All posts by Alastair Coleman

You wedding day is one of the most important days in your lifetime. See below 6 ways to elevate your special day, leaving your guests saying, ‘Best wedding ever!’

1. Post ceremony drinks hour  

Everyone has been a wedding, where the couple go off for their photos and the guests are left to their own devices until the reception starts. This can sometimes be over an hour wait! No thank you! Provide your guests with food and drinks while you go off and get your photos. Our suggestion is an epic grazing table or our Canapes on Arrival menu which offers a delightful selection of cool and hot canapes to keep your guests entertained. This also allows you to take your time with your photos knowing your guests are taken care of.

2. Full beverage service

Take the stress out of your drinks set up by going with a Going Gourmet Beverage Package. This takes the stress out of choosing, purchasing, transporting and setting up all your beer, wine and non alcoholic drinks. Simply select off our own drinks menus which includes a wide variety of craft and crowd favorite beers and hand picked wines by our experienced events team. Our bar team will then bring in all glassware and equipment for full drinks service throughout your reception.

3. Dessert Grazing table

Let’s be honest, no one really eats the wedding cake. It’s a nice tradition, but when it comes to the only form of dessert, it’s a bit of a letdown. Treat your guests to an epic dessert grazing table where they can feast on as much dessert as they like.

4. Feasting/shared platters

No one likes to be told what they must eat. When you choose an alternate drop style wedding, your guests will have one dish placed in front of them and if they don’t like the option they have to try and find someone to swap with. We’ve all been there! It’s not the best. Choosing a feasting style wedding, your guests will be spoiled with choice, as multiple main options and sides are put in the middle of the table for them to choose what and how much they want to eat. Every guest’s dream!  

5. Be true to you as a couple!

This is the most important one! Be true to yourselves. Everyone will have an opinion on what you should do (the irony is not lost on us) but at the end of the day, do what you want. Have what you want at your wedding and invite who you want to invite. You will be bombarded with friends and family telling you what you should do at your wedding, or even worst telling you what you’re doing is wrong. Best piece of advice is to bubble up and not let anyone effect your special day. Sit down and make a list of what is important to you and your partner and stay true to it. This will ensure you have the best day ever!

Blog by Lucette Brown from Baxter Barn

Here at Going Gourmet, we like to keep busy! We are so excited to present our latest Wedding Venue, The Little Vineyard. This beautiful space combines the intimate and rustic charm of the country with rolling view views from the Yarra Valley to bring you a truly unique escape for the perfect wedding.
  
The Little Vineyard had been a family-operated function space for years until Going Gourmet discovered the space in 2018. Despite its rundown interior, we saw amazing potential hidden within it. As one of Melbourne’s leading catering companies and owners of Baxter Barn, one of Victoria’s most popular wedding venues, our industry experience made us the ideal team to renovate The Little Vineyard and transform it into a stunning wedding and events space.
  
We took over the venue in October that same year with one goal in mind—to reveal its glowing beauty for all to discover and enjoy. The breathtaking view of the valley as a wedding ceremony backdrop alone was nearly enough for the venue to hold its own, but we wanted to elevate it with a contemporary and rustic space adorned with raw timber detail. We took down the large, outdated bar and in its place created a space inspired by Victoria’s modern breweries with a country vibe, complete with stripped-back timber and intricate detailing.
  
The physical renovations are nothing short of impressive and The Little Vineyard is now a beautiful and unique events space, but its transformation doesn’t end there! We also wanted to create a phenomenal wedding experience for clients in its entirety, from start to finish.
  
Picture yourself standing in front of a cascading vineyard with your family and friends, surrounded by beautiful Yarra Valley scenery as you exchange your vows of love. After the ceremony, you and your bridal party explore the estate and all its beautiful location spots to capture picture-perfect images as lasting memories—our vineyard at sunset is particularly a wedding photographer’s dream! You then return to your guests under an outdoor patio, surrounded by a warm, romantic glow of fairy lights.
  
As your guests mingle and enjoy their drinks, our professional staff roam with gourmet canapes and trays of sparkling wine for your guests to toast you as newlyweds. After this delightful social hour, it’s time to retreat to the indoor reception area where you are seated at long tables resplendent in naked timber finish.
  
The feast can now begin—and feasting-style receptions are our specialty! Going Gourmet is continually praised for its exceptional food, with our quality produce prepared by outstanding chefs, and designed for food lovers without the unnecessary bells and whistles. Our focus is providing you with mouth-watering, beautiful and tasty food, paired with delicious craft beer and wine on tap. Protein choices and sides are all within arm’s reach in the centre of the tables, allowing guests to easily help themselves and each other, creating an intimate, family-style dinner atmosphere. No bride or groom will have to worry that there isn’t enough food, as no guest will leave a Going Gourmet wedding hungry. That’s our promise!
  
Our contemporary, raw timber bar provides an array of options—local craft beers, boutique wines and ciders, to name a few—ready to be served by our fun and experienced bartenders as you celebrate the evening away.
  
