When the pandemic hit London, Michaela Johansson jumped on her bike and commenced delivering picnic containers to Hackney locals. She headed again residence to Sydney in 2021 and launched the picnic containers, which become what’s now often known as Aplenty, an occasions and catering idea.
“I at all times wished to run my very own enterprise and it felt like the best time,” says Johansson. “What began in my mum’s kitchen in Marrickville making picnic containers for associates is now a a lot bigger operation.”
Aplenty nonetheless supply the foundational picnic containers, however the expertise is now out there
on a bigger scale, with the Aplenty crew catering completely different occasions from small gatherings and company features to large-scale weddings. The Aplenty expertise is rooted
in meals and extends to occasion manufacturing and styling — it’s immersive, to say the least.
Since launching the enterprise, Aplenty has labored weddings at non-public properties in addition to small-scale occasions at Sydney’s Paramount Recreation Membership and Golden Age Cinema. The Aplenty providing incorporates a vary of set packages that embody a mixture of seasonal canapés, share plates, grazing and dessert tables, oyster bars, and stay cooking stations.
Johansson says she often sticks to the set packages, however could make solutions for shoppers who’re indecisive or need to create a customized menu. Aplenty additionally works with public relations groups to curate branded choices for shoppers and hosts quarterly
tasting nights for shoppers to strive bits and items.
Relating to the model of meals Aplenty creates, Johansson goals to supply
one thing completely different and fashionable from conventional catering choices. “I wished to
supply distinctive and modern experiences the place meals was an enormous a part of the occasion, not only a requirement,” she explains. “[It’s] good meals for good occasions with a deal with seasonality, punchy flavours, and stunning combos.”
Johansson describes Aplenty’s delicacies as share-style Mediterranean that’s fuss-free and scrumptious. She additionally works with native producers together with Emilio’s Butchery in Rozelle, Vannella Cheese in Marrickville, and Holy Goat in Victoria.
A few of the dishes throughout the Aplenty providing embody gildas, snapper crudo, and
grilled octopus with ’ndjua oil. Bigger plates cowl pork sausage ragu, grilled polenta
with asiago, and cod kofta flatbread, with desserts spanning from darkish chocolate
and rum brownies to ricotta cannoli, and lemon and olive oil polenta cake.
“Our go-to for a marriage is grilled seafood canapés, seated share plates, and roving desserts,” says Johansson. “[We also] like bringing our charcoal grill to occasions and doing a little stay grilling to create a little bit of ambiance.”
The Aplenty providing is at all times rising and altering consistent with Johansson’s love
for culinary creativity. “I additionally wished to create a office the place my crew of cooks
and I can fulfill bizarre concepts or experiment to supply our prospects one thing distinctive,” she says.
However simply while you thought that was sufficient to maintain Johansson and her small crew busy — assume once more. Earlier this 12 months, Aplenty opened its personal kitchen and occasions house in Redfern the place eating experiences are held. Internet hosting occasions in a devoted house has allowed the Aplenty crew to be extra experimental and inventive of their culinary method.
“We have now a bit extra freedom to make what we would like … possibly extra spontaneous,
experimental, or out of the atypical of what we sometimes serve,” says Johansson. “It provides us an opportunity to mess around with an thought and unleash it!”
Every eating session has a special theme and a share-style menu that’s solely revealed on the day of the occasion. “It’s all concerning the expertise, so each single element is considered from the styling to the menu, the way in which one thing is served, and the music taking part in,” says Johansson. “It feels so intimate and extra particular due to that.” It’s a communal-style arrange, too, the place visitors are available teams, {couples}, or solo to
mingle with others on the desk.
Johansson has skilled the highs and lows that include working in occasions and catering since launching Aplenty. Her recommendation to these trying to dabble within the house?
“Be sure to are nearly as good at logistics as you’re cooking — one doesn’t work with out the opposite,” she says. Within the kitchen, the crew has a joke motto: ‘excellent preparation prevents poor efficiency’. “It’s very American-military vitality, however
the largest a part of the job is preparation and planning.”
She additionally urges potential catering and occasions gurus to deal with the main points and
discover out as a lot as attainable from prospects and venues to keep away from any issues on the day. Confidence, consistency, and sticking to your product providing can also be important. “You by no means know who’s consuming your meals and the place that may lead you,” says Johansson. “We have now had some superb alternatives come out of our occasions and catering orders. I nonetheless have prospects getting back from after I first began making picnic containers.”
The remainder of 2023 is ready to be a busy one for Aplenty. Heading into the hotter months, most weekends are already stuffed with weddings. Alongside a busy schedule, Johansson can also be rising the crew and has hinted at a collaborative occasion in summer time with an area Sydney artist — keep tuned.
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