Owners of Peterborough's Chef de la Maison serve up celebration of 25 years in business

The founders of a catering business in Peterborough are enjoying the sweet taste of success as they celebrate a new milestone.

Charis Wedgwood and Nathan Higgins set up Chef de la Maison 25 years ago when they were both 19 and say that while they went through a tough time during the Covid-19 pandemic, there are still plenty of positives to take into the next quarter of a century.

And as the business, based in Vicarage Farm Road, Fengate, and which specialises in events catering, marks its 25th anniversary, the pair say they are amazed at how little has really changed over the last two-and-a-half decades.

Nathan said: “We were brainstorming recently some of the things that we are proud about.

"And we realised that while there had been many new initiatives and menus, a lot of it was still the same tried and tested cakes etc that we have always made.

“And it made us both chuckle, because although we thought a lot of things had changed, yet the core of what we do is pretty much the same.

"There are a lot of things we can take from the last 25 years and apply them to the next.

By far the biggest challenge for the business was the Covid-19 health crises and the lockdown rules caused havoc for the hospitality industry.

Nathan said: “It did seem like it might be the end during Covid, especially when we parted ways with many of our long-serving staff and Charis and I went back to our original jobs in the business.

"It just felt like we were back where we had been 20 years earlier.

"That was tough. It was the only time when we thought it could be the end but that was one time too many.

"Now it feels we are coming out of the battles of the last few years and it is not all doom and gloom in the hospitality industry.

"We’ve had to find new people and are nearly back to pre-Covid staff levels. We have seven full time staff and about 35 part time staff.

“Chef de la Maison has grown overall.

Nathan said: “We started off doing dinner parties and evolved into weddings.

"We’ve always done a lot of corporate lunches but after Covid-19 stopped doing the sharing platters and instead created an online app for speciality boxes, individual boxes, gift boxes, special diet boxes that saw us through Covid.

"But we’ve kept that because it has a decent following.

"So there are some positives as we would never have thought of doing this – ever.”

The cost of living crisis and political uncertainty are new challenges but Nathan is confident Chef de la Maison can digest those too.

He said: “People still want to celebrate and the number of events we cover has grown.

“But we noticed the amount people want to spend is lower, Rather than spend £10 they’ll spend six pounds. Instead of going for the labour intensive sit down meals, they are asking for buffets, carveries and the food trucks.”

Nathan said for the next 25 years it was important to stay happy and healthy.

He added: "But now we know the business is robust, I feel we’re better prepared than ever.”