We're Teaming up with Jamie Oliver's BIG Feastival!

We thought we'd bring you the exciting news that Jamie Oliver has picked us from the crowds to be one of his five Street Fooders at his BIG FEASTIVAL  held this August 31st on Alex James's (ex Blur) Cotswold Farm.  

We will be serving our Mexican Fayre which will be made from the freshest ingredients we can get our hands on, & we'll be making our Huge 12" Burritos. We are also introducing some very special children’s dishes such as 'Nino Nachos' all with home made salsas & sauces & Home made Lemonade to cool off in the summer sunshine! ;-) 

We are so excited about the event & preparations are already in full swing!  If you fancy a great family weekend & then swing by their website http://www.jamieoliver.com/thebigfeastival/ & get your tickets, better still make a weekend of it & come camping!  Any Twitter followers of ours will receive a free refill of Home Made Lemonade too!  

 

5 Cities & 1 Caravan

What’s this another blog post in the same week? Has M & R now got a semi-serious case of turrets?

That maybe so, but you know when you just feel the need to write & talk & stuff?

The funny thing is we started out not so long ago & we feel even in this short time we have learned so much (so much more to discover too I know) I have really been giving some serious hours to the day job this week with exhibitions all over the UK so no real time for any evening catchups or tweeting etc for M& R& its felt kind of weird as though I'm missing something (that must be why I feel the need to blog into the evening hours)

Just looking at the calendar & we have lots of exciting stuff coming on, a new City to trade in, with a fabulous reputation (sorry, said we wouldn’t divulge as a bit secret atm, I’m sure if you put 2+2 though you will get it, 2nd largest City & all that) also a new trendy Manchester Market - Levenshulme or 'Levy' as the locals call it, we are very excited about this as its been taken over by a local consortium from the Mighty Manchester Markets & they really are putting umph (umpf?) behind it & we are thinking this could well become a Street Food Regular Haunt. We're also doing a 2 day turn in Leeds at Amazing Graze with the fabulous Manjits Kitchen behind it. We are also looking to move more into possibly some areas & markets of Liverpool & Chester (if they'll have us)

We are still rejigging menus & are experimenting with some Taco flavours. We love Tacos, they are so versatile & especially suitable for all you lovely ladies out there as not half as filling as our Burritos. The website is now in full 'tweaking' phase after the initial launch too, & a live twitter feed is planned for the very near future.

Also Festival season, is just around the corner & my mind is already thinking field kitchens, equipment hire, packaging for salads & kids meals, staff sleeping arrangements, more uniforms to get, Oh & we're gonna need a tourer caravan & a tent too! Please feel free to contact us if you have either of these knocking about in or around the garden shed.

Till next time..... & thanks as always for swinging by & taking the time.

Muchas Gracias

M & R

 

Electric Shocks & More ........

Firstly I would like to say how great it is to be back blogging to you: our wonderful supporters.   I also would like to add an apology if you feel there has been a slight lapse in blogging activity, maybe you hadn't even noticed?  I suspect you have as I know how savvy & switched on you are, anyway here it is, the latest news & there's plenty!

So we just about got Rita in time for our fist event, 3 days before in fact & at one point they said we wouldn't have her for another month!  All something to do with the finance company not releasing the funds as the registration (her new GB one) wasn’t showing up on a register to say there was no finance outstanding! I mean a 38 year old pick up that’s as rusty as hell, who would still have finance on that!!!?  The Wednesday before our scheduled Sunday Event was considering making the call to cancel, the thought of all the hype all the blogging & tweeting & also letting the event down , I was beginning to panic plus & lose sleep! Somehow we managed to convince the finance company & they were in all honesty very good to us & we got Rita released & home literally with 3 days to go to our first outing!

The day before our first event was absolutely manic. I had my mother over fitting Rita’s cowhide seats (all sewn by hand) we had my Aunty Rita over chopping onions (yes there is a real Rita!!) also all of our kids prepping in some way as well as Margo & me . We were desperately trying to estimate & judge how many we would serve & how much food to prep, but to be honest it was an impossible task as we had no idea what we would sell or how busy the market would be even though we had visited the market a month before during our 'swot analysis'! So it really was a suck it & see job! After nearly 6 months of prep setting up M & R & plenty of social network activity, a handful of sleepless nights & sweating at the eleventh hour, we were driving Rita to our first event:  a local Vintage Market that I had heard had a good following & the people seemed really lovely & friendly.

I awoke on that Sunday morning feeling so nervous but also with an awful sore throat! I couldn’t stop this reoccurring thought in my head of having no customers! And all be stood there like spare parts with those false smiles plastered on our faces!  I was so nervous in fact that I took a wrong turn & automatically got on the M6 heading North! One of our eldest boys was chatting away to me & I was glad of that it helped to calm me but was also a huge distraction & I am laying some blame with him for my faux pas & adding an extra hour on our crucial journey! Never mind though I thought, we had left in plenty of time so I stopped at the Yellow Arches for a lubricating cup of tea & a muffin each for the 'workers'.

