had many a conversation with Kalm Kitchen, looked at their stunning photographs and read through their menus. We had an idea what we were going to pick, but the opportunity to taste a selection of the different dishes, in the very place we were due to get married, was such a treat.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a choice of three welcome drinks, a Prosecco, an English sparkling wine and the soft drink option of the elder flower cordial. We had never considered an English sparkling wine but the Bluebell Hindeleap, Classic Cuvee 2014 was crisp, clean and perfect for a drink for our guests to toast us with.

Shortly after, the canapes were circulated.  All beautifully presented, easy to handle, and the perfect portion size.  There was a good variety to choose from, some with dipping sauces, some without and the vegan ones even managed to win over my meat-loving finance which was great.  We have a few vegan friends coming to our wedding, so I was keen to see that their choices were going to be just as delicious as ours.  Our top three included, the roast beef Yorkshires with fiery horseradish sauce, wildflower and baby slaw rice rolls (great for my vegan friends), and the Parmesan pastries with tomato mascarpone and rosemary crisp. 

We had a chance to listen to some fab, live musicians (The Collective) and even spoke to Jamie and Anna, the owners of Micklefield.  It was so lovely to see their passion and enthusiasm and they gave us some great advice about suppliers and how our day might run.  We met Louise Ralphs from Lou Paper, so we got to go over some designs for our wedding stationery and she was so lovely. It really reassured us that we had picked the right designer. We especially liked her beautiful calligraphy on the Perspex sheet.

Finally, it was time to go through to The Great Barn, which we had both fallen in love with on the show round last year.  It was just as beautiful as we had remembered.  There was a long, long table down the middle of the barn, covered in succulents, gorgeous green napkins and matching goblets and glasses.  We tried a different red and white wine with each course, which had been expertly matched by Micklefield’s wine expert Ellis Wines. I especially liked the Primativo di Salento served with the starter and my fiancé liked the Pecorino, Tor del Colle served with the main course. The wine just kept flowing, thank goodness we had booked a taxi!

There was so much food to get through, with four options for starter and main.  One of the starter options was a Mediterranean platter, a great sharing activity for guests.  These came out on huge chunky wooden boards and were placed on Perspex cubes that were neatly tucked amongst the succulents on the tables.  This meant that the boards were at eye level and there wasn’t the faff of moving things on the tables to make room for these huge boards.  The arancini balls were a big hit with my fiancé, especially when they were dipped in the amazing humus.  Really gave us food for thought about how much entertainment a sharing platter brings to the table. I was totally blown away by the scallop starter.  It came with a sweet and smoky sweetcorn puree and crispy, salty shard of Parma ham.  Both flavours complimented the huge, juicy scallops and brought the dish together.

For the mains, the lamb rump absolutely stole the show.  It came with a lamb croquette and carrot puree and they had drizzled the lamb juices over the dish which made a light and gorgeous gravy.  The gnocchi with green veg was a total surprise and we both enjoyed this dish as much as we enjoyed the meat dishes.

And then we came to dessert.  We duly undid our trouser buttons to ensure we had enough room for pudding and thank goodness we did! In a dramatic procession, the waitresses brought out these towering pavlovas covered in red fruits and edible flowers.  These were placed again on the Perspex boxes and the task of cutting into the culinary works of art was given to one of the guests.  It brought great laughter and anticipation to the table, as some poor soul took up the challenge of cutting the first slice, whilst trying to get all the toppings onto a plate! The summer berry pavlovas just looked stunning and against the greenery of the tables and the spotlights from the barn ceiling above, they were real showstoppers.

If that wasn’t enough, we then got to try the sticky toffee pudding (my fiance’s favourite pudding ever).  So indulgent and rich. Then, with just as much drama and excitement, the patisserie bar was revealed at the end of the barn. Reminiscent of a scene out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the bar was adorned with mini glasses filled with different puddings and above them towered cake pops and chocolate shards, all nestled in a stunning flower arrangement and again lit from above, like a theatre production.

We left the tasting evening with such excitement for our wedding day. We got to glimpse what an amazing celebration we are going to have after our ceremony, in that amazing barn with its high vaulted ceiling and chunky beams. We just know that our friends and family are going to be so impressed with Micklefield Hall and Kalm Kitchen and are going to be talking about our wedding for a long time!

Venue: Micklefield Hall
Catering & crockery/glassware: Kalm Kitchen
Flowers: Andrew Flemming
Wine: Ellis Wines
Stationary: Lou Paper
Music: The Collective
Photography: Jack Ladenberg