WE have probably all eaten something created by the culinary magicians at Relish Events, whether it is at a wedding, a function, an event or simply a sandwich at the Cotswold Gateway at the lakes.

The catering giants were established by Cirencester’s Philippa Sawyer back in 1996 and since then she has led the company to become the caterers for large events such as the Badminton International Horse Trials and most recently RIAT.

After graduating with top honours, Philippa took up a management training role with Whitbread.

She worked rapidly through the ranks before being appointed to lead its new events division in 1988.

This rapidly expanded running contracts with many high-profile events like the Queens Tennis Tournament. During a restructure of Whitbread, Philippa purchased the events division for the princely sum of £1.

Philippa’s commercial catering activities now turnover close to £10m across a range of food and leisure activities with many more opportunities in the pipeline.

Relish look after many events and venues around the UK including those above but others all over the country and even into Europe from award ceremonies for Sky, BBC and music publications as well as corporate and charity events.

Philippa said: “We have managed events in the oddest of places including on busses, boats, museums, aircraft hangers, cellars, roof tops and a million marquees. One of the most intriguing was to produce a café in an old Boeing 747 for Land Rover at Kemble Airfield.”

The business is supported by co- director and chef Rob Goves as well as various young people that come to Relish for a summer job but end up staying.

“I am astounded on an almost daily basis by the amazing creative skills, work ethic, energy and loyalty of the team, many of whom join from school and college,” Philippa explained. “They then work their way up to management and even ownership position. We also employ swathes of young people from all around the region.”