A Glimpse Inside: Film Catering in the UK

We’ve recently had some young and upcoming filmmakers reach out to us regarding catering for their projects, enquired about catering for student or emerging film projects, or just reached out for general advice on how catering works for various forms of film and television.

So we thought it could be handy to compile everything here for other up-and-coming filmmakers - though we won’t cover everything, so please feel free to reach out with further questions!

Couple of Natas Catering is a London-based film and TV catering company, serving productions all over the UK. We provide Portuguese, Spanish, South American, and other cuisines to film crews wherever and whenever we’re needed.

“How is film catering different from other styles of catering?”

Film and TV catering is a rather different animal from that of other forms of catering you can find day-to-day. We work privately with a client, not selling to the public, contracted either by a studio or production company to cater for a specific project.

Like other forms of catering, like weddings and events, we are contracted for a certain number of people (which is HUGELY subject to change) and we prepare our stock levels, staffing, and menus to suit the number of people coming in that day (as far as we are aware). We have to be prepared for additional people, unaccounted dailies, and wastage into every day, so we are prepared to catering to more if needed - Charging any “overages” to production afterwards.

“Can any project get catering?”

This question falls into the “Yes, if/No, but” grey area.

I (“Mrs Nata”) used to be an actor back in the day. I did some bigger projects, more on the smaller side, and many more tiny “no budget” projects. Catering was pretty much non-existent for me on the smaller projects - I surprisingly found that students generally tried harder than most other veins of Indie filmmaker, but full-service hot catering or hot-box deliveries weren’t common by any means.

Middle-tier indies (which I was never lucky enough to work on) tend to aim for the full “set experience” of on-site catering, but it all comes down to budget in the end. Full hot service is the ideal for everyone, but the added costs of infrastructure (like kitchen rentals, mileage, etc), additional staffing for multiple service points (as only a certain number of people are included in the spend per head), and surcharges (depending on location, small-crew size surcharges, generator rentals, disposables, etc) can quickly have projects reevalutating their catering options.

“How can I get catering as a student/indie?”

First things first, be straightforward. When you make an enquiry with a catering company, try to be as forthcoming with information as possible, so both sides can determine if it’s a good fit as early as possible.

Be realistic with yourself and the companies you speak with. We, for example, always try to do our best to give as low a quote as possible for indie projects, as we know from the other end how hard it is to make a project happen, but we have to keep the lights on. Whilst we’ll waive some fees here and there and try to accommodate lower spend-per-heads or crew sizes, at the end of the day we wouldn’t be able to keep this website up, the mobile phone on, and our bills paid if we matched every request that came in.

I’d recommend planning as early as possible, asking for ballpark quotes (including any, sometimes hidden, additional charges!), and factoring catering as a vital part of your project’s budget.

Also consider things that look like savings, but aren’t: It may sometimes seem cheaper to get a few pizzas in, or put a kettle in a corner and call it a day, but a well fed crew is a happy crew, and you don’t want the costs of necessary comforts at work such as food and drinks to fall onto your team, because that can cost you a lot more in manpower down the line than saving a few £ a day!

“Does it cost extra to cater for Vegans or allergies?”

Good question! Any catering company knows that every dish has its own individual cost per person, and speciality ingredients such as Vegan or gluten-free alternatives can come at a hefty price, but we try to minimise the impact of that on the production.

Generally, we do not charge above the standard per-head rate to offer Vegan, Gluten-free, or other dietary needs, as we want to be as inclusive as possible. In the past, we have provided menus for clients that have naturally been free from gluten!

Obviously, if there are a higher number of speciality adjustments in a menu or production wants super specific stuff provided, it can affect the cost to production, but we always work with the team to reach a suitable decision, and are mindful of budgets.

“Why do you always do breakfast and lunch as the meals, no matter the time of day?”

Generally, the meals are usually always breakfast and lunch due to the time crews start their day. If call time is 2am until 2pm, it kind of makes sense to serve breakfast, even if it is the middle of the night. Yes, sometimes it does get a bit confusing - say it’s a random one-day night shoot and suddenly you go from breakfast 6-8am and now you’re trying to stomach poached eggs at midnight - but generally things just usually work like that,

However, we always work closely with production to make sure service works just how they want it to, so we’re always open for changign things up to suit - we’re just hoping someone asks for dessert for breakfast one day!

This article will likely get updated with further questions we receive down the line, but we hope this gave a nice little insight into UK film catering - and please feel free to ask us anything via our contact form!