May. What a crazy May.

We’re already almost halfway through June, and honestly, I haven’t had a minute to stop.

We had six events during the month, including the first wedding of the season and one of our biggest weddings of the year so far, with more than 100 guests.

I still can’t believe that just one year ago, we were struggling so much after our food truck was destroyed, and now we have more than 10 weddings booked, alongside catering and events.

But that’s exactly why I write this newsletter: to stop, reflect, and appreciate how far we’ve come.

The first wedding of the season was nerve-racking.

It was a family-style service with a new team, in a stunning location.

We even got lucky with the weather; it didn’t rain!

We started with a selection of bites for the tables, followed by a couple of mains, sides, and dessert.

You can see the post about this wedding here, it got a lot of social media attention.

After that, we had Stockbridge market, and I’m sorry to be the one to bring bad news, but the gnocchi won’t be a regular at the market. 🫣

Logistically and financially, if it’s not a good day, the amount of effort and potential food waste is a high risk, so we are thinking of new approaches.

So if you managed to try our gnocchi, you were lucky!!!

We followed with Leith Market, our favourite market. And once again, you all showed up. By 3:15 pm, we had sold out of everything except potatoes.🙏

We also catered our first elopement: a 10-person wedding where the couple ordered food for the whole weekend to take away, reheat, and enjoy during their stay, plus a special dinner service with a bespoke menu. You can see it here.

As if that wasn’t enough, Gemma agreed to teach a cooking class at Edinburgh College and showed students how to make gnocchi from scratch on-site.

To top off that week, we were invited to the launch event for The List’s Food & Drink magazine. You can see here, Gemma, possibly cancelling our invitation for next year.  😅

We have to admit, we’re not always great at events where we don’t know anyone. Breaking the ice doesn’t come naturally to us. But this time, we genuinely had a great evening. Very nice vibe, we met awesome people, and it was a real privilege to know that only 100 people had been invited, and somehow we were among them. 🤷‍♀️

Actually, more than a privilege, I see it as a responsibility. A responsibility to show that running a business that respects the planet and animals is possible. We’re also trying to build collaborations with other businesses to bring more plant-based options to more people.💪

This might sound like a silly reflection, but when we started Planet G, we never imagined so many people would trust us with their special occasions.

To this day, we still get nervous before every single event. We always feel the pressure of wanting everyone to leave thinking, “WOW, that food was incredible.”

It’s a commitment we’ve made, and one we want to keep making. Because from our perspective, that’s how change happens. If we want more people to embrace plant-based food, the food itself has to be unforgettable.💛

Last but not least, we had another wedding, one where only four out of more than 60 guests were vegan.

As always, we approached it with the best mindset possible: trying to change as many perceptions about food as we can, one plate at a time.
🌱
Right now, I’m trying to appreciate this sweet spot we seem to be in.

Everything feels like it’s moving in the right direction.

The feedback from weddings has been incredible, and we constantly hear comments about how much people love the food.

But in the back of my mind, there’s always that little voice saying, “Nothing can be this good forever. The criticism will come. The negative comment will come.” Because at the end of the day, we’re human, and humans make mistakes.

So here I am: enjoying the moment, feeling grateful, but also staying a little cautious.

Monthly balance ⚖️

Gossip ish 💬

This month, I have two stories for you.

At the last Stockbridge Market, a customer decided to spend her day off flying from Ireland to Edinburgh, coming to the market specifically to try our food, and then flying back home on an afternoon flight 😱.

Again, I find that completely unbelievable.

I tell Gemma all the time: you should be incredibly proud that people travel from so far away and make such an effort just to try your food.

Because even now, despite all the evidence, Gemma still somehow believes everyone cooks as she does.

The second story made me laugh.

At the first wedding of the month, one of the guests turned out to be a former street food trader.

He told us, “When I got invited to the vegan wedding, my first thought was that I needed to message you and find out if you were catering it. Because if you weren’t, I was going to have to prepare myself for the food not being great.

Then I completely forgot to ask.

But today, when I saw the yellow van, I got so excited. I started telling everyone the food was going to be amazing.”

I’m just glad we delivered the expectations haha

Future plans 🚀

We asked a local tattoo artist to design a t-shirt for us, we printed a test, and I think it’s awesome! We need to find a place to print the t-shirts, and if people are interested, we’d launch a pre-order system.

No meat, still neat

Marta | Project Manager | Planet G.
Sustainable Kitchen by Gemma Costa (Masterchef the Professionals)
Scottish Street Food Award Champions 2024.
Catering, weddings, events
@planetgfood