It’s great to discover a family working together and making a real success of their business despite the troubled economic times.

I am talking about the Tasker family from Wallingford who run Lamb Catering. The company caters for wedding receptions, family parties and formal events which are often staged in prestigious venues such as the Sheldonian Theatre, the Divinity School at the Bodleian Library and the Pitt Rivers Museum.

It all began in 1980 when Carole Tasker established the highly successful Lamb Coffee shop in the Lamb Arcade, in Wallingford. She and her husband Clive qualified in catering management soon after establishing the coffee shop and began using the premises to prepare food for outside events, parties and even wakes.

As the business began to flourish and grow, they opened Party Plus in Oxford during 1990, closing it in 2006 to move to a purpose-built catering unit in Chancerygate Business Centre, Cowley. It was at this point that their 23-year-old daughter Emma joined them as events and marketing co-ordinator, having gained a degree in business studies.

Carole and Clive were eager to explain how trends in catering have changed since they began their business. Carole said it was fascinating to see how trends slowly evolved.

“When we began taking on outside catering functions, such as weddings, everything was so very formal. Cold buffets and finger buffets were particularly popular, and the wedding cake was always created from white iced tiers with a model bride and groom or flowers balanced on the top.” She smiles as she thinks of the way things are now.

“The traditional cake has given way to cupcake arrangements, or even chocolate or cheese wedding cakes, and everything is far more relaxed than it used to be.”

The family still serve the occasional cold buffet, but most wedding parties request a three-course meal or perhaps a vintage afternoon tea. For this, they use antique china and serve traditional cucumber sandwiches and pots of tea.

“We also get asked for themed events these days – The Best of British, Moroccan, that sort of thing. We even do fish and chips which is a firm favourite as they are mini-portions served in paper cones.”

But it’s bowl food that has taken off lately.

Clive explained that a bowl of food eaten with a fork is so easy to hold that people were choosing it over plated food. The bowl fits neatly into the palm of the hand, or can be balanced on top of the wine glass, enabling the guests to circulate freely.

“We have devised some fantastic bowl combinations. Cold dishes include salmon with cucumber and crème fraiche on crushed new potatoes, and avocado and asparagus with seasonal leaves, salsa dressing and sunflower seeds. Hot ones include honey-glazed cocktail chipolatas with mustard mash and caramelised red onion gravy, and a great upside down fish pie, which is particularly popular.”

Emma’s favourite is the family-style menu often requested for corporate events.

She said: “This is great fun to serve as a guest on each table will be asked to carve the main course and serve the dessert at the table. We provide a chef’s hat and apron for the carver, which really makes for a party atmosphere and gets everyone talking.”

The family-style menu includes whole joints of slow-roasted pork belly with crackling, roast leg of lamb, or sirloin of beef with Yorkshire pudding. Bowls of roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables and all the accompaniments are placed on the table for guests to help themselves, just as they would during a family dinner. It’s a real team-bonding experience and a far cry from the meals Carole used to serve at such events.

The purpose-built unit the family and their staff of five work in is far removed from the premises they used in the early days. The gleaming premises with its stainless steel equipment provides them with space to store, prepare and lay out the food. They are justifiably proud of the fact that they’ve been awarded a five-star food-hygiene rating by Oxford City Council’s environmental health department. Carole said these five stars were really important as more and more people were looking up food-hygiene ratings before eating out, or ordering food these days. “They expect food-hygiene transparency,” she said.

The family are also prepared to take their equipment to a client’s premises and prepare the food at their chosen venue, sometimes cooking it on a spit or in convection ovens that they can transport anywhere.

Fashions may be changing, but some things don’t change. Outside catering calls for well-structured checklists and work plans. Once they have left their catering unit, there is no going back. But the family have been working together for so long now that nothing is ever forgotten, and their functions prove very happy well-run events which bow to modern food trends.