Social Bubbling 2020-2021
We created " Social Bubbling" a niche home dining concept at the start of the pandemic catering to clients looking for something luxurious, bespoke and memorable.
Whilst many high-end restaurants offered luxury delivery services and DIY home kits, most still required some form of prepping, reheating, plating up and the onus was on the client to create the ambience too.
We stood out in 2020 as we were the only one delivering our food with beautiful ceramics, all ready to adorn your dining table. With no reheating, assembly, we even include dinner plates, linen napkins and served either upon a grand silver mezze platter on tables with tablecloths, napkins, flowers and candles.
We took away all the stress and helped clients to make sense of the government guidelinesTaking care of everthing leaving our clients to simply relax and enjoy the evening.
Trends for 2022
Post pandemic we have seen a surge of bookings go up by 56% for at home private dining services and generally
The uptake of new clients has been high, where clients are opting to celebrate safely in their homes and looking for more personalised experiences with curated playlists, signature cocktails and specialty paired wines from their vineyards.
The style of events have changed too with more out of town & abroad events. Clients are opting to hire country homes or fly to a villa or chateau to host intimate gathering. Below is a small list of some of the recent ones we have had the pleasure of curating and hosting.
- Opera Dinner in Somerset - arranged a grand piano to be hoisted in a garden and arrange opera singer to sing Puccini's Madama Butterfly while serving a 9 course dinner in Somerset
- Sicily in Dorset - Arranged a La Dolce Vita style 2 ft antipasto table with Lobster Linguine for a client in Dorset for 20 guest..
- Persian Feast in Tuscan Vineyard - Persian feast in the vineyard for 80th Birthday with family & friends surprising from all over.
Micro Weddings
Whilst 2020, saw couples have no choice to resort to a smaller wedding, couples planning their nuptials for 2022 have decided that this new micro style has some great advantages.
With wedding guest list smaller & intimate Couples are spending more on the food, styling & wine per head. More weddings are taking place in gardens or inside the home. The food is now a never-ending feast of platters of food being introduced throughout the whole day. The style of food has changed to more Deli-style Mediterranean dishes have been popular, where guest can choose when and what to eat as supposed to sit down 3 course dinners.
Small destination weddings to Italy & Greece are proving popular where we are able to link with local vineyards and create a unique wine pairing to the bespoke menu.
The trend is set to continue for the rest of the year with bookings going up by 38% and most weekends already booked until the end of the year. Read about Micro weddings in the FT Weekend our client was featured and hired us to cater her micro wedding for 15 people in London.
The Private Jet Trend
We have seen a rise in bookings where friends and family share the cost of chartering a private plane together. Most private travel from the UK is happening in Europe: South of France, Ibiza, Spain, and Portugal.
Those who can afford it will fly by private jet and with this increasing demand we are partnering up with local vineyards and villas to offer unique one-off, curated private dining experiences in a safe and responsible way.
The world’s largest aircraft charter broker has seen a 93% rise in new client enquiries. First time customers are only set to rise this summer. This is fast becoming the ‘new normal’ way of travel for those who want something unique and curated around their needs to make this a truly memorable experience.
Experiences created
- Planes, trains, helicopters, forest, driveways, you name it we created our feasts in the most unusual places, here are some of the private dining experiences we created.
- Field of Dreams - A client sent a their private helicopter to fly us down to field in the middle of nowhere for a bubble of 6 for a sharing feast and delivered us back home the same evening.
- PJ Party - Not a pyjama party, but a party on a private Jet. Setting up a banquet table in the air from London to the Middle East for 20 guests covering food from the countries we flew over, as this was the only way the family could get together.
- Foraging in Forest – We created a magical forest bubble in the New Forest for a clients post-civil ceremony reception. The safest place was the forest at the end of their garden. They all wore their coats and scarves while they shared food together on cushions on the ground.
- Drive Thru Thanksgiving - 36 guests for an American diplomat who wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving. We served 6 guests from one bubble at a time, parking in a driveway and creating a huge platter with turkey and sides with slices of a mini pumpkin pie.
- Zoom Party – Arranging a sharing feast to 10 households at the same time in and around North London. Timing it so everyone feasted together via zoom.
Press & Features
Our Social Bubbling arm of The Hampstead Kitchen created quite the stir and we were featured amongst top concierge in London as top luxury dining services during this time. We were the only ones offering as styling service with crockery & cutlery.
For our global clients, we were included in the list of top global chefs who were curating unique luxury dining experiences for their clients who were finding unique ways touring family and friends together.
Here are just a few places we were featured in.
- FT Weekend , FT How to Spend It,
- The Times
- The Telegraph
- The Guardian,
- Harper’s Bazaar
- Town & Country
- House & Garden
- Evening Standard
- Monocle
- The Atlantic
