Member Spotlight: In For A Penne

Who doesn’t love pasta? The versatile carby goodness that goes so well with no end of toppings, sauces and flavours is as much a staple of the cash-strapped student as it is a high-end Italian dining experience. Pasta is now making its way to the forefront of the festival season, but with a twist: Focused on making their product as accessible as possible, In For A Penne offer gluten-free pasta and are fast earning rave reviews at each outing. We sat down with business owners Lewis and Billy to find out about their experience in catering so far:

What appealed to you about beginning your own journey in independent hospitality?
Lewis
Billy had worked in hospitality before so already had some experience. We were out for a curry and came up with the idea, it was something we’ve always considered and I’d wanted to do it for years. I’ve always liked the cooking side of things. We started brainstorming and before you knew it we had this solid idea that we had to genuinely consider and it began to take shape!

Billy
Yeah, it did kind of spring out of nowhere. I’ve worked catering events since I was about fifteen, so the best part of ten years, but it had always been working for other people rather than myself. I’d never seen the opportunity or had the chance to try it myself, so when Lewis said he also loved the idea of doing something like that we started discussing ideas, and things snowballed into where we are now.

Your offering is quite unique – was serving gluten-free pasta always the vision for the business?
Billy
No, not at all. I mean, the pasta idea came from us trying to think of something that we enjoyed ourselves, but also that was different: We wanted to provide something that you don’t see at every event, and pasta just came from there. I think the concept of the way we do it in terms of personalising the dish yourself stems from the fact that I’m a ridiculously fussy eater! I will be that person that will go to the burger van and ask for a plain burger with everything taken out of it.
So when we were brainstorming for the business, we thought why don’t we hand the choice back to the customer for them to create what they want? That way, it’s completely up to them. They are free to create their dish exactly the way they want it, and so far that has gone down really well.

We think the name In For A Penne is genius – did it present itself or did it take a bit of thinking to come up with?
Lewis
The name actually came to us when we were in a beer garden! It is a very British name, and that is an extremely British origin for it. We did want a name that was a bit playful, not taking ourselves too seriously but also something that people would remember. Loads of people have complimented the name, we see people walking past laughing at it and we absolutely love that, and often they’ve come back later to get some food so that’s great.

Billy
The whole business idea originates from two mates just having a laugh really, thinking of some ideas that amused us, we both loved the name – I think it catches your attention – and suddenly Lewis is telling me he’s registered it as a business and a silly idea became a reality. We would never have expected within the space of six months to be up and running, three festivals deep!

How important is it to you to be accessible by offering a dish that anyone can eat, regardless of allergies etc?
Billy
it was something we said from the very outset we wanted to do. The ideal goal for us is getting to the point where everything we offer is gluten-free – so literally anyone can walk up and grab a dish from us. And people seem to be appreciative of it – we’ve included an alienated market of people at an event that would normally not be able to have a burger or hot dog or a pizza because it’s full of gluten for example, which is a nice thing to be able to do.

Lewis
It doesn’t matter who you are, everyone can have some of our pasta. You know, we don’t really want to turn anyone away. We want to meet everyone’s needs. And if they love it at the same time then it ticks a lot of boxes for both us and them! Everyone’s enjoying it, whether they are just fussy like Billy or you know they’ve got genuine health or dietary needs, everyone can love it and that makes us feel really, really good.

Do you think that offering such an accessible product has helped with some of the festivals and the events that you’ve applied for?
Billy
Yeah I think it probably has. I think we come across as quite a unique brand anyway, and to have a caterer on site that can be accessible to every visitor is attractive to event organisers. I think it’s going to benefit us in terms of hopefully getting access to festivals because we can theoretically offer something for everyone.

Lewis
And I think our look factors in as well, we’ve designed and built the stand ourselves, literally me and Billy and in my back garden with a load of tools. We’re both really proud of it and have got loads of nice comments from people praising it, we hope that people see we’ve put a lot of effort into it and we do really care. We’re really passionate about the business and yeah hopefully it can be a difference maker between getting into festivals or not in the future.

I have to ask you about the morning pasta song – how did that come about? 

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Billy
It was totally random. They were just going around the festival for the weekend, making people smile with their songs. The day before it happened they were stood out the front with a few people sat on a bench and started singing a song and actually name dropped us in as well, and I managed to catch that on camera, which was quite good. But yeah basically they just came over and asked if they could sing a little song they’d made up on the spot and it was amazing, a really surreal experience! Not something we’d expected at all.

Lewis
It was just a another great moment that we’ve had over the few festivals we’ve done so far. It was like a crowning moment for that festival really. And it’s something we can have a bit of fun with, something we can share and we can use it for marketing. But it just felt like really special for us at that time as well.

