| There are a series of fantastic restaurants in the immediate area, including Inver Cottage, the Colintraive Hotel, An Lochan and The Oyster Catcher all within 20 minutes; we can recommend them all from personal experience. But eating out is not a cheap experience, especially when transport and drinks costs are factored in, and there is obviously not much point in having a fabulous dining room and not using it. Each of the houses at Ormidale is available on a self-catering, or a fully-catered basis – or something in between. Our kitchens are all as well equipped as we can make them, and we hope they are pleasurable environments in which to work.
 But most of the weekend parties we get are for big celebrations - and not everyone (even with a four oven Aga and an additional stove at their disposal) wants to take on the task of cooking for 30 of their nearest and dearest for a long weekend or a whole week. We are delighted to have been able to recruit a fabulous new chef as the contracted caterer at Ormidale. From a wedding breakfast for 150, through a formal four course dinner for 24, to a serve it yourself home-cooked fish pie, from a buffet, to a picnic, to a barbecue, to a gourmet breakfast, if you don’t want to self-cater all the way, Stuart Campbell and his team can offer up a menu to suit at a budget that works for you. Menus for a three course formally served dinner party start at £25 per head – but they can feed you for half that price, or twice that price. Stuart can offer a seven course tasting menu for £50 per head.
 They have already catered some fabulous feasts at Ormidale, and the feed-back we have had from guests has been unanimous in its enthusiasm. When catering a dinner for you, as a one-off meal, Stuart’s team will always leave you with some delicious fresh made bread and a vat or two of homemade soup for lunch the next day – along with your left overs. It’s a lovely touch, and effectively means that you’ve got two meals for the price of one! They can also provide two or three course meals that require no more than popping in the Aga and serving, from the “Campbell’s Fresh Prepared” range. Stuart also refers to this as “I cook and You Serve.” It means that the chore of preparing the ingredients for a ravenous horde of holiday makers who have had their appetites stimulated on the water or the hill doesn’t need to fall on unwilling shoulders, but also that the budget isn’t bust. When you are hosting a week’s holiday, the ability to feed everyone with three delicious courses of home-cooked and fresh food for twelve quid a head is a very attractive half-way-house between self-catering and catered. And without resorting to pizza delivery!
The default setting for the house is still self-catering but if you prefer, then one of the team can work for you as live-in caterers during some or all of your stay. They can be accommodated either in one of the ensuite bedrooms, in the wee Garden cottage we renovated in early 2010, or in a local B&B.
 The financial arrangements are between yourselves and Stuart; he will design a menu or series of menus for you that works to your budget. Depending on the style you want to go for and on your budget - on whether you want silver service on the night, on how much of the caterers' time you need, and on what sort of ingredients you specify, you could be talking as little as £9.95 per head for a two course meal from their fresh-cooked serve it yourself menu exclusive to Ormidale customers – or four or five times that per head if you have a serious langoustine or fois gras habit.
On a live-in basis, you will need to budget up to £300 per day per chef, dropping to just under £1,000 for a whole week, plus the cost of ingredients. They’ll agree menu plans with you and then cook you breakfast, provide pack / picnic lunch ingredients and feed children and adultsseparately in the evening for that. If the big house is at full capacity and you don’t want any involvement in the prep or clearing up, then you need two members of staff. If you are talking about a party of under 20 guests, then it may be possible for a single chef to look after your party.
The final thing to talk about is the “Dine and Dem” cookery demonstration and gourmet dinner that we are delighted to offer from Willie Pike, MBE. Willie has won over 60 medals as a competition chef, and is a recipient of the coveted Red Jacket award voted by his industry peers as the Best Competition Chef in Britain. He has specialised in helping young chefs reach their potential, one highlight being his mentoring the Scottish Junior Culinary Team that won the gold medal at the World Championships in 1992. He was voted Scotland’s Chef of the year as recently as 2007. He has cooked for numerous celebrities including members of more than one Royal family, as well as on a variety of television programmes, and a dinner for ten that he auctioned for Gordon Ramsay’s Spina Bifada lunch went for £4,500… Willie will come to Ormidale for you and cook a demonstration dinner for £1,000.
 On a live-in basis, you will need to budget up to £300 per day per chef, dropping to just under £1,000 for a whole week, plus the cost of ingredients. They’ll agree menu plans with you and then cook you breakfast, provide pack / picnic lunch ingredients and feed children and adults separately in the evening for that. If the big house is at full capacity and you don’t want any involvement in the prep or clearing up, then you need two members of staff. If you are talking about a party of under 20 guests, and you are happy helping out and without formal service, then it may be possible for a single chef to look after your party.
All our catering now goes through Stuart Campbell, though he brings other local experts in as and when required. Stuart is a very flexible and helpful chap – as well as a really talented chef - and he and his team will be very happy to try and work to your budget and specification. If he can’t do what you want, he’ll tell you so, but he is bound to have some helpful alternative solutions ! In the first instance, if you visit his website, you’ll see examples of his menus and some extra blurb about his approach. If you want to discuss things, an email, or a phone call is probably best.
Tel : 07894 649405
Email: stuart@stuartcampbell.co,uk
Website: www.stuartcampbell.co.uk
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Catering