From the Waiters and Chefs through to the Event Managers, our humble and dedicated team is an extremely passionate bunch of people! Aside from being experienced in our fields, we absolutely love what we do, and we work together to bring a new level of service to The Little Vineyard. We want you to recognise the warm, familiar face of your Event Manager on your special day, feel at home, and know that you are in capable hands.
  
The Little Vineyard has certainly seen some big changes these past few months, but don’t take our word for it—come and experience this unique venue for yourself and truly feel the charm and magic it has to offer for your wedding or event. Book a tour with one of our friendly Event Managers today!
  

What feels like a long time coming, the busy Chef’s at Going Gourmet have finished and perfected our new menu to present to you all! Catering menu’s require a different thought process to the usual restaurant menu – as unlike a restaurant we are never cooking in the same place! Our Chef’s don’t have the comfort of a familiar kitchen every weekend, instead we find ourselves inside our clients homes, new venues or even in the back paddock cooking under the stars!

This means our menu items need to be unique and adaptable – whilst still being beautiful and delicious.
  
With Executive Chef Owen O’Neill leading the charge, we have finalised the Spring Summer 2019/2020 Menu – offering a brand new spread of taste bud tantalising options! This comes with a bit of a new look for Going Gourmet exploring presentation styles and flavours that may not have been seen before through our previous menu’s up to this point. The core of what we do is fresh, handmade, good soul food. We are branching out in some new directions and ensuring that each dish still has the love and care that our product is known for.
  
This new menu will see more power given to the customer (you!) in selecting and creating your ideal package, allowing you to be able to create a journey for your own guests at your wedding, engagement, birthday or work event. We are bringing in flavours from some different cuisines and allowing our chef’s to show their flare in their own personal styles of cooking which will in turn take everyone on a culinary adventure at any event!
  
Some exciting new things we can share is the introduction of “hand held items” which are a larger canape option, and then “bowl food” options which are again, a step up offering a mini meal to be enjoyed whilst mingling and sipping on your wine at the same time.
  
To create, trial and roll out a new menu is a very detailed process, but that’s what we love about it! Every detail and every flavour needs to be just right so we can execute it in the hundreds for all your amazing events every weekend. The look, style, feel, taste, colour, texture and description of each item needs to be easy, yet exciting and we need to ensure there is enough variety to suit every taste bud out there. Then all items need to be paired with the perfect serving dish, photographed and documented so each of our talented chefs (over 20 of them!) knows exactly how each item should look when you select it for your own special event.
  
Then of course there is the taste testing – how else would we be able to describe and suggest our favourite items without trialing ALL of them first, it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it.
  
The last step is then collating everything together in our brochure which allows you to browse all options at your leisure, understand the different pricing structure and choose what will suit your special occasion best.
  
We are very proud to have the new brochure up and running, and can’t wait to be cooking it for you some time soon.
 

 
It brings us a lot of joy to show off our gold shining star, crowning us the best Independent Caterers in Victoria at the Australian Bridal Industry Academy – ABIA, which were held on Tuesday 7th May 2019 at Crown Aviary.
 
Thank you to everyone who voted for us, from our couples who invite us into their homes for their weddings, the couples who choose us to cater at their chosen venues and all our Baxter Barn – Weddings & Events couples’ who chose our venue to get married at and voted for us.
 
We love what we do here and cannot wait to smash out another wedding season! This year, expect new menus, new food and a fresh new look, as we continue to bring you the best food, service and staff.
 

Going Gourmet have been a busy bunch!
 
Late last year we took over ownership of a venue called The Little Vineyard. Nestled in Chirnside Park with the view of rolling hills of the Yarra Valley- we saw the potential this adorable venue had and took hold with both hands to make this something spectacular.
 
The Managing Director has been hard at work coordinating renovations, giving the venue some ‘Going Gourmet love’ and rustic character. Renovations will be completed in the next week or so, and what great timing to show off our newest venue for a Mothers’ Day Pop Up Brunch at The Little Vineyard- which we now know as “TLV”.
 
The sky is the limit with what beautiful (& delicious) weddings & events that can be held at the property and we are super excited to share our journey with you all.
 
Rather than having breakfast in bed, or that same restaurant you go to for every family occasion- treat mum and the family to a brand new scene and book a table at Going Gourmets’ TLV Mother’s Day Event!
 
Feasting/Shared style menu, served to your table (because we’re all family here) with an abundance of delicious colourful, relatable food served with a glass of bubbles on arrival to toast and thank mum! Be sure not to eat too much, as following your main meal, an epic dessert buffet will be served for all those sweet tooths’!  Non-alcoholic beverages are also inclusive of the per person costings – any other drinks can be purchased at bar prices.
 
Bookings are essential in advance. See below event details for menu and information and contact events@thelittlevineyard.com.au or phone 0455 660 138 to arrange your table!
 
