Meet the creative Sussex woman making stunning grazing boards that look too good to eat

Rhianna Ogle launched The Wild Feast, a company providing grazing boards, boxes and tables for events, functions, weddings, parties, date nights, gatherings and more in September.

Rhianna, 33, works in marketing, and decided to start this as a side hustle when she left her full-time in-house role. She started working as a freelancer and used it as an opportunity to try something new.

“I had always made these boards for friends and family, and everyone always said I should do it for a business,” she said.

“Then I did one for work, and people said the same, and I thought ‘do you know what, I’m going to give it a go’.”

As she builds the business up, Rhianna is sourcing food from supermarkets and shops, but soon hopes to start working with local food producers and delis.

Her boards can be customised to customers’ tastes, and can even be colour-themed for events like baby showers.

And she hopes to start working with micro-breweries going forward to supply grazing boxes for pub customers to buy.

Rhianna, from Worthing, said grazing boards and boxes have become popular in the last few years, but she said her style is different to others.

She added: “There are ways you can make something look very nice, still have very good-quality ingredients but not have to charge over-the-top money for it, and I think I’m very good at doing that.

"It should be affordable for most people, at an event, to be able to eat like this. I feel like this kind of eating looks very nice on the eye, but it’s also an affordable way to cater an event because you can scale it.”

Her offerings are predominantly savoury, but she can provide sweet elements for customers wanting it. Rhianna kindly made a grazing box for me featuring mortadella with pistachios, salami Milano and prosciutto, smoked cheddar, brie, a strong cheddar and a crunchy red Leicester, salted crackers, walnuts, pretzels, pistachios, blueberries, strawberries, dried cranberries and grapes.

It was an absolute delight. Everything worked so well together and it provided a really decadent dinner for my husband and I. It was like eating a piece of art, and if it wasn’t so tasty, I might have felt bad demolishing it.

Rhianna said: “I eat with my eyes and being able to see how lovely everything looked together with the vibrant colours was so appealing to me. I love hosting, too, so they just seemed like the perfect things for me to make.

"This has come from the passion I have for food looking and tasting nice. I’m a big foodie and I love making sure people get a wonderful experience from food. I can’t wait to provide that experience for the people I deliver to.”

For more information, or to place an order, see https://thewildfeast.co.uk/

You can also follow The Wild Feast on Facebook and Instagram.