London

No city hires out a kitchen brigade faster. London has the caterers, the waiting staff, the florists and the hire companies within a thirty minute drive of almost any address, and it charges accordingly.

London is the most complete private dining market in Europe. Everything exists: the chef who cooks kaiseki for eight in a Notting Hill kitchen, the caterer who plates three hundred covers in a livery hall, the hire company that will deliver Riedel glasses and a mobile cold room on a Sunday. The depth of the freelance pool means you can build a brigade for a single evening that no restaurant in the city could staff permanently.

The cost of that depth is a price level that surprises hosts coming from southern Europe. A four course plated dinner for twelve with a chef, one sous chef and two waiters lands around 2,600 to 3,400 euros before wine, and that is before you hire a single glass. The sum is not the food, it is the hands: London service staff cost 35 to 45 euros an hour with a four hour minimum, and the good ones are booked first.

The two structural problems are the kitchens and the streets. Period houses have kitchens designed for one cook and a kettle, so a visiting brigade arrives with induction plates, a water bath and a folding table, and the extraction is a window. And every vehicle that brings it pays to enter the city, parks badly and leaves early. A host who solves loading and cooking space in advance saves more money than one who argues about the menu.