Also, INVITE YOUR FRIENDS via our Facebook event here

So the silly season is upon us…well almost!
 
The daylight is stretching longer and the weather supposedly heating up (come on Melbourne?) and before we all know it we will be rolling into December with the Christmas Carols playing and the Christmas parties kicking on.
 
It can be the best time of year and the busiest time of year because one thing is for sure- the food & drinks will be flowing! Everyone is talking about this year’s Christmas party and what will be planned. There’s so many options to choose from but once you have your location locked in the next big deal is of course, the catering!
 
First thing to think about is do you want to have a stand up cocktail party where everyone just drinks and mingles and enjoys delicious bite size pieces handed around to them
OR
do you want to have your guests sitting down for a bit, having a nice big hearty plated meal before the real festivities begin?
 
Generally, we find that the cocktail party is a popular way to go in that it offers a lot more flexibility for the night and you also don’t have to find a space that can fit a full table and chair set up. This encourages all your team to interact, chat with different groups and ultimately relax and forego the formalities associated with a sit down.
 
For example, when your first early bird guests start to arrive no one wants to stand around empty handed so you’d want a nice big spread of antipasto, cheese & dips which are always an ice breaker. Nothing brings the accounts department and the PR Reps together like some Brie!
 
Cool canapes kick off once more of a crowd has arrived and our friendly staff explain the delicious delicacies – there’s a few interesting ones in there including Peri Peri chicken fillet on a sweet corn & coriander fritter and then we have the Rare Seared Beef on Turkish bread, house made ollo rosso jam with shaved rocket. Staff will have a chat & explain, but ultimately let the flavours do the talking!
 
Hot canapes are where all the fun is, with some crowd favourites such as fresh salt & pepper calamari, pulled pork rolls in a brioche bun and assorted hand rolled arancini balls!
 
When it comes to the drinks department, an all-inclusive beverage package is the way to go. People aren’t looking at the label on the wine at these types of things – they just want it to be free! A beverage package allows us to worry about the quantities, the transport & storage of large amounts of beer & wine. We source great local product (which is of course tried & tested by ourselves) so we know that what we’re serving will suit all pallets whether someone is after the perfect sparkling or a hearty red. Our beer lists consists of the crowd favourites such as Carlton Draught & Stella, as well as the ever popular boutique beers, Hawkers Pale Ale and Fat Yak.
 
Outsourcing catering for your end of year event is the most flexible way to make your plans & choose your location, because no matter when or where, you know you can get amazing food & drink service to make it a day or night to remember!

These days there is not to many things more important than the perfect party. Ok well that’s a lie – there’s a lot more things important than the perfect party BUT that doesn’t mean we are not allowed to indulge ourselves.
 
In an age of Instagram #foodporn and Facebook live it’s all about the what are you doing right now, how good does it look and how many of your friends and family are going to be raging that they blew off your 42nd birthday invite to stay at home and watch Masterchef on the TV – when they could have been experiencing culinary masterpieces IN REAL LIFE. Crazy I know.
 
The family gathering is no longer about pulling the old faithful Patties out of the freezer and leaving them to the flies for the rest of the night. We now have the world at our finger tips – and this includes a professional chef & their kitchen.
 
The vision is that you don’t have to go anywhere, you don’t have to do anything, all you have to do is swap your Moccasins for a pair of strappy heels at the last minute & then simply step out into your own back yard, or leave them on, whatever – here at Going Gourmet we want to bring the flexibility for you to do what you want. We’ll serve you no matter what the attire, no matter what the location and you can even run in side and have a cheeky nap half way through the night and we won’t tell a soul.
 
Our chef will be cooking in your kitchen, making themselves at home, even making sure your kids keep getting those sneaky chips on the side whilst pumping out an array of mouth watering food for your unsuspecting guests outside who by the end of the night are simply going to think you are the party QUEEN. How does a rare seared beef sound with ollo rosso cherry onion jam served upon oven cooked Turkish bread sound? What about confit duck and apple spring rolls with a hoi sin dipping sauce? By the time you move on to the hand cut, New Zealand Calamari hand dusted in salt & pepper crust with a squeeze of fresh lime – you’ll swear you’ll be seeing Matt Preston poking his head over the fence.
 
The point is celebrating life and good food no longer comes with the 3 days in the kitchen prior. We want to bring you an experience from start to finish and fit in to your perfect scenario. And we haven’t event covered the barbeque yet! What says ‘australian’ ‘fun’ and ‘family’ more than firing up the barbeque just when everyone didn’t think it can get any better. Steaks sizzling, skewers circulating – it’s the perfect end to a night.
 
Our team is with you all the way, ticking the boxes and tying of the loose ends because this is what we do, food is what we do. We know how busy life can get but we also know that at that one point in the night, when you’re taking the perfect mouthful of beetroot & dukkah sea salted arancini & looking around at your friends and family – that you will know that this is something really special & that’s what we love to be a part of.
 
We also do the dishes… #cantlose !
 

The Gourmet Chef