our story
Our Story
Nearly 10 years ago, The Social Platter Co. started with a simple idea: to bring people together over beautiful, handcrafted food. What began as a small homegrown platter business has grown into one of the region’s most trusted names in catering — but our values have stayed the same.
Today, we’re proud to have a team of 52 passionate staff, including 22 chefs and bakers, who together bring over 300 years of combined experience to every platter, grazing table, and dish we create. We now run four cafés, provide contract catering for major organisations like KiwiRail, and deliver exceptional food for all kinds of events across Christchurch, Canterbury, North Canterbury, Selwyn, Ashburton, and Methven.
From the beginning, our mission has been simple: to make great food accessible, take the fear out of working with a catering company, and make it easy to deal with us. We believe catering should feel friendly, not intimidating — and that’s exactly how we work.
At the heart of it all are Paul and Manu (everyone refers to us as The Boys) — the proudly pedantic owners who believe every detail matters. From the freshness of the ingredients to the way a platter and the food is presented, they expect nothing but the best — because that’s what they’d want for their own guests.
We’re passionate about using fresh, locally sourced ingredients, and about making almost everything in-house, by hand— from our artisan breads to our sweet treats and savoury delights.
And keeping us all grounded (and entertained) is our much-loved CEO, Betty the Shih Tzu cross Poodle. While Betty doesn’t use a paw to make anything (we promise!), she keeps a close eye on the team and ensures we never take ourselves too seriously.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and our forever needing to be worked on TikTok.
Proudly supporting local. Passionately handcrafted. Always approachable.
Nearly 10 years ago, The Social Platter Co. started with a simple idea: to bring people together over beautiful, handcrafted food. What began as a small homegrown platter business has grown into one of the region’s most trusted names in catering — but our values have stayed the same.
Today, we’re proud to have a team of 52 passionate staff, including 22 chefs and bakers, who together bring over 300 years of combined experience to every platter, grazing table, and dish we create. We now run four cafés, provide contract catering for major organisations like KiwiRail, and deliver exceptional food for all kinds of events across Christchurch, Canterbury, North Canterbury, Selwyn, Ashburton, and Methven.
From the beginning, our mission has been simple: to make great food accessible, take the fear out of working with a catering company, and make it easy to deal with us. We believe catering should feel friendly, not intimidating — and that’s exactly how we work.
At the heart of it all are Paul and Manu (everyone refers to us as The Boys) — the proudly pedantic owners who believe every detail matters. From the freshness of the ingredients to the way a platter and the food is presented, they expect nothing but the best — because that’s what they’d want for their own guests.
We’re passionate about using fresh, locally sourced ingredients, and about making almost everything in-house, by hand— from our artisan breads to our sweet treats and savoury delights.
And keeping us all grounded (and entertained) is our much-loved CEO, Betty the Shih Tzu cross Poodle. While Betty doesn’t use a paw to make anything (we promise!), she keeps a close eye on the team and ensures we never take ourselves too seriously.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and our forever needing to be worked on TikTok.
Proudly supporting local. Passionately handcrafted. Always approachable.
Meet Paul and Manu
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Meet our CEO Betty
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the social platter co. platters all set up and ready to eat
