Ground Hog Day

Oh, it’s been busy auld  time here at The Delicious Food Co over the past six months catering for our office catering clients here in Dublin and our wholesale clients for whom we make beautiful wholesale artisan salads & sandwiches. It’s a 6am start for Ali, our driver  with our first batch of deliveries on the road making sure Grab & Go fridges around the city are replenished daily & ready for customers who want to grab their lunch on  the way to work- yes many people buy lunch on the way to the office!

By 6.30 the kitchen is buzzing with activity, daily production sheets prepared and analysed, everyone at their station knowing what to do – Phil on gourmet baguettes- Gabby  on wraps, Muneeb & Singh on salads, Sean, Ivan, Mia on sandwiches for platters for our office catering –there will be someone at the packing machine, someone assembling platter boxes, someone printing the labels- best by dates, allergens, ingredients -Derek making sure that the ever changing catering trends in Dublin are been met.

Vegan/plant based , halal, gluten free, lactose intolerances, nut allergies have all to be considered with the utmost care in the organised chaos of our mornings -healthy catering options, seasonal menus, local producers calling in with fresh local ingredients- bread, relishes, veg all in the mix as  hundreds & hundreds of items of food being prepared for our client’s lunch.

Our second van will be on the road with phase two by 8am – artisan sandwiches for cafes- The Mater Hospital, DCU & other clients we produce for.

When Ali comes back by 10am the first batch of office catering needs to be ready to go – routes optimised, who needs their order first, where is nearest, where is the most distant, what’s the traffic like. The addition of a cargo bike from Dublin City Council has been a godsend, as the closest deliveries are always the most difficult to get to in a van (consider that key connecting routes along the quays from our production kitchen in Smithfield are now no go areas for deliveries – madness!)

By 10.30 we have all worked half a day- the pace of production is phenomenal

So, we clean down, we take a break & we then we start the whole process over again so that everything is ready Ali the next morning.

Ground hog day- everyday !

 Shirley