How we started
Niamh spent eleven years in Dublin hotel kitchens — Westbury, Merrion, a stint running breakfast service at a four-star in IFSC that she still won't talk about without rolling her eyes. The catch with hotel-brigade work is the food never quite belongs to the cook: it's the head chef's signature, the F&B director's spec sheet, the procurement contract's commodity. In February 2017, on a Tuesday morning that involved a frozen langoustine and an argument about plating cost, she handed in her chef's whites and rang the agent about the unit on Synge Street.
The plan was modest — small private dinners and corporate drops to start, weddings only once the kitchen had a HACCP plan signed off and the insurance was sorted. By the end of 2017 the calendar was full to October 2018. Tomás joined six months in, Aoife the following spring. The phone number, the kitchen, and the three names haven't changed since.
The crew
Three people. The three of us on every job — Niamh in the kitchen, Tomás on pastry and prep, Aoife on the venue side from the moment we arrive. We don't bring agency casuals to weddings; the largest service we do (around 250 plates, family-style) is the three of us plus two trusted freelance hands we've worked with for years.
- Niamh Doherty — head chef & owner. Eighteen years in Dublin kitchens, eight of them at Dublin Cattering. Best at the tasting conversation, the diet-and-allergy thinking, and the calm five minutes before a 200-cover plated service starts.
- Tomás Quigley — sous chef, pastry specialism. Trained at Ballymaloe (twelve-week course, 2014) then four years at a pastry-led restaurant in Stoneybatter. Most likely to be the one icing the cake at 03.00 the night before a Saturday wedding.
- Aoife Burke — front of house & event lead. Five years event-running at a Wicklow country-house venue. She does the site recces, the venue coordination call, the timing-sheet for the day, and the bit at 18.55 where she gently tells the photographer the canapés are leaving the kitchen in two minutes.
How we work
Every booking goes through the same rhythm. We don't have a "premium tier" that gets cooked differently — every event, from a €14pp wake tray to a €110pp wedding, runs the same path.
- Phone or email enquiry. Date, head count, venue, rough vibe. Two minutes on the call. We tell you whether we can take it on before anyone exchanges contracts.
- Tasting at Synge Street. Tuesday evening, 19.00. Four or five plates, the cake samples if it's a wedding, your dietary requirements built in from the start. Two hours. No charge, but we ask you to confirm the date in writing the same week.
- Written quote, 25% deposit. Numbers in writing, VAT inclusive, with the menu agreed at the tasting. The deposit holds the date.
- Site recce. Two to three weeks out, Aoife visits the venue if it's one we haven't worked. Power, water, parking, prep-table space, plating-table position, where the cake goes.
- The day. Three of us on site, prep starting four to six hours before service. Plates out, hot, on time. We pack down to the van and email the invoice the following day.
Registration & insurance
- HSE Environmental Health registered — Dublin City Council food business registration, since March 2017. Annual inspection passed, latest visit August 2025.
- HACCP food-safety plan — current plan on file at the kitchen, reviewed annually. Available for venues that ask.
- €6.5m public liability cover — through Allianz, certificate emailed in the morning to any venue or coordinator who asks. Renewed October each year.
- Employer's liability — €13m, covering the three of us plus occasional freelance crew.
- VAT registered — Irish VAT number on every invoice. 13.5% catering rate included in all quoted per-head prices.
- Allergen training — all three of us hold current FSAI HACCP and allergen-awareness certificates. Refreshed every two years.
What we don't do
The list is short on purpose. We say no to about a third of the enquiries that come through, and we say it on the phone before anyone wastes time on a tasting.
- Bar / licensed alcohol service — we cook the food, you sort the drink. No exceptions.
- Walk-in restaurant service — we are an off-premise caterer, not a restaurant. The Synge Street kitchen does not have a dining room.
- Weddings under 30 guests — for smaller numbers a private dinner format makes more sense (see the private-dinners page).
- Tray bakes, biscuit tins, packaged-food retail — we cook for booked events, not for wholesale.
- Christmas Day, St Stephen's Day, New Year's Day — the three of us actually take Christmas off.
- Cooking that needs a brigade beyond five — at that scale the operating model breaks and it stops being our food. We'll refer you to two larger Dublin caterers we trust for events past about 250 guests.