Food has always been an icon of humans getting together. From early communities gathering around an animal brought back from the hunt to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, offering food to guests signals celebration, family, and friends. In the world of events, the sharing of food recalls the social nature of being human. Food joins people in celebration and the common enjoyment of what delights the senses.
For all these reasons, the role of food in event success is a starring one. Catering to perfection is all in the art of presentation and how that presentation expresses the theme and purpose of your event. Let’s talk about ways to cater event food as a highlight that both nourishes and impresses your attendees.
The power of table settings
Smaller events that feature sit-down meals for attendees or larger, catered affairs both demand an impeccable table setting to deliver the kind of experience you want your guests to have. A strikingly set table invites guests to the experience of enjoying a well-prepared meal.
For smaller events, table settings can be elaborate for formal flair or minimalistic for casual gatherings. For formal affairs, play with charger plate ideas that work with your color scheme and event theme. Anchoring individual table settings with chargers creates continuity throughout the meal as plates for the various courses are changed. Key your charger plates to flower arrangements, candles, stemware, and dishes to add an additional touch of elegance. A charger plate at each setting signals a gorgeous meal to come, adding design continuity, interest, and drama.
Presentation and interaction
While it’s tempting to go the chafing dish route, it’s far more interesting to bring your guests a little entertainment with their food. Make your event unforgettable with food stations doubling as entertaining focal points that spur spontaneous interactions.
Another advantage of food stations at events is that they can reduce your food and beverage budget. A plated dinner (as described above) can get prohibitively costly when feeding 5,000. With food stations, people are moving around and engaging with what’s on offer and with each other. Food stations also encourage “grazing” or intermittent nibbling as guests circulate.
Try applying a theme to each food station or make them all part of the same theme. For example, you might have a “world cuisines” or “comfort food” theme. Both ideas can produce a memorable event in which food becomes the star of the show. And your budget gets a bigger break when you choose lower-cost food items that still thrill your guests. Try a pasta or taco station or stations featuring comfort food like macaroni and cheese or petite burger sliders. While your guests are nibbling, they’re connecting over the food on offer.
Field-to-Fork
With public interest in sustainability only growing, “field-to-fork” eating is making inroads in event catering. Create an event within an event with a local chef demonstrating the preparation of a main dish from local foods. A “build your own” salad bar reinforces the theme and adds DIY fun and guest engagement, with plenty of opportunity to mingle as attendees build their own salads.
“Build your own” stations reduce staffing requirements and your budget. With field-to-fork catering options, you open a world of possibilities, creating new and exciting food adventures for your guests that they’re unlikely to forget anytime soon. And meanwhile, you’re promoting the sustainable wave of the future to applause!
Two Big Trends to Note
As we’re poised to move into a new year, let’s review what’s coming up in event food trends and what’s already in play, set to blow up even bigger:
- As events management emerges from the shadow of the pandemic, live chefs are back in action, providing the flash and excitement of food prepared as guests anticipate a lively bite.
- For the foreseeable future, fresh local food is the order of the day. As I said above, people are becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental cost of food shipped long distances. Your guests want to know that what they’re eating originated close to where they are.
Catering to perfection means giving your attendees what they want with a little twist here and there to offer something they might not expect. But however you twist the menu, food’s role in event success is to be acknowledged and leveraged with creativity.
