By: Hailey Larson

Cherwell Collective’s Climatarian Kitchen is proud to be the hospitality partner for the 2025 Waterperry Opera Festival. We are serving both picnic hampers and seated meals during the festival, which takes place from 8 to 17 August. Guests can look forward to our handmade food along with incredible music and – hopefully – some summer sunshine.

However, enjoying a luxurious dinner in a field doesn’t come without its challenges. Today we share a little behind-the-scenes as we bring our mobile kitchen to Waterperry Opera Festival.

A Kitchen in a Field

Running a mobile kitchen is not easy work. We are actually setting up food preparation in the field. Therefore, we will need to bring and plan for absolutely everything: a space to store ingredients, a food preparation and meal plating area, and even a mobile sink for handwashing.

In previous years, when doing mobile catering, we have operated out of a food truck. However, given that we are offering a seated dining meal service this year, we require more mobile facilities than ever before.

We’ve come up with a creative set up. We have built a 4 by 4 meter mobile kitchen in a marquee. This makeshift kitchen will be attached to the Lawn Restaurant, which sits inside of a larger marquee where guests will be served.

All of our equipment is easy to move and set up. We use stainless steel tables to prepare food and a hot holding cupboard to keep dishes warm. We also bring mobile bars for plating and service.

Cold food is stored in a separate area next to the kitchen. Dirty dishes are packed into crates and taken back to our main kitchen to be washed after dining.

Our team moves back and forth between the Waterperry site and our base in Kidlington every day.

Help from Local Partners

We could not do this without the support of local businesses. Many have donated food, equipment, and other supplies to make this possible. Their help means we can focus on what matters most. We want to serve food that is creative, fresh, and reduces food waste and the Carbon Cost of our community.

As they have many times before, Savona Foodservice has stepped in and been instrumental in helping us bring a mobile kitchen to Waterperry Opera Festival. Today, Savona supplied us with a tail lift vehicle for the big loading-in process. It took eight people a total of 40 minutes to unload storage and load the van!

Savona will also help us load out. This will reduce the need for multiple van trips and heavy lifting for our staff. We couldn’t be more grateful for their support.

Come Along

Are you interested in learning more about our mission? Each of our on-site team members will wear a Climatarian Kitchen apron and will be happy to chat about the Carbon Cost of our diets. We hope all of our guests will enjoy their meals and learn a little more about how food systems affect the climate. Tickets to the festival are available now on the Waterperry Opera Festival website.

We will not spoil the full menu just yet, but you can expect incredible food made with lots of care. If you are coming to Waterperry, we welcome you to try one of our picnic hampers or book at table for a meal at the Lawn Restaurant. Get more information and make your booking here.