What Is Film Catering? What It Involves and Why It Matters on Set

Production is not like office work. If you're filming for 14 hours in an East London warehouse, you can't send your crew to the vending machine to fend for themselves. Hot, nutritious food is critical, and so is managing allergens and keeping dietary requirements separate. When the director calls "Cut!", the crew shouldn't also be calling for takeaways. 

Film crews can't leave the set to find food. They need fresh, hot meals delivered on time, no matter the weather or shooting schedule. That's what film set catering is all about. It’s a fast-paced, demanding service that requires experience and careful planning, something many regular caterers are not equipped to handle. 

Owen Brothers Catering has been in business since 1974, and we've catered for London's working population. That includes the unique demands of film and TV productions. Our Film and TV Location Catering service is built around the specific challenges and requirements of production catering. If you're sourcing catering for your upcoming production, keep reading. We'll explain exactly what film crew catering involves and how the right provider can make all the difference on set. 

Film catering is the professional service of providing meals, snacks, drinks, and craft services for cast and crew during film and television productions. It includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, refreshments, dietary management, and logistics at filming locations. 

Film crew catering, also called movie set catering or on-set catering, is the service of providing fresh meals and snacks for the cast and crew during a film or TV production. It also includes managing the craft services table with drinks and light refreshments throughout the shoot. 

Film set catering is different. It happens in tough conditions, works around schedules that keep changing, and often takes place in remote locations. Corporate catering usually has fixed numbers and a fixed venue. Film crew catering is different. It feeds large groups with many different dietary needs, in a short time, without slowing down production. 

Consider the difference. A business lunch happens once a day. Crew meals happen several times a day. A corporate lunch is served at a fixed venue. Film crew catering may feed 80 people in a different location every week. They each have different dietary requirements and expect to eat within a 30-minute window. 

Our standard services include Office Lunch Catering and Corporate Catering, but film crew catering is its own discipline. That's why we offer a dedicated Film and TV Catering service for productions.

There are at least two and sometimes three meal services during a typical production day. Breakfast comes first thing when the crew arrives for call time. The main meal is served midway through the day (usually referred to as "lunch," regardless of the actual time). If filming runs late, there may also be an evening meal service or a "tea run." A tea run is a lighter service featuring snacks, hot drinks, and hearty sandwiches to keep the crew going until wrap. 

Offering breakfast catering to offices across London is how we got our start, so serving fresh meals on time is something we've perfected. We apply that same planning and preparation to every film set catering service we provide.

Craft services or "crafty" are separate from scheduled crew meals. This is the continuously stocked table filled with snacks, fruit, pastries, soft drinks, coffee, and tea. Think of crafty as the crew's fuel station. 

It sits near the unit base and is available throughout the day for crew members to help themselves between setups. It's our job to keep the craft services table fully stocked. It may seem like a small detail, but when done well, it goes a long way towards keeping morale high on set.

Film productions don't feed their crews in break rooms. They feed them on college campuses, in city parks, on beaches (using portable kitchens), and in converted warehouses. 

That's where our fleet of GPS-tracked vehicles helps. Every vehicle in our London fleet fully complies with current Euro 6 emissions standards, allowing us to transport food, equipment, and catering staff to locations across London and the surrounding areas. 

Everything centres on the unit base, the area where production vehicles are parked close to the filming location. From there, our team transports food and catering equipment from our vehicles to the serving area.

Imagine you're feeding a crew of 80 people. Within that group, you might have 12 vegans, 6 people requiring gluten-free meals, 4 with serious nut allergies, and several who require halal meals prepared separately from the rest of the food. 

They all eat at the same time. 

Our HACCP-certified digital food safety system and streamlined dietary management process are built for exactly these situations. We regularly cater corporate events requiring vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, halal, and allergen-specific meals. The same robust processes are applied on every film set we serve.

Film crews work to a call sheet. Each day, we'll receive the production's call sheet (or several, if there are multiple shooting locations). Every minute is scheduled. 

If lunch is planned for "Scene 14 wrap to Scene 15 prep," that's exactly when we'll be ready to serve. Our team prepares in advance, arrives on time, serves your entire crew within the allocated window, and packs away as soon as production moves on.

Modern productions often have strict sustainability targets. We share that commitment. 

Our on-set catering service uses Vegware compostable packaging and serving items. Vegware products are commercially compostable and meet the environmental standards required by organisations such as Netflix, the BBC, and many other production companies. 

Our commitment to sustainable packaging extends beyond film productions. We also use Vegware across our corporate event catering services because sustainability is part of how we operate every day. 

If meals aren't served on time, production slips behind schedule. If production runs late, wrap is delayed. One TV Production Catering delay can have a knock-on effect across the entire day's schedule. 

We work around production, not the other way around. If lunch is scheduled for 2:00 pm, that's exactly when we'll be ready to serve.

Long filming days can be exhausting. Overnight shoots are demanding, and extended productions often mean time away from family. 

For many crew members, lunch is the only proper break they'll get all day. A fresh, hot meal provides a chance to recharge before returning to work. Happy crews are more productive, and good catering plays an important role in maintaining morale.

Since 1974, we've maintained a 5-star food hygiene rating while operating across London with a fleet of GPS-tracked, Euro 6-compliant vehicles. 

Managing vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, halal, and allergen-specific meals is standard practice for us. We also use 100% Vegware compostable packaging across all our catering services. 

Our expertise extends beyond film sets. From office lunch catering for production companies to office breakfast catering for early-morning read-throughs, we can support your team wherever they're working. 

We also cater wrap parties, premieres, and company celebrations. From the first day of production to the final wrap, we've got your catering covered. 

Contact us today to speak directly with our team about your production.