Realfood Chefs — Local services in Great Britain

I was lucky enough to have Real Chef Foods cater for our recent wedding. The service Marcus and his team gave us was outstanding. From the day we booked Marcus, he was constantly at hand, going over and above to help us and make sure we had the best wedding food ever. Prior to the wedding, Marcus and I had lots of conversations to make sure everything went to plan. I was overwhelmed with the preparation and detail Marcus went into the few days leading up to the wedding. Marcus sorted out the table linen and hadn’t realised we needed it so early on the Friday morning. After already doing one 3 hour trip, he turned around and did another 3 hour trip to make sure we had the linen on time. This was delivered to us 11pm the night before to make sure we had it in time for the morning. On the day of the wedding, Marcus mingled with our guests despite the huge amount of work he had to do. The food was out of this world. All my guests commented on the beef being the best they had ever tasted. The sticky toffee was to die for!!! Nothing was any trouble for Marcus. He made my fussy mother a pie, my daughter the best macaroni cheese she’s ever tasted and me an amazing vegetarian Wellington. The set up at the village hall wasn’t the best for cooking but Marcus still provided 76 meals using the smallest space!!! He brought along his newly renovated mobile kitchen, which was a great little set up to cook in. Staff were hit with covid before the event so Marcus was down on staff but I didn’t have a clue until after my wedding, as he still continued to provide the best food and service in very challenging circumstances. During the evening, Marcus brought his pizza ovens. I take my hat off to Marcus and his team for making about 90 delicious pizzas in the rain! They were amazing! Marcus really is a lovely, genuine guy who went over and above to make sure we have the most amazing food. I got to know Marcus pretty well during our conversations prior to the wedding and on the wedding day itself. He really is a nice guy and I hope his business goes from strength to strength. We loved him and his good so much that we are going to get him to come and cook in our home for us and our friends. We can’t wait to taste his delicious food again and have his company. See you...

If I could give 0 stars, I would.

Imagine a perfectly planned weekend away for 25 friends, every detail thought of and perfectly executed. The only thing out of our control was the caterers but we had the highest hopes after a website was created especially for our night.

Marcus was booked for 7.30pm but asked us to change to an hour later on the day due to another party he had booked. He assured us starters were prepared and the latest we would have our first course would be half an hour after arrival as it only needed plating up. We agreed. 8.30 rolled around and there was no sign of Marcus. Not only that, but he had stopped replying to messages and wasn’t answering the phone. 9pm, no sign, intermittent messages from Marcus with excuses about closed roads in the area, for which we have never found evidence of, and road traffic accidents. 9.30pm. 10pm. Still no sign of Marcus and messages were getting more and more irregular, still he declined all phone calls.

Finally, Marcus arrived at 10:30pm. Starters came out at 11.30pm, an hour after arrival. Most of the party had ordered steak as their main course, which was finally served well after midnight, around 00:20-00:30, when a lot of the party had gone to bed. Marcus suggested the steaks should be cooked “medium rare”, which everyone agreed to, but none of the steaks were cooked to this, some overcooked, some undercooked, none medium rare.

Naturally we complained at the time, told Marcus how unhappy we were and he promised a refund / partial refund. He has been given ample opportunity to provide this, as the event was in April. Of course, this has never materialised and instead he fabricated false and baseless accusations against the guests to try and deflect from himself.

Personally having a lot of family and friends in the Cumbria area, it is now lore to make sure that your event caterer isn’t...

Marcus came to my friends hen do to cook for 8 of us, we had hired a beautiful house in Cockermouth & on arrival we’re told we had no electric. It was 3pm and we were promised it’d be on by 4, hours past and still no electric. I rang Marcus @ 5:30 to ask if he could come Saturday instead of Friday as I could see no way of him cooking. He told me to calm down and he will do whatever he possibly could to be able to cook this dinner, it was a surprise for my friend first off and one of our main plans for the weekend. He asked if we could source a bbq or gas cooker, thankfully I asked around at caravans near by (how desperate, but needs must). Pure luck a couple had a gas cooker and agreed to let us use it. Marcus arrived and cracked on, outside on a gas cooker!! He kept his word and made sure we had our night. The electricity came on at 8ish but by this time he was already in the middle of cooking and kept on the cooker and took advantage inside for the next course. THE FOOD WAS UNREAL!!! We had empty plates, zero complaints & full belly’s. He was a nice host he came with a drink for us, cleared our plates & loaded the dishwasher ensuring we didn’t have to think about this. He was worth every single penny & I’d book this service a million times over, especially with the drama of cooking for 8 without a cooker, god only knows how he kept his calm haha. Thanks...