News

October 2022

Our delicious Festive Afternoon Teas are available to pre-order now and will be available to collect from Monday 21st November, from our Catering Unit in Finedon, please call or e-mail to place your order

September 2022

The pandemic has left its toll on caterers with many not managing to survive the sharp decline in orders.                          We are pleased to confirm a gradual increase in orders and the acquisition of many new customers.

March 2020

Due to the recent Government announcement on Friday, we have taken the decision to close until further notice. We feel this decision is in the best interest of both our customers and staff. We hope you all stay well and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.

February 2020

Following a delivery of a corporate lunch recently, we received the following e-mail:
From the great service at the initial ordering stage, payment, delivery and the standard and quality of food I can only echo my earlier comments – great service and I will definitely recommend and use your services again in the future!

January 2020

Having now spanned over 33 years of catering, we have received requests for a wide range of international cuisine. Our owner Glenda, who is an accomplished chef, has successfully produced (together with her team) Cloverdale interpretations of many dishes from around the world.

We recently provided some Chinese food for a client and received some nice feedback as follows:

“I’ve been asked to thank you for the lovely food yesterday, a few people actually thought it was from a Chinese! Everyone said it was delicious and asked me to thank the caterers”

September 2019

We have been kept very busy with our catering for corporate lunches. We continue to receive appreciative e-mails. A recent one is as follows: “Thank you for providing an excellent buffet for our event yesterday. We received a number of positive comments from delegates at the event”

June 2019

Whilst the weather has been quite wet in June and has adversely affected our coffee shop in the Priory Country Park at Bedford, our outside catering has been very busy.Some follow-up e-mails from happy clients are as follows:

From ‘Retail Inside Out’ regarding a client entertainment event: ” I am glad we had glorious sunshine last Thursday in comparison to this weeks weather! Our guests really did appreciate the evening and the lovely food, a number of them commenting in how wonderful it was and that it was all homemade”

From Any Odell regarding a Bowls Presentation:
” If I require outside caterers again, you will be my first contact!”

From Fiona Hubbard regarding the Mayors Reception Wellingborough:
” I just wanted to say thank you so much for the wonderful buffet and cakes that you provided. It all liked and tasted amazing. Please thank all the staff. They did a great job and it was a very enjoyable event”

Spring 2019

This year has seen a surge in new regular clients for corporate lunches. As a result of this we need to make an early start each day.

Other outside catering activities are weddings, private parties, Spring and Summer balls which tend to fall on weekends as opposed to weekdays.

When talking to our regular clients we realise that they are unaware of our other activities.

We currently run an exceedingly busy coffee shop in a country park. The relatively dry year so far has given rise to a huge number of customers. This year is clearly going to be a better year than last year.

As of April this year we own 7 catering vans which is the greatest number in the 33 year history of Cloverdale Catering.

Christmas 2018

We sent out our Seasonal Menus rather late this year but still got a very favourable response from clients who had not yet booked their parties.

Each year we are very busy in the month before Christmas and I am sure clients remember the successful  catering of previous Christmas parties when they place their bookings with us.

Autumn 2018

Reflecting back on what has been a busy Autumn so far some of the highlights are as follows:

We had the pleasure to cater recently for Mr and Mrs Burnage for their Golden Wedding Anniversary. We first met them some 30 years ago during the early years of Cloverdale Catering. Congratulations to you both.

On the 20th October we catered for a Wedding Party at the Bede House. Congratulations and good luck  to Debra and Paul. Thank you for your very nice comments.

We catered for yet another Golden Wedding on 12th October at Geddington. Congratulations to Ron and Kath.

Congratulations to Mr Huddart.  We catered for his 70th Birthday at Colnworth on 6th October.

Summer Events 2018

Looking back on a busy Summer of events some memorable ones were as follows.

On 4th August we were very pleased to cater for the wedding of Vicky and Max at in a marquee at Chelveston.  Vicky looked stunning on her big day.  Good luck to you both from all of us at Cloverdale.

It was our great pleasure to cater for Sami (and his guests) who organised a big marquee event to jointly celebrate the birthdays of his mother and brother on Saturday 11th August.  Sami thanked all our staff in person on the day.  His busy occupation involves a lot of travelling so he did very well to get all the details right on the day.

Spring Ball 2018

On 5th May we had the pleasure of catering for the Bedford Girls School Ball. This was held in a marquee in the school grounds. Around 250 guests attended.

The event went well and Jo Dickson, on behalf of the organisers, sent us a very nice thank you email with comments including “the wonderful food”, “size of portions”, “beautiful soft pastry” etc.

Jo said the event ran like clockwork from her point of view. This was our impression also. We understand that the school PTA run this event annually and we take this opportunity to compliment them on a well-organised event.

Autumn 2017

This autumn has seen an increase in corporate catering which is largely due to many new clients.  Indeed 2017 shows a marked increase in corporate catering over 2016.

We take this opportunity to thank our faithful clients for sticking with us now for many years (some over 25 years!).

Summer 2017

As we have progressed through the year we have been engaged by a large number of new clients.

The year has also seen an increase in marquee events.

Our Cloverdale Retreat coffee shop has become very busy this being partly due to the addition of a large outdoor decking area in late June 2017.

New Clients

Although January 2017 started quietly, by the middle of the month we were extremely busy.  It has been a exceptional month for new clients.

