Authentic chinese food cooked in your own home!

ldoodle

I will ask them who they used - how many are you? They had a couple dozen so wonder if more people = less cost per person?

imightbewrong

Thanks - we were about 16 in number.

For an evening-in £50pp is a lot IMO, but then I've never spend £50pp on a meal in my life, so probably not the best person to ask

Ian J

I do quite regularly as our local Italian costs about that with wine. That probably explains why you are "debt free" and I'm not

Member 55145

touched a nerve did i Ian J?

no insult was ment, just I believe there is always people who will buy overpriced crap

thats not to say their food is crap.

I got a 10meter hdmi cable for £10 the other week, some people on this very forums would say you need to spend atleast £60-80 for a hdmi cable of that length.

are the buying because

a. they genuinely believe its better
b. dont know better
c. bragging/showing off

quite possibly all 3. and it could equally be applied to the OP

imightbewrong

Maybe   I think our all-time record is £80 for two - typically it's more like £40 for two which I still think is a lot   We are not big wine drinkers though.

That's for eating out - for take-away anything more than £14 for two is a pretty big blow-out

IronGiant

Not really, because it still suggests the OPs food is no better than a £15 Takeaway .  Which is the point Ian was making   But I think he might have touched a nerve and you took it the wrong way

24fanboy

I think its a great idea myself! I'd definitely like someone to cook some chinese cuisine in my house.

£50 is certainly a little steep, though you've said you'd yourself that prices are flexible, and from what you've said you've managed to secure quite a few orders already, so you should definitely keep with it!

Hopefully the people who you've provided the service to already will have enjoyed the meal and will recommended you to others and so forth.

nwgarratt

One of my best local Chinese restaurants do £25 for 2 for a 7 course meal.  They also do the same for takeaway.

breakersrevenge

I'll try and reply with a few multi quotes!!

breakersrevenge

OK, My initial post was, I think a bit brief, should of explained in detail a bit more.

One brother did say I dug my own grave after he read this thread!! lol

Both my brothers are personal trainers and quite a few of their clients are very wealthy, for the past couple of years they have cooked at dinner parties for their clients, Chinese banquet along with the help of my parents.

All cooked at clients homes, with some prepping in our own homes.
It takes my family around 2 days to prep everything, all is cooked fresh and locally sourced as much as possible, we live in Derbyshire and there are some great locally grown ingredients around us.

I asked my parents/ brothers - What is the difference between you and the local Chinese?
They said…
Quality, ingredients, freshness, texture of the food, taste, the balance, balance is key as our food we serve is not heavy like the stuff from your local just like the Ying and yang concept, the family service and passion!!

£50 is about the most we charged, thats the seafood banquet, but the usual price is around £40 and that is just the food, 9 times out of 10, clients have their own drinks/wine etc.

OK, to a few replies....

Yes, I agree, you can have similar here in UK Chinese restaurant, my sisters wedding we had around 30 tables of 12 at around £40 a head.

I was a little annoyed at your comment, I ask you this, how many Chinese families live in UK or even how many Chinese are their in the world?!!!
I bet you, 90% of them don't have ‘6 to 8 gas jet wok burners' in their kitchens, like they do in your local take away or restaurant.
My parents have never blamed their tools!! Its technique of how you cook, they been in business for over 40 years, my mum and dad, and I bet also the many millions of Chinese mums and dads can cook a full 4 to 5 dishes Chinese meal in one go, steam, stirfry etc all on a couple of domestic burners.

True, bigger kitchens do help!

We provide a Lion Dance, so I think that's warrants entertainment!

Yes we are Chinese!

The food we cook is not the stuff you get in your local, there is no spare ribs, no sweet sour chicken balls, no beef curry etc etc

Most of the prep is prepared before hand BUT its always on the morning or the evening before the dinner party. Everything is fresh as possible.

Take aways/restaurants prep their food well in advance (most of them) Chicken and beef is cut usually week in advance, and sauces are usually prepped in a big massive pot full and again that is normally a weekly thing.

No none of the above! As much as we love it, we obviously wont offer that up to clients, some really do leave it to us and some we go through a list of opetions and work out a menu between my brothers and clients, buy usually they leave it to us.

Same answer as I gave to ‘indianwells'

5 miles from Junction 24 on M1 so we are sort of bang in the middle of Notts/Derby/Leices

Agreed, and its who you know and who you network with.

That's the point, your ‘local Chinese restaurant' we are not a restaurant or take away, expensive as we are, we offer a family touch and my parents are as passionate about their cooking since the day they stated in London Chinatown all those years ago.

In closing! I started this thread because I asked my brothers about branching out a bit more to the masses, target the take away/ avid restaurant eaters. So obviously its sort of back fired with the negative comments.

Thanks for all thoughts guys, appreciate it.

Now I'm off to cook up some beans on toast for supper