Last week I went down to Main Ridge for two nights to help out with my friends' film shoot. They were shooting a pilot for a sketch comedy program, and they required a caterer (me).

I had a budget of $350 (we only spent $300 though, YAY). It was more difficult than expected, because I had to cook for 16 people, stay within budget, and attempt to make stuff that most people would find edible. And lots of the people up there weren't very adventurous. (There were people who didn't eat mushrooms, seafood, rice, pork, meat etc).

Here's what I made (mainly made at home, in advance and reheated up there).

Penne Alla Vodka
Chicken drumsticks with rice
Chilli Con Carne with bread rolls and cheese
Sausages, onions and bread

Breakfasts were just cereal, toast, milk, fruit and juice. And tea and coffee, of course. I also bought a couple of packets of Assorted Creams. With the leftover money, Lexi (director's girlfriend) went down to the supermarket and picked up loads of snack foods (Timtams, mint slices, chips, snakes, etc).

Oh my god I ate so so much crap. The food I made was high fat and carby enough as is, but combined with the snack food! Jaffe also brought up homemade brownies, with insanely huge choc chips (white, milk, dark). Mmmmmmm. Beautiful and addictive. (Did you know that you can make new brownies by smooshing together leftover brownie crumbs?!) Also I think I ate more than I usually do when I go up there because there just wasn't much to do! Usually when we go to Al's holiday house, we watch DVDs, eat drink talk and smoke all day (well, Al did still smoke a lot - he was very very stressed and was constantly smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee/energy drinks!) But, as most people were working on the filming, I had a lot of spare time in between cooking and cleaning.

I watched DVDs with Lexi, read Past Mortem (all of it in 1.5 days!) slept, watched the filming and ate crap! It was a really good experience overall though. I don't know if I'll ever do anything food-related that's professional, but you never know.