On-the-Fire Catering: How Live-Grill Events Actually Work

It means the fire is the kitchen. No central prep kitchen, no delivery van, no chafing dishes losing heat under a lid. A crew arrives at your venue with portable grills, coal, and raw cuts, and builds the entire cooking station on-site — then everything is cooked live, cut by cut, as guests are there to see it.

The term shows up a lot in Hebrew search (קייטרינג על האש) because it's specific: it excludes anything reheated. If a caterer's meat was cooked hours earlier and warmed up on arrival, it isn't on-the-fire catering — it's delivery with a nicer name.

The crew shows up roughly 90 minutes before guests arrive. That window covers unloading the grills, positioning them for airflow and smoke direction, lighting the coals to the right temperature, and laying out the prep station — boards, tongs, sauces, plating trays. By the time the first guest walks in, the fire is already going and the smell is doing half the marketing.

Cooking itself runs in waves through the event rather than one big batch at the start. That's deliberate — a tray of steaks made all at once at 7pm is cold by 8. Cooking in waves means whoever eats at 9pm gets the same quality as the first plate.

As a rule of thumb, one grill crew member per 15-20 guests keeps the line moving without a wait. A 20-guest minimum event typically runs with one dedicated grill chef plus a service hand; a 60-80 guest wedding or corporate offsite usually needs three to four people rotating between the fire, the prep table, and service.

Undersizing the crew is the most common way an on-site BBQ goes wrong — not the food quality, but the queue. That's why crew size scales with headcount rather than staying fixed.

RBBQ runs a flat ₪290 per guest, all-inclusive — cuts, sides, drinks, setup, live service, and full cleanup — with a ₪6,700 event minimum (so anything under about 23 guests pays the minimum, not a per-head rate). You can plug in your own headcount and menu on the homepage calculator for an instant number.

There's no separate 'setup fee' or 'cleanup fee' layered on top — the flat rate is meant to be the whole answer, because open-ended add-ons are the thing that makes people distrust a quote.

Yes, on request. RBBQ sources from kosher-certified butchers — Kompas Maadanei Basar in Kfar Saba (certified under Rabbanut Kfar Saba and Badatz Beit Yosef) and Roni Tassa Boutique Butchery in Ramat Gan are two we work with regularly — and can arrange an on-site mashgiach when the event calls for one. Kashrut supervision in Israel runs through the Chief Rabbinate and independent Badatz authorities, so tell us the exact level you need up front rather than assuming a default.

Live-fire cooking doesn't complicate kosher supervision as much as people expect — a dedicated, kashered grill and a mashgiach present for the cook solves it the same way it would in a kosher kitchen.