Food for Sharing
HIP talks to Kate Harris of The Shared Table. Kate will be running a special pop-up night in Stooge Coffee from 6–9pm on Monday 4th December, serving a range of vegetarian curries.
You originally worked as a caterer at the Tate Galleries; what made you leave the glamour of London for a more intimate and communal type of catering in Hastings?
Working at an iconic London venue was a great experience, I met some amazing people and learnt a lot. However, I found myself gravitating away from the big corporate events to more personal ones – weddings, birthday celebrations, etc. I love working with a client to create their perfect event and seeing it through from start to finish. I moved to Hasting five years ago and was blown away by the vibrant food scene here. It felt like the town was a big supporter of small local businesses and the perfect place to try something different.
You describe yourself as an ‘ethical event caterer’ – what is the ethos of The Shared Table?
The Shared Table is a vegetarian event caterer; I don’t use meat, I use fresh, local produce and limit my environmental impact as much as possible. I’m not anti-meat, however I feel strongly that if everybody ate a little bit less, it would have a real positive impact on the environment. I love to showcase how amazing vegetarian and vegan food can be – I want to inspire people to eat less meat!
Can you describe some of the dishes that you offer?
I love to cook world food and in particular South Asian food. Some of the best vegetarian food I’ve ever eaten has been in India! My mum moved to the UK from India in the 60s and this is the food I’ve grown up with. I cooked for an event at The Beacon last night and served a selection of vegan curries including a cashew and coconut korma and spinach dahl with sweet potato and fresh coconut chutney, which went down well! I also love to cook what I think of as ‘Ottolenghi style food’! Using lots of Middle Eastern spices and flavours, this type of food is so visual and great for sharing.
What other sorts of events do you cater for?
I’ve catered for private events in people’s homes, and I’ve worked with a local yoga teacher to provide a healthy lunch for a yoga retreat in Rye. I’ve provided lunches for companies and even a picnic lunch to take to Glyndebourne over the summer!
I’ve also had a lot of fun working with Stooge Coffee for Hastings bonfire night where we served a LOT of takeaway curries for people to take with them on the parade! The pop-up, dine-in evening with Stooge on 4 December will be a bit more relaxed!
Plans for the future?
A lot of my work has come through word of mouth and from guests at events approaching me for their own events, which is so encouraging. Even more encouraging is that not all my private clients have been vegetarian, they’ve been a mixture of people who are open to the ethos and concept of The Shared Table and happy to try something new.
I’m really keen to keep doing pop-up nights around town as well. It’s great to be part of the Hastings food scene.
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