It was then I realised my pendulum had swung the other way & I was now in a false state on security, Margo was frantically ringing & texting my phone (on silent!) to ask 'where the hell are you?' he desperately needed some of the supplies I was carrying to set up, having arrived at the event some hour before!

We eventually trundle up to be greeted with a problem with the electrics on Rita. They kept cutting out, a major hiccup really as 2 essential pieces of kit were needed that day: the till & the rice cooker! At one point I was stood in Rita when the guy sorting the electrics touched her & was thrown back with an electric shock! Rita was electrically charged & not earthed he shouted! & I was stood in her at the time!! I can’t tell you what a horrible feeling that was &  I had a vision of the local headlines that my beloved Rita had actually been the cause of a tragic accident to a mother of 4! The guy said Rita had been wired up wrong, but I knew this just wasn’t the case as we had run her through all the tests with all the equipment on beforehand.  In the end we had to compromise with no electric running to our hook up & have a huge extension lead running in to work the till & Margo had to set up a 'field kitchen' behind Rita, we needed rice an important component in our Burrito offer.

The Breakfast service came & went pretty well & our bacon 'door stop' sandwiches were well received by the patrons. I will still never forget that first customer that came up & actually wanted our food! I actually felt quite emotional , I guess just all the planning & preparation & the time of conception on a Spanish beach & Margo’s job being under threat all those months before, & our dream of running our own little concern was just encapsulated in that first sale!

Next came the storm, they came & came & came, the queue was at one point about 15 people long & we couldn’t wrap those Burritos quick enough (& they are one mother to wrap!) The portion control went out of the window, the chilli hot chocolates were selling like wild fire, we ran out of change 3 times, our order of service & Burrito line was messed up as no rice cooker, we ran out of nachos, the floor (the non slip specially fitted, cost a fortune floor!) became warm & started to feel moist & greasy, at this point I realise we had parked on a slope & the gravity was making it hard to move to one end of Rita! Plus on top of it all we had no lights on, & were working somewhat in the dark on that cold February day. At 3.10 we officially sold out , of EVERYTHING! Even Hot Chocolate!! & just really as the market had slowed right down, which was all really over by 2.30. The timing was pretty damn perfect to say the least, But an absolute fluke!

 
To say we had to think on our feet that first day was an understatement, to cope with what was thrown at us & keep the standard of the food up to scratch (something we had always vowed to do ) to have to set up a field kitchen & to work with inexperienced staff & all executed in semi darkness!!

 I was so proud of our Burrito Chain Gang! I had forgotten just how hard the catering industry was, my muscles ached with pain that night, I was physically & mentally exhausted more than I had never know at any time in my previous years in catering as a chef or a catering manager on those gruelling sometimes 14 hour days. I also literally couldn’t speak (the sore throat had now manifested into a lost voice!) But I sat back that night with Margo & we had grins like Cheshire Cats! We did it!  They came, they actually came & they liked our food!

 Later I cranked up my laptop & nothing prepared me for the response on Twitter, it was humbling & I love Twitter for that interactive feedback & also valued support.

We have since had 3 other events in our first month, another sell out & a really interesting gig at a secret cinema which entailed actors, car chases, feeding crew & drinking whiskey cocktails! The response to our food has been nothing short of overwhelming.

As well as prepping & doing our events we have also been hard at it planning the diary & we have secured 2 massive Summer Festival’s (there will be plenty on those in future blogs) We’ve also ran a couple of competitions & we now have just over 700 followers on Twitter. Working tirelessly mostly hour days (with the day jobs)is the norm , but we love it and what’s happening spurs us on to do it every day. We have surpassed all of our expectations & the buzz we are getting not just by our food, but just when we take Rita out & drive up the street she makes us & others smile! That’s what we wanted. one of the biggest things that have surprised me & humbles me is the support we have had for our  small business, I’m not talking financially or government led here at all, I'm talking business to business & ‘Joe Public’ to business. We have met & are being supported by some very wonderful people & we sincerely thank you for that, those of you reading this know who you are, just in case you don’t its all 700 of you! & the next 700 we will meet in the coming months, thank you, it means so so much & we look forward to meeting a fair few of you & hopefully serving you some of our lovingly prepared Mexican Fare.  For now it’s ‘Hasta Manana’ till we meet again (remember that Dana Classic?) & thank you as always for swinging by & reading this......

More info on where we next  are can be found on events page at www.margoandrita.co.uk or on Twitter @MargoAndRitas

 
M&R x