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Cotswold Cooks, Organic Catering in Swindon, Wiltshire
corporate cateringcatering for weddingsvintage and mismatched bone china and cutlerycatering for private partiesthemed cateringunusual serving platters

I am Natalia Maddison, chief cook of the Cots

wold Cooks @ Purton House. The Cotswold Cooks started in the kitchens of Purton House in the late 1980's. Having cooked for the large family and farm workers we opened up Purton House for small corporate events and weddings. Our catering company goes hand in hand with the family farm, www.purtonhouseorganics.co.uk. We have a constant supply of fresh produce, and only when the numbers are too high or items unavailable do I go to other suppliers. Coming from an organic farm I use a large network of local food producers that I know personally. The butchers that I use know the farms from which the meat comes from, farms that use traditional methods where the animal has plenty of space and a good natural habitat in which to roam. I get fantastic sourdough bread from Thierry at la Parisienne, a real artisan baker ~ something very difficult to find in England nowadays. Our organic butter comes from the Berkeley farm Guernsey cows. I often use the local farmers' markets and Cirencester market every Friday for cheese. Fairtrade tea and coffee come from my eldest sister's company www.edgcumbes.co.uk, and hand-made chocolates are made by another sister, Ibby http://www.ibbyschocolatekitchen.com.

23/05/2025

Done it!! 500 miles over mountains and plains, villages, towns and cities, meeting people from all over the world, and finding when I arrived in Santiago my skin and blister Rowie with Ros - who had both dressed up incognito with scarves and sunglasses and all sorts of stuff that made them stand out like sore thumbs, they snuck in to the restaurant I was eating at ordered a bottle of wine to be taken to our table with their compliments, and still I didn’t see them….truly the magic of the Camino works in mysterious ways

18/05/2025

TWO SOUPS.
It was lunch time and we were new to the Santiago ways and beginning to sense the culinary Camino was not an altogether wonderful experience. Arriving at a small village we marched past the brightly coloured bustling pilgrims cafes trying to entice us in - ‘commercial affairs’ I said sniffly - ‘we’re going to find an authentic bar where the Spanish go to eat good food’. And sure enough, further in, under the shadow of the church we found a dingy bar with peeling mustard yellow wallpaper - just the right amount of faded glory, a table with old men playing cards, another handful propping up the bar and not a pilgrim in sight. The man behind the bar passed us a small plastic menu - sopa del dia - Soup of the day or bocadillos - perfect - a small menu means it’s truly homemade. I could see in my minds eye his wife in the kitchen frying up the garlic, onions, carrots and celery for this rustic simple fare. We ordered two soups and sat down. In no time at all he appeared with two bowls full of a lukewarm bland and pale gunge- clearly straight from a packet and screaming out ‘batchors cup—soup’. There’s no wife in the kitchen, just him and an electric kettle. With the pinched look of martyrs we tentatively dipped our spoons in and ate it up. We thanked him, picked up our back packs and trooped past the gaily coloured pilgrims cafes full of happy pilgrims from which a heady aromatic scent of frying garlic onions, carrots and celery wafted towards us.

13/05/2025

One of the most important landmarks on the Camino Frances is the Cruz de Ferro, an iron cross surrounded by thousands of stones which have been left there by pilgrims over the centuries. The stones represent a pain or a burden each pilgrim has carried that they now want to let go of. Sitting with Ruudi later on and chatting over a coffee he asked if I felt any lighter having left my stone. He went on to reflect that we all carry burdens “The trick is to not let it weigh you down, to carry it lightly, to share the load with others by talking, by remembering, by feeling secure that we are with those who can help us carry this weight. Grief is a heavy load to carry, when people say ‘move on’ it is an indication that they can no longer share this pain. Love, a relationship is a shared wonder, a beautiful unity, that also brings burdens with it in time. When you find that the lightness has gone, and you carry it alone, like a heavy stone, then that is the time to let it go.” I nodded, thought deeply and answered in the words of my old friend David Meers “let’s be philosophical about it, and not give it another thought”.

10/05/2025

Of all the albergues that litter the Camino Frances there is no finer establishment than Run by husband and wife team Susi and Fermin, their story (one day, surely, to be made into a film) goes as follows…Beautiful, blonde Aussi Susi walks the Camino 13 times and decides to buy a run down farmhouse to convert into an albergue. One year later she opens it, and in the second week along comes dashing, dark, Basque architect Fermin who falls in love and marries her. I met Susi and Fermin last year and was invited to come and learn some new skills in the garden whilst on my Camino. The day arrived and they handed me a hoe, a rake and a pair of gloves. Eager to start, I flung the bundle down, stepped forward to put my gloves on, trod on the head of the hoe and felt but didn’t see the full force of the pole smack me in the face. With a new respect for garden implements, I set to trimming lavender bushes and weeding raised beds rather more circumspectly, and finished a not inconsiderable patch before supper. Twelve of us around the table, from all four corners of the world, sharing stories over a feast of wild garlic hummus, avgolemono, tiramisusi and local wines. “I’m collecting words of advice and would welcome any you have,” says Rebecca, a sweet 17 year old pilgrim, eager to absorb scraps of knowledge and positive affirmations from the wise elders gathered there. I was about to venture a trite cliche borrowed from Oscar Wilde, but felt that something learnt from life’s experiences might be of more value, so, touching my bruised forehead, I offered “Never trust a lying hoe.” This was translated as “Nunca confies en una p**a mentirosa” which everyone agreed was very wise advice indeed.

