Harpers Catering owner Simon Harper shares his business philosophy with Emily Moore, and explains what it takes to feed hundreds of people at a time
IT was nearly 30 years ago when Simon Harper woke up one morning, convinced that he was having a heart attack.
“My heart was beating so fast that I went the doctor,” recalled the owner of Harpers Catering. “He did some tests and then asked me whether I was stressed about anything. When I told him what was going on, he said he wasn’t surprised that my heart rate was so high.”
At that point, Simon explained, the anxiety had been triggered by a booking which he had accepted for his fledgling business.
“I’d been in Jersey for a couple of years by that point and had recently started catering for private dinner parties and small corporate events,” he said. “Most of the time we were providing food for six to eight people. Then, someone phoned me with a last-minute request to cater for a wedding for 100 people. I had never done anything on that scale before but I gritted my teeth and said we would do it.
“Despite the challenges of producing that quantity of food while working from a one-bedroom flat, it all went very well. So well, in fact, that a couple of weeks later, I received a phone call asking whether I would cater for the Round Table charity ball.”
At that point, the ball was due to be attended by around 150 guests. Six months later, though, when the event took place, those figures had gone up to 450.
“When I accepted the booking, I thought that there would be very little difference between cooking for 100 people and 150 people,” said Simon. “But as the numbers kept rising, the fear started to grow, and that’s when my heart rate started going through the roof. I will never forget walking into the marquee at St Ouen’s Manor, where the ball was taking place, and seeing all the tables set up. It was a terrifying sight. It was a baptism of fire, but I haven’t been scared by anything since then. The feedback we received about the people, the organisation and the quality of the food was so positive that it filled me with confidence.”
Perhaps most heartening for Simon was the praise for the quality of the food and a recognition among diners that a meal cooked for hundreds of people could be just as good as a dinner for two served in a restaurant.
“All of our menus are designed so that we can offer that quality,” he said. “We recently catered for the Global Privacy Assembly annual forum, attended by delegates from around the world, and the feedback we received was that the food ‘wasn’t conference food’. To get that feedback from people who have travelled extensively and eaten at conferences all over the place was amazing.
“And that’s what we always strive for. I never want to hear someone leave one of our events and say that the food ‘wasn’t bad considering it was cooked for so many people’. Cooking for large numbers shouldn’t mean compromising on quality.”
In its efforts to ensure that isn’t the case, Harpers Catering uses local ingredients where possible and cooks all dishes fresh to order.
“If we serve chicken, that chicken is cooked on the night, ready to be served at the appointed time,” he said.
“Lots of mass caterers cook the food the day before the event and then reheat it but I don’t understand that approach. If I’ve got to reheat my food and make sure it’s hot before going out, why not just cook it and make sure it’s properly cooked before service?”
It is an approach which, while appreciated by diners, he says raised eyebrows when he last bought some equipment.
“I needed some new ovens, and I remember the salesman asking me why I wasn’t buying the versions that you wheel racks full of plates into to reheat your pre-cooked food, but that’s not my style. If I’m going to do something, I want to do it properly.”
While that focus on quality has never wavered, Simon admits that the industry has changed over the past three decades.
“The business has evolved a lot,” he acknowledged. “We started out in a relatively small way, and now cater for a lot of weddings and large-scale events, as well as continuing to take on private dinner parties. As with so many things in Jersey, word of mouth has played a key part. Every time you cater for an event, it’s an advert for your business, which is why it is so important that the quality is consistently high.”
One of the biggest challenges with which he had to contend was Covid.
“That wasn’t the best time,” he said candidly. “We had to adapt very quickly to find a way of paying our rent, our wages and, frankly, of keeping our sanity.”
With all events cancelled, Harpers Catering began offering meals for home delivery, with the team turning their hand to fish pies, beef Wellington, curries and a Middle Eastern feast, which “proved so popular” that it is now a fixture of the company’s menus.
“It was a bizarre and very tough time,” he reflected, “but, by adapting our offer, we gained new friends and clients. It’s funny how these things happen. I remember delivering a beef Wellington to one household, and the next thing I knew we were talking to the family about catering for their daughter’s wedding the following year.”
And although the events industry was, as Simon says, the “sector worst hit by the pandemic”, he is now looking at a bright future.
“Events have bounced back and next year is looking really busy, with a lot of weddings and corporate functions already booked,” he said. “That is the nice thing about our business. Unlike a restaurant, where you usually only take bookings a week or two in advance, we have bookings for months ahead, which enables us to plan now for our 2025 events.”
Of course, one of the biggest challenges when it comes to planning is securing staff for each event.
“We have three full-time staff and a pool of around 120 people who help out at different functions,” he said. “Getting staff is never easy and it was particularly difficult after Covid, when a lot of people who had been on our books were forced to find work elsewhere. Now, though, we have rebuilt a strong pool, driven, in part, by people’s need to earn more money as the cost of living has gone up.”
The other challenge, he says, is finalising menus, securing pre-orders and catering for the growing number of dietary requirements.
“That has been one of the biggest changes in the past 30 years,” he said. “I used to do lunches for 500 people and there might have been two vegetarians among the group. Now, not only are there several vegetarians and vegans at most events, but you also have to cater for people with a wide range of allergies or intolerances. That is something we have to be very aware of and, while it adds to the complexity of service, we have a range of dishes to accommodate such requests.”
Sitting down with his chefs at the beginning of each year to discuss menus, Simon always enjoys playing around with new ideas.
“There are lots of favourites which we have to keep on the menu, but it’s also great to come up with new dishes,” he said. “While we have to be relatively conservative, remembering that each dish will be eaten by large numbers of people, the food should still be interesting, which is why things like the Middle Eastern feast, with its selection of dishes, is great, as that enables you to cater for different tastes while sticking to a theme.
“We also have to consider the practicalities of preparing something to order for hundreds of people, which is why you will never see a risotto or anything pan-fried on our menu.
“If there is any risk that we cannot serve a dish properly, then we will not put it on our menu, as I don’t want to compromise our quality. I never want to hear anyone say that our food ‘isn’t bad, considering it was cooked for so many people’.”
