Company Christmas party: rent a venue or bring live cooking to the office? A planner's comparison

Renting a restaurant or hotel room. Pros: everything in one place, waiters, nothing to organise on the company side. Cons: the room cost on top of the food, a fixed menu and hours, the whole team has to travel, and in December you are competing for dates with every other company in the city.

Live cooking on your premises. The caterer comes to the office, the hall, a coworking space or a tent in the car park. Pros: zero venue cost, a party during or right after working hours, an oven stand that is an attraction in itself, flexible headcount. Cons: you need space and power, and the organiser is responsible for the rest of the space (tables, drinks beyond the catering, music).

There is no single right answer. A company with 150 people in an open-plan office with no kitchen or large meeting room usually picks a venue. A company with a production hall, a big canteen or a car park where a tent can stand gains from live cooking.

Indoors. For Christmas parties in offices and halls we arrive with twin-chamber electric ovens. They run indoors. We need room for the stand and a power connection; exact requirements come with the offer, so your building manager can check them before the contract is signed.

Outdoors and tents. If the party is outside under cover, we bring gas or electric ovens depending on the site. December temperatures are not a problem for the oven, they are a problem for the guests, so a heated tent is arranged by the company or its event agency.

Time. We set up in 30 minutes. Serving 100 people (50 pizzas) takes one crew roughly an hour to an hour and a half. If the whole company needs to eat in one window because the CEO speaks at 4 pm, we add a second crew.

How much pizza. Half a pizza per person when pizza is the main food. At a Christmas party where traditional dishes from another caterer sit alongside, we plan a third.

Diets. Vegetarian options in every menu, everything else via the notes field. Italian soft drinks as an add-on.

More and more companies swap part of the party for an activity. Pizza workshops work like this: participants in rounds of up to 20 shape and top their own pizzas, we bake, everyone eats. For larger teams we run several rounds while the rest eat from the catering. It replaces the traditional "entertainment programme" nobody enjoys organising.

We take December bookings from October. The most popular slots are the second and third week of December, Thursdays and Fridays, and those go first. The process is the same as for any corporate event:

1. Enquiry through the form: headcount, a date or two alternatives, venue type (indoor or outdoor), budget if you know it.
2. An offer from Bartek within 24 working hours.
3. Contract and a deposit that secures the date, VAT invoice to the company.
4. The party.

Minimum notice is three days because of the 48-hour dough fermentation, but in December three days is theory. In practice, October and November are what count.

Have a date and a rough headcount? Send an enquiry and we will work out the rest.