Jo Woodcock reveals the plans for his pop-up restaurant this summer

After a very successful winter of setting up our pop-up restaurant in village halls, The Wandering Kitchen is getting ready to go outdoors for the summer.

The finishing touches are being added to our mobile catering trailer, The Wandering Lodge, and we are all set to change focus from serving up four course meals in village halls to burgers and pies in fields of (hopefully not too muddy) festival goers.

It is only just sinking in for Ed and I that the 9-5 is now a distant memory and we really are going to get to live the dream this summer and spend a lot of it outdoors. I love the outdoors and I have always found sitting inside when the weather is nice a really horrible waste.

This goes back to summers at school, revising for exams and staring out the window and longing to be out there. This year my dream will become a reality, I am just praying for good weather.

Other than getting outside I am also really excited about getting out there and meeting the general public. Again, this is always something I missed being in an office. I am a real people person and love nothing better than a good chat (it’s probably because I am from Stoke and I have also kissed the Blarney stone).

There is nothing like the buzz of a fast-paced service and face-to-face customer interaction. I am sure we will have some happy customers on our hands as the ethos for the food for The Wandering Lodge is the same as for our Village Restaurant events – good quality, hearty food with a speciality in game.

Ed has been experimenting with his venison and beef burger and I have to tell you that it is absolutely delicious and we will have a great selection of pies on offer.

So where can you find us this summer?

Well as we like supporting the local community and businesses we have decided that we only want to do local festivals.

We are starting out at Music in the Park in Thame on May 4 and then heading to Wallingford Food Festival and we will also be at Beacon Festival on the solstice weekend, as well as many others (there is a full list on our website).

If you are reading this and feeling sad that you missed out on sampling our restaurant events, you don’t have to be, as we will still be popping up every Wednesday evening in Rosie’s Tea Room in Abingdon over the summer and our Village Restaurant events will be back in September.

To book a table at Rosie’s, visit thewanderingkitchen.co.uk/rosies

Whether it is at a local festival or at Rosie’s Tea Room, Ed and I look forward to seeing you at The Wandering Kitchen very soon.