Think of your dinner as a night of theater: the lights dim, your
guests are seated. The curtain rises, your first course appears. The
story unfolds; the wineglasses are refilled as laughter carries around
the table. The audience is completely enchanted, and your guests can't
wait to see what happens next.
As you plan each course,
whether its smoked salmon with capers followed by a selection of
grilled chicken or BBQ'd local fish with crispy roasted potatoes, always
bear in mind that
color, flavor,
temperature,
texture, and
taste of each course should be well-balanced and part of a big picture.
- What are your favorite restaurants? Describe why
you like them. Is it the atmosphere, type of cuisine, quality of food,
the way the food is served or the way the restaurant is decorated? If
there is an element your favorite restaurants have in common, what is
it? What is it about your favorite restaurants that you might wish to
incorporate into a great wedding reception?
- What are your favorite foods? Are there types of
foods--French, northern Italian, Indian, Japanese, Southwestern
barbecue--that you love? What are your least favorite foods? Are there
certain dishes from favorite restaurants that you love, such as a
grilled vegetable salad, or the way a local bistro prepares duck breast?
This information will help you better direct your caterer.
- What sort of food service do you prefer? Is a
formal sit-down dinner your idea of an ideal party? Or do you prefer a
buffet, where you can pick and choose? Do you enjoy dining casually or
more formally?
- What are your favorite drinks? Do you prefer wine, beer, spirits, or soft drinks? Do you have a favorite cocktail? Does your fiancé love microbrews?
- Does the location of your reception suggest a theme for the food?
A reception at a yacht club would suggest delicious local seafood,
perhaps even a clambake. A home wedding might have an American country
theme to the menu.
Remember, you first taste with your eyes, so make sure every course
is as visually appealing as possible. A bowl of grayish brown mushroom
soup isn't particularly attractive; but add a teaspoon of yoghurt or
crème fraiche and a generous sprinkling of chopped chives as a garnish,
and you've taken it from drab to fab in an instant.
A green salad with toasted pecans, a slice of Bosc pear, and a
crumble of rich Stilton Cheese with a crispy slice of grilled flat bread
is simple yet infinitely more inviting than a bowl of plain greens with
julienned vegetables. Even side dishes should play a part in lending a
bit of drama. They add color and texture to the meal and keep the plate
visually appealing.
Whatever you decide to serve, serve only the best
. It's simple:
Use the best available ingredients and do as little to them as possible.
You or your planner will want to collaborate with the chef at the
restaurant or banquet hall to make sure they can execute what you want
comfortably. You may have loved the Salt and Pepper Shrimp you ate on a
trip to China, but if the chef isn't adept at Chinese cuisine and it's
not feasible to fry freshly for 120 guests, wait for your next trip to
Shanghai to try it again.
We bet your guests would rather have a well-prepared filet mignon or a
properly prepared grilled salmon than an elaborate dish that's poorly
prepared or filled with hundreds of ingredients nobody can pronounce.
Find out what the chef is best at (is her specialty in Italian
cuisine? Maybe he's a seafood genius?) and work together to come up with
choices you love, then encourage, empower, and inspire the chef to do
it better than he's ever done before.
You might ask what his favorite dishes are, or what his go-to
ingredients are for adding flavor, and then see where they overlap with
what you and your fiancée imagined for this special meal. (By the way,
if your chef isn't able to guarantee that your dinner will be excellent,
it might be time to rethink your plan and come up with a menu that can
be prepared with absolute confidence. When in doubt, opt for simple
dishes you know will work.)
Before you sit down to discuss the menu, start collecting inspiration
images and articles of food and cocktail recipes you love along with
presentations you find beautiful. (You can keep these organized in
MyCollection.)
If your celebration won't seem complete without a favorite family
dish, ask the chef to incorporate it. The better you can articulate what
you like, the better prepared you'll be to communicate your vision to
the chef and the more likely he'll get it right.
If you don't have the luxury of developing a menu from scratch--for
example, the venue you selected only offers choices from a set list--the
same advice applies.
First, look closely at your options. Are there labor-intensive dishes
that depend on superb timing? Unless you've been to events of similar
size and scope and had delicious soufflés, you might want to avoid those
and instead choose a type of fish, poultry or cut of meat that doesn't
require NASA-like teamwork and split-second reflexes to produce.
Again, talking openly and honestly with the chef is your best option. Ask:
- What are your favorites on the menu?
- What would you choose if you were recommending dishes to your sister or daughter?
As you plan, try to ensure that all courses, from canapés through
dessert, complement one another: you might not want to mix Japanese
appetizers, an Italian first course, and Southern-fried entrees at a sit
down dinner.
On the other hand, you should also try to avoid repeating your
primary ingredient from one course to the next: for example, serving
tomato and mozzarella salad, followed by gazpacho, then chicken breasts
in a sun-dried tomato sauce…
Instead, design the entire menu with an assortment of vegetables and
sauces that distinguish each course from the others. Try to feature any
principle ingredient only once during the meal.
The time of year can play a big part in what goes on your menu.
Winter is not the season for cold poached fish, nor is an outdoor
wedding in July the occasion for prime rib.
Heartier fare, such as hot soups, stews, roast beef or lamb and potato dishes, works better in the winter.
Lighter foods, such as fish, salads and fresh vegetables, come to the
fore during summer's heat. While people enjoy light fare during the
summer, they usually don't want the entire menu to be light. A
deliciously light summer menu can end delightfully with a decadently
rich dessert.
You'll probably begin with canapés or hors d'oeuvres passed at a
cocktail reception. It's meant to whet your appetite and tantalize your
taste buds in anticipation of the meal to come.
The cocktail hour isn't meant to be a meal: it's a transition period to allow guests to congregate together so you can move into dinner as a whole.
Offer your guests a selection of four to six different appetizers in
single-bite portions, planning on 3-5 bites per person. Skip any watery
dipping sauces so you won't have risks of splattering, dripping, and
double dipping. Skip the forks, knives and plates during this time,
unless a buffet is set.
We love small stations of food paired with appropriate beverages:
caviar with chilled vodka, smoked salmon with frozen aquavit, artisanal
cheeses with vintage port, home-cured charcuterie with fine wines,
crudité of fresh garden vegetables with a blue cheese sauce and a crisp
chardonnay.
If you do feature stations, we suggest placing several small tables
and chairs and stand-up cocktail tables around the cocktail area so
guests can eat comfortably and elegantly.
If you hate setting foot in formal restaurants, and prefer spending
Saturday nights eating family-style dinners at home, then serve
family-style at your wedding too. You sacrifice absolutely no chic
points serving golden roast chickens paired with crispy rosemary roast
potatoes and grilled summer vegetables on platters placed down the
center of long banquet tables filled with friends bathed in tons of
candlelight and enjoying a spirited dinner.
Who can resist large, rustic bowls of hand-made pastas, or platters
of chilled seafood with spicy cocktail sauce followed by chilled
lavender scented hand towels?
