Baked

Wood-fired pizza catering from Reading

Baked is a catering company based in Reading that serves events and functions around the Thames Valley area and beyond. Its core offer is pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven mounted in a bespoke trailer, built around a 24-hour fermented dough that is hand stretched and topped with homemade tomato sauce.

The company describes pizza as its mainstay but also caters canapés, flatbreads, barbecues and other food. It presents itself as backed by 25 years of catering experience and frames its service as friendly, professional and dedicated.

How the pizzas are made

According to the company, the dough is fermented for 24 hours and every pizza is hand stretched. The tomato sauce is made in house. For ingredients, Baked says it works with a range of suppliers to source what it considers the highest quality produce for each event, including organic and locally sourced items.

Menus written for each booking

The website presents a sample menu of house specials and states that all menus are written for each individual event booking, accommodating the client's preferences. The sample listed at the time of writing included:

• Beef brisket: slow smoked beef brisket, pickled red onions, jalapeños and homemade barbecue sauce.
• Pistachio Bianco: pistachio, red onion and rosemary, without a tomato base.
• Artichoke: spinach, charred peppers, artichoke hearts and pesto.
• Roasted squash: roasted squash, chilli and sage.
• Broccoli & feta: tenderstem broccoli, grilled courgette, feta and caramelised onions.
• Asparagus & ham: asparagus, mushroom and cured ham.
• Seafood: anchovy, caper and black olive.
• Carne: chorizo, Padrón peppers and goat's cheese.
• Spicy Italian: sausage, pepperoni, ham and chilli.
• Classics: Margherita, pepperoni and garlic bread.

Events and types of client

The booking form on the site lists the kinds of events the company handles: weddings, corporate functions, education, festivals, fairs, sports events, school events, birthdays and other celebrations. The company asks prospective clients for the date, type of event, number of guests and contact details when enquiring.

Baked also describes an approach in which each event is co-created with the client, with bespoke menus and a custom set-up designed for the occasion alongside its standard pop-up service.

Origins of the business

The company says it was founded by two friends, Stuart and Andrew, whose friendship revolves around food and drink. Stuart is credited with 25 years of catering experience spanning Rosette-level fine dining to head chef at Microsoft Reading; Andrew's background is in design and bespoke cabinetry. According to the account on the site, they found a horse box, designed and carried out the build, sourced a custom oven and handled branding, menu planning and supplier selection.

Feedback cited on the site

The website reproduces several client comments. One describes Baked stepping in at short notice to cater a wedding, praising the pizzas and canapés and naming Stuart and Andrew. Another, attributed to a representative of an organisation marking its 900th anniversary, says the pizzas featured at all of that year's events and that children kept asking when the van would return. A third thanks the team for a birthday party and notes guests' comments on the food and on the staff.