One of our new corporate clients emailed the following to us:-

“I just wanted to say a massive thank you for your incredible catering service! We couldn’t quite believe how delicious the food was and such good quality as well. We would definitely like to continue having you cater for us at our Mawsley training days”

Winter 2016

Both the autumn and winter of this year have been very busy for us.  Whilst we did not tender for the 2016 Christmas Parties at the Guildhall we quickly filled the vacuum with other events with several new contracts and corporate clients.  One of the busiest weeks on the calendar was the week beginning Monday December 12th with round the clock working for most of our staff.  Two thank you emails were as follows:

“Just wanted to drop a line to say thank you for the amazing buffet you supplied on Friday evening for our Christmas Party. Everyone who ate commented on the quality and variety of the food. We will definitely book your service again in the future”

Kind Regards
Tara Dee

Cloverdale Retreat

We first opened our Café at the Priory Country Park, Bedford on 30th July 2016 naming it the ‘Cloverdale Retreat’.  To date many customers have commented on the high standard of food and service received there.

The official opening by the Mayor of Bedford followed on the 6th September 2016.

Our aim is to cater for the requirements of all types of visitors to the park and to attract others to the park (including organisations) by way of special promotions and events.

We hope that the Cloverdale brand of excellence will help make the Café a great success.

A dedicated website for the Retreat is currently under development and could be launched in October 2016.

Christmas 2015

Following the great success of the Christmas parties during 2013 and 2014 at the Northampton Guildhall, we went on to complete another series of parties throughout December 2015.  We received very favourable feedback each year and 2015 was no exception.

One thank-you email regarding the party of December 19th 2015 was as follows:

“I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful night out at the Guildhall yesterday evening.  All the staff were extremely polite, friendly and helpful from the security on the door, the bar staff and waiting team.  The venue looked superb as did the food.  It was by far the best Christmas meal out I have had including venues in Central London”

Big Corporate Buffet

We deliver corporate lunches daily around the county and beyond and have been doing so for 29 years.  Some days the overall total can be very high although a typical single order is only for around a dozen people.  Our fleet of refrigerated vans radiate in all directions each day doing numerous drops.  However on one weekday back in July 2014 a single company ordered a regular finger buffet lunch for no less than 1000 people!  We took this to a business park in Warwick which is well outside of our usual radius for daily deliveries. The food was presented on 30 large tables in a huge air-conditioned venue. Another 10 tables accommodated the drinks.

The internationally based client was clearly impressed on the day and we received very positive feedback on the quality of the huge spread.

Royal and Derngate Theatre

We catered for a large event at the famous Royal and Derngate Theatre back in June 2013.  We served a formal hot menu to around 350 guests.  The occasion, named ‘Celebrating Success’ for Northamptonshire County Council included the presentation of various awards and a disco at the end of the evening.

The event took place in the Derngate Auditorium which is transformed for such occasions by installing a false floor above the stalls to create a large area which can accommodate numbers of up to 1,150 guests.  Lighting effects complete this striking transformation of the venue.

Royal and Special Visits

Back on 5th April 2013 we catered for His Excellency Mr Gordon Campbell, Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.  The catering was for a reception at the Northampton Guildhall which was for the promotion of new development plans for the town. The High Commissioner was accompanied by Michael Ellis the MP for Northampton North. A drinks reception at midday was followed by a 3-course lunch served in the Courtroom. The Guildhall reception followed an earlier visit to KAB Seating, a commercial vehicle seat manufacturer with an excellent record for exports.

We were honoured to cater for Her Royal Highness Princess Benedikte of Denmark during her visit to Northampton on the 1^st August 2012.  Her visit, which was to mark the strong trade links between Denmark and Northampton, began with a Drinks Reception at the Museum & Art Gallery where we served to Her Royal Highness and Guests a selection of Cloverdale Canapés and Wines.  Her Royal Highness then went over to the Guildhall where we served her a two-course hot luncheon from our popular selection of hot menus.  Her Royal Highness, who is a cousin of The Queen, followed this event with a re-visit to the Carlsberg Brewery which she opened back in 1974.  The event, which was a great success, comes after us previously catering at Barker Shoes, Earls Barton during a visit by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and follows a succession of Royal events catered for by Cloverdale Catering over the years.

Our Food Suppliers

We are very pleased to announce that there is full traceability in all our food supply chains. Our clients can therefore rest assured that all ingredients in our products are exactly what they would expect. We successfully qualified for the Oval Health Mark back in 2006 so are obviously very aware of the importance of traceability.  We will continue to use safe British and indeed local produce wherever possible.  The reputation of Cloverdale Catering has, of course, been built on our own very popular, delicious hand-made products using only the best fresh ingredients.

Scores on Doors

Every year we have been awarded the maximum rating of 5 for food hygiene practices at our Outside Catering Base, the Finedon Catering Unit.  We also have the maximum score of 5 at our Northampton Guildhall Kitchen and also 5 at our Frontier Centre Kitchen. In recent years we have also added scores of 5 in a Corby client’s premises and at our Bedford Cafe the ‘Retreat’.  The different locations cover 5 different councils namely: Wellingborough, Northampton, East Northants, Corby and Bedford. Note that the original ‘Scores on Doors’ initiative which was introduced in Northamptonshire in 2007 has since been superseded by a similar scheme which has been introduced by the Food Standards Agency in recent years. The actual scores are still based on the local councils periodic inspections. The Award is an indicator of how robust the food safety management procedures of the caterer are. More information about the award can be found on the website: www.food.gov.uk/ratings.