Hi, Marty Richardson here. Welcome back!  Today’s topic is serving styles. Once you have decided on your menu the next decision you need to make is how you are going to serve the food. So I am going to go over four different serving styles today.

Got Style?

The first Serving Style is the restaurant style, the second is family style, then the buffet style and cocktail parties. The restaurant style is characterized by plating, or arranging, the food on the dinner plate in the kitchen and then bringing it out to the guests at the dining room table. This is considered the most formal style of entertaining. It also may suit your purpose if you have a smaller table that just won’t accommodate serving platters and bowls in addition to your place settings. There is a limitation to the restaurant style in that there are only so many guests that you can serve in this style. When I was a private chef, I would only try to serve this style for approximately 12 to 14 people. After that it was just too much. By the time you plate and serve the 10th or 12th person, the first person’s food is getting cold. So even with help to bring the food out to the dining room table you are going to have issues. So, the limitation is probably the number of people.

Family and Friends

Family style is more characterized by arranging food on platters and bowls, then bringing the serving platters out to the dining room table. Then your guests can serve themselves, all at the same time. It is a little less formal than the restaurant style, and generally reserved for friends and family. The guests can pass the platters around the table, or some times you have a platter that is just too heavy to do that (maybe your turkey platter for Thanksgiving) the host may want to go around and serve the guests. If you are going to do this, remember that you serve from the guest’s left, so that they can take the food from the platter to their plate with their right hand.

All You Can Eat

The buffet style is next. This style is best characterized by the food served from a central location (or multiple locations) around your entertaining area. It can be appropriate for either formal or informal occasions. Buffet style works best with larger groups. The guests, obviously, serve themselves. There are more opportunities in the buffet style to showcase the food and any interesting serving platters or bowls that you may have. It also gives you an opportunity to really embrace the theme of your party by decorating the buffet area.

The last serving style I wanted to talk about is a cocktail party. And this is where the food is passed on trays and guests serve themselves. This can be formal or informal. It works equally well with large or small groups. There is generally less food served at a cocktail party than the previous three styles. It may require more prep work on your part (or someone else’s part) for the party because the food is generally served in individual, bite sized portions. It takes more time to put those parties together than say a family style or buffet serving style. Also, your drinks or cocktails, share the spotlight with the food.

Be Safe Out There

You want to limit the time for your cocktail party from one to two hours. Now, I am not a lawyer. I am not a policeman. I am not a judge and I am not your mother. But, you will sleep much better that night if you serve alcohol responsibly at your party. Enough said.

The last thing I want to say is, remember that it is your time, your money, your skill, your guests and the limitations of your kitchen or entertaining area. All these factors combined are going to dictate what your serving style is going to be.