Award-winning contract and events caterer, Kudos, has secured a seven-year contract at the prestigious Penshurst Place and Gardens in Kent. The contract covers all retail, weddings, conferencing and banqueting at the venue, which includes the Garden Restaurant and the Porcupine Pantry.
First open to the public in 1947, Penshurst Place and Gardens now attracts over 80,000 visitors per year, including domestic and international group bookings, annual season ticket holders, walkers, cyclists and the local Kent community. It hosts more than 60 functions a year; from wedding ceremonies and receptions to lunches, dinners, meetings, activity days, product launches and conferences.
Senior Partner of Kudos, Peter Bruun, said, “Penshurst Place is a charming venue, steeped in history and character - so we are delighted to have won this contract from the previous caterer. We are very conscious of the fact that we are operating in a family home.
'Therefore, our personal and bespoke approach to not only the ‘concept’ with which we operate but also the close relationship with our clients, which we always work hard to develop and maintain, makes this a perfect marriage between Penshurst Place and Kudos.
Bruun continued, “We are very proud of our approach to food sourcing and we champion local and regional suppliers in all of our venues, but Penshurst Place is rather different as we can pick ingredients from the estate itself. As anybody that visits our venues will know, provenance plays centre stage in all of our kitchens, so to be in a venue that has several great suppliers of meat, dairy, and fruit as part of the estate is a real privilege”.
The Penshurst Place gardens will provide Kudos’ chefs with apples, pears, cobnuts and a range of herbs including rosemary, sage and lavender. From the wider estate there are plums, elderflowers and blackberries, as well as tenant farmers who supply produce commercially including ice cream, cheeses, beef, lamb, pork and game meats when in season.
Ben Thomas, General Manager of the Penshurst Place Estate, commented, “We’re excited to be working with Kudos, and look forward to benefitting from their catering experience and their reputation for creating innovative menus using the abundance of local suppliers Kent has to offer.“
Described as 'the grandest and most perfectly preserved example of a fortified manor house in all England', Penshurst Place has been a location for poetic inspiration and lavish Royal hospitality for over 650 years. The estate has 11 acres of Elizabethan walled gardens which date back to 1346 and were laid out by Sir Henry Sidney.
