Grazing table – top tips on creating stunning centerpiece that your guests will never forget
Why Grazing Tables?
Grazing table are a unique party food or event catering idea that has exploded over recent years. Colorful and fun, graze tables are perfect alternative those boring sit down dinners. Guests can meet and chat while they pick from a table piled quality meats, artisan cheese, olives, juicy fruits, freshly baked breads and dips.
Grazing tables work well for any sort of party, whether it be a birthday party, weddings, baptisms, baby showers, bridal showers, engagement parties as well as corporate catering and cocktail hour.
Set a budget for your grazing table
First things first. It can be as expensive (or cheap) as you want. Everything starts with how much do you want to spend. The presentation of a grazing table alone is a show stopper. We have seen it all from delicious deli meat, fruit, veggies, selection of cheeses to impressive canapés and scrumptious desserts. You can use anything you want to impress your guests. Ask yourself how many people you need to feed and how much you are willing to spend per head. Then you have a budget. Try to be realistic in setting up the budget though. With £5/ head budget it will be difficult to create grazing table seen on Instagram feed.
Grazing table must haves
When it comes to creating show stopping grazing table there is no certain rules and this is a beauty of it. People love cheese, cured meats and bread. Anything else you add on a top of that is just an icing on the cake. You can literally do anything!
Over the years of preparing grazing tables for our clients we can easily say that good quality breeds/baguettes and specialty meats are always a hit. All that matters is that everything is thoughtfully designed and placed, allowing guests to mingle and, more importantly, keep coming back for more.
Elevating your grazing table
For a basic set up you can lay out all of the serving boards/ platters you have to keep it simple. If you want your grazing table to look a bit more photo worthy we would advise you to use few slightly elevated serving platters to add a little dimension. You can use an old crate or wooden box etc and place wooden board of platter on the top.
Using fresh blooms on your grazing table
Can you prepare it without fresh flowers or foliage? Of course.
Would using fresh blooms upgrade your table? Absolutely, and it’s worth every penny. It doesn’t have to be expensive unique flower arrangements prepared by your florist. It can simply be few steams of eucalyptus or rosemary. You will see the difference straight away. It will make it look fuller and the entire spread more sophisticated.
Set a theme of your grazing table and stick to it
It seems very easy to stick to a choosen theme but sometimes adding to many extras will overdo it. Try to to go this route, you don’t want your grazing table to look tacky, do you? It’s absolutely crucial that your grazing table looks artistic while still being accessible, and your guests should not be hesitant to touch or eat the food. Keep it simple so the food can shine and take center stage.
Setting up your grazing table – give yourself enough time
It’s very important to remember to give yourself enough time to get the grazing table together! People often underestimate how long it will take them to assemble while set up. If you want to avoid “thrown at the table” effect we would strongly advise to give yourself 1,5h or if you are doing it for the first time up to 2h assuming that all of the ingredients are prepped before hand.
The beauty of grazing tables is that you can design them whichever way you like with your favorite finger foods and be as creative as you like, and they will always impress your guests!
Happy Grazing!!