06/05/2025

There are thousands of alburgues and little inns to stay in dotted all over the Camino. Some you book in advance and some you just pitch up, rap on the door and either find a bed or move on to the next one. My favourite accommodation is the donativo, where you pay what you think is a fair price and they prepare a supper for you based on what the pilgrims have brought to the kitchen. Last week we were shown a list of items we could choose to buy - vegetables, eggs, bread, cold meats, cheeses etc . It turned out everyone bought a bottle of wine, there were a few cold cheeses and plenty of bread. The hospitalero looked at it, said ‘con pan y con vino se ande el Camino’ and blessed us all.

04/05/2025

Easter on the Camino -

02/05/2025

‘Early to bed and up with the c**k’ is an oft repeated mantra on the Camino. For it is a truth universally acknowledged that the pilgrim leaps out of bed at an ungodly hour, before the sun has risen and the sleepy c**k has had time to gather his wits about him to arouse the world with his joyful crow. And so the wacky races start, as pilgrims sprint to their next destination, eager to secure themselves a good bed in the cheap municipal whose doors open at 12 and who work on a first-come-first-serve basis. Many is the time we have been the last ones out, missed our chances and wished we had heeded this mantra a bit more seriously.

01/05/2025

From the moment you leave your albergue in the morning to pick up the Camino you see signs that will guide you the right way to your destination of Santiago. Sometimes in the form of yellow arrows and sometimes the ubiquitous scallop shell. If you find that you haven’t seen a sign for a while you have to go back, retrace your steps to the last point and then look again for a sign. Some are clear and some are obscure, you have to be alert and watchful lest you go off track. The only time that I missed the signs was, ironically, at Moratinos, the area where I lived for a time last year, the place I knew the best, where I went walking around the countryside day after day, the place I thought I knew inside out was where I got lost…I wonder if this is a metaphor for life?

30/04/2025

A chilly and sometimes hilly 100 kilometres from Pamplona to Logrono through the wine making Navarre region passing a famous wine fountain free to thirsty perigrinos. My backpack is considered light at only 6.5 kilos (minus thermals). Most are about 8k with one small Korean girl trudging around with 15k. There is a taxi service that transports your pack if you don’t want the hell of carrying it all day but these pilgrims are considered Tourigrinos by the purists. There is a precise method of packing a backpack which most pilgrims stick to fastidiously. Towel, soap, bedding and nightclothes always at the top of your pack ready for the shower on arrival and preparing your bunk. Before going to sleep the next days gear is to hand, often the same as today’s, so as not to wake everyone up with the rustling and rattling in the dark and early hours. This method I duly followed until I came to the conclusion that turning the backpack inside down, emptying the lot out and having a good old rummage around the detritus before stuffing it hugger mugger back into the bulging backpack was a far quicker and more satisfactory method with the added benefit of losing a surprising amount of gear, thus lightening my load. 🤗

26/04/2025

Oh sunny Pamplona! - 65 kilometres into the Camino, the fog has lifted and the sun dazzles. We hit Ernest Hemingway’s favourite bar and sink some bottles of Crianza - the good red Rioja before hitting yet another one of Ernest Hemingway’s favourite bars then stagger back to our Albergue under the warm starry night like good pilgrims. I bin my thermals, I won’t be needing them from now on and they add 250g to my heavy backpack. The next day we start with a fragile step to Puente La Reina. The sky darkens, it pours, we get caught in a crazy thunderstorm, flashes of lightening and rain like stair rods. My rain proof trousers are soaked but soon a cold wind blows and dries our sodden clothes. That night our hospitalier tells us the temperature will drop to -1, theres no form of heating in albergues and the last two blankets have gone. I fall asleep fully clothed and freezing under my ultra lightweight blanket, and bitterly regret my foolish decision made under the influence of too much Rioja…

24/04/2025

The first communal feast at St Jean Pied port - where many of these people we will meet time and time again at other albergues, cafes in towns we pass through or somewhere on the way. Many we never see again. We set off over the Pyrenees on the Napoleon trail for a 27k hike with heavy backpacks and some trepidation. The mist soon lifts and 60 kph winds blow against us - but no snow (that falls two days later once we have passed through and are well on our way to sunny Pamplona) we arrive at the municipal albergue and there is already a queue to get into it - this seems to be a common feature - our attempts to stroll into towns and find a great albergue are constantly frustrated by the fact that we wake late and talk too much when walking…but we always manage to find something and often when things look most dire are the times when unexpected surprises and meetings take place.

17/04/2025

We arrive in St Jean Pied de Port, a stream of peregrinos marching into town ready for the first walk tomorrow. Newly kitted out with all the gear to withstand 500 miles of wind, rain and sunshine. We are shown to our rooms - from now on we will be getting used to sleeping with strangers, people who will disturb our sleep with snoring, fidgeting and noisily getting up in the early hours of the morning for a quick start. We sleep on plastic mattresses and paper sheets - no en-suites. Over a couple of beers we get to know the other pilgrims. We share stories of love and loss, life’s brutal crossroads and painful journeys. Peter joins in, another couple of beers and he’s also talking about crossroads. His girlfriend, a s*x therapist is off on a luxury yoga retreat in Lanzarote and she’s encouraged him to do the Camino but he’s not sure that he’s up for long arduous walks and this is not the kind of sleeping with strangers that he had on his mind.

Address

Purton House
Purton
SN54EB

Website

http://www.cotswoldcooks.co.uk/

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