Bronni Williams

The Fat Fox Food Company

I've worked in catering since the age of 15 where I was offered my first job in a cafe. I was trained in making delicious artisan coffee by a professional barista, and really developed a passion for catering. During my time in university I worked in a bakery making cupcakes, birthday cakes and bespoke wedding cakes which only enhanced my passion for working with food.

When I graduated from Uni last summer, I soon realised that working the 9-5 wasn’t for me. It only took two months of working in a full time graduate job before I realised I needed a creative outlet in the form of cooking. That's when I decided to set up the Fat Fox Food Co.

Mum had recently retired from teaching, and although she has never worked in catering except for PTA events in school, she's learned quickly and is a natural, manning the grill on the trailer! So we decided to take the plunge and go into business doing something that we loved. My husband Oli works as a chef in the RAF so his knowledge and catering skills made him an ideal person to have on hand as we got the ball rolling with The Fat Fox.

We're based in Benson, Wallingford, but due to Oli’s RAF job, setting up a business that I may have to leave once established wasn’t ideal, but a portable business that we could take with us would be perfect.

Passionate about homemade, local, tasty food, we started thinking about what kind of food we love to eat and decided that was a good basis for our menu. We had no idea what the business would be called, but the Fat Fox just seemed perfect when it came up in our list of ideas. My friend works as a graphic designer and seeing the Fat Fox logo made it all seem real, the business was happening!

Mum happened to find the trailer online one day, and the next day, after a ten-minute viewing, we had put down a deposit and set off trying to find someone to fit a tow bar to the car.

The next step was to get the trailer ready, buy equipment and register with the local authority for our inspection to get up and running. Shortly afterwards, we had our first proper event booked in.

Despite the nerves and panic the night before thinking ‘what have we let ourselves in for?’, it was a great success. The homemade turkey burgers went down a storm! This spurred us on and gave us the confirmation that we needed that we were doing the right thing.

We serve a range of food, from buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup and crispy bacon for brunch at farmers markets, to gourmet 100% steak burgers straight from our butcher. Our gourmet sausages with homemade pulled pork are going down a storm at the minute! We sell hearty salad boxes crammed full of veggies, nuts and seeds to cater for our vegan and gluten intolerant customers.

I make all of our cakes and sweet treats and our chocolate brownies and carrot cake with pineapple and cream cheese frosting are flying out at our street food lunches and Saturday markets. We change our menu depending on what the nature of the event is and try to provide as much variety as possible.

We serve up afternoon tea boxes, grilled cheese sandwiches with homemade red onion marmalade, delicious fruity bubble teas and more. We're always willing to try new things and offer new, exciting and tasty things to our customers.

After speaking with Calnan Brothers butcher in Didcot, we decided that they’d be the perfect people to buy our meat from. We now source homemade jams and chutneys from a small local business called Well Preserved, tea from Tea People in Reading who fund education projects for children in tea growing communities, and awarding winning coffee from a small business near where mum grew up as it’s the best coffee she’s ever tasted! Supporting other small businesses is really important to us at the Fat Fox Food Co.

We’re booked up for almost every weekend this year, with weekday bookings, evenings and even enquiries for 2017. We provide street food regularly at Didcot, Harwell and Milton Park markets, corporate lunches, weddings, school events, charity events, concerts, street parties, farmers markets and street food festivals,

We’re all loving the challenges and enjoyment that being part of the Fat Fox Food Co brings. We’re spending our time doing something we love, with people we love and can’t wait to see what the future holds for The Fat Fox Food Co.

Oli's still working in the RAF, this is his project for weekends as he needs to keep busy, even on his days off!

Oli & Bronni Williams

The Fat Fox Food Company

07738 860095 / 07763 362551

www.fatfoxfood.co.uk (under construction)