Amazing – so how about the festival itself, how was your Camper Jam experience?
Billy
Yeah, it turned out to be a really good one. We were somewhat anxious of the weather forecast and at times it did absolutely hammer down. Thunder, lightning and all sorts. But you learn and adapt, we were bound to encounter conditions like that at some point so maybe it’s best to experience that early on in the business. Weather aside, the festival itself was great, we received some great feedback and met some lovely people.

Lewis
It feels weird in the sense that this is just a concept we’ve come up with together and don’t really have much experience in doing this ourselves, and then people are genuinely telling us they love what we’re doing – a bit surreal really but definitely in a good way. We had a few repeat customers, some that came over every day and that just means so much.

What would you say has been your biggest achievement or favourite moment of the business so far?
Billy
For me it would probably be having the pasta the song come out of nowhere. It just made us smile!
Also, there was an event we did the following weekend, where the organisers actually asked us if we could cater evening meals for the staff as it’s the 10th anniversary of the event – we were happy to, having been told it was 30 people. As the day went on, we heard it’s actually going to be 70 so we’re thinking okay this is going to be interesting. The evening came and we were standing behind this buffet point we’d had to set up, serving a formal dinner to 70 people, using proper china plates, nice cutlery and everything. It was odd because it literally came from nowhere but felt really good that they’d asked us to cater it and it was such a good experience.

Lewis
Those moments are amazing, but I don’t really think it’s kind of settled with me yet because it’s all happened so fast. The event Billy refers to there was meant to be our first ever event – initially our plan was to take things nice and easy, go slow with bookings and we maybe got a bit carried away and started looking more. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, but so many good moments – someone told us the other week we have some of the best branding he’s ever seen which was really nice to hear. At Camper Jam when it was absolutely pouring we had people come over to get food from us, they sheltered under our canopy whilst they ate and it was lovely to share that moment, to have people make that effort to come and try your product.

What have you found most challenging so far?
Billy
I’ve worked festivals and events for about a decade, but doing it all yourself is a totally different experience. Namely looking after all the necessary legal requirements, getting the gas set-up right – a lot of the behind the scenes work that you don’t necessarily think of initially. We found there’s a lot of grey areas – so the requirements at some festivals we’ve worked at have been totally different to anything I’d encountered when working festivals previously, and you then have to adapt entirely for that set-up. It has been a sharp learning curve.

Lewis
It’s been really daunting at times. There seems to be a lot of red tape and loads of hoops you have to jump through, which I agree are important because we want to do things safely. It’s a lot to learn and remember, a lot of jargon to digest and interpret. We want to be clean and operate safely, we want to make sure we are serving proper food so need to follow the regulations and guidance and like with most things the more we do it, the better we get at it, and the easier it’s going to be moving forward.

What led you to joining NCASS and how have you found membership so far?
Billy
Having worked in hospitality and events previously, I was already aware of NCASS – traders I’d worked for were members. We felt that while technically we could run the business without a membership we would have been on our own and it provides a lot of assurance. The membership offered help with literally everything so it was a much easier option, to join and have that support, especially as we’re just starting out and there’s so much to learn.

Lewis
The fact everything compliance wise was all there in one package is a big help, it has saved us an awful lot of time which is obviously advantageous. It gave us a nice structure of things and we found it easy to follow – things like temperature checks for example, and then you’ve got clear documents to record everything you need that event organisers or EHOs are going to ask for. Basically it’s allowed us to concentrate on the things we want to concentrate on, which is serving pasta and enjoying ourselves.

What do you think makes the perfect bowl of pasta?
Billy
So we’ve each chosen a sauce that we take ownership of. Lewis is in charge of the tomato based sauce that is named after his fiancee’s surname. So that’s where the ‘Cork’ name came from, and the ‘Anita’ white sauce is named after my nan. The funny thing is, when it comes to serving up and eating a dish ourselves, we’ll go for the opposite!

My favourite dish would be our pasta with the tomato base or the Cork sauce. I always go for the spicy ndouja sausage paste. Mix that in with the sauce to give it a kick, and put a little bit of cheddar cheese on top. It’s a bit basic to be honest but I love it. It’s a filling, healthy bit of grub to get your hands on.

Lewis
I’m pretty much the opposite. We’re quite competitive about the sauces when we’re making and selling them, which one’s best, which one sells more and stuff like that, and they’ve performed differently at alternate events. So we’re probably about even over the year, but I would go for the white sauce. I love the spicy ndouja sausage. It’s got a spice to it, but the flavour is incredible. It goes with both really well and I do enjoy both sauces, but I’d probably go white. Spicy sausage, a bit of pancetta as well. Probably some cheddar sprinkled on, garlic oil, chilli oil, a bit of rocket with some peppers and tomatoes. I love it. Yeah, I absolutely love it.

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