Display Hints for Party Banquet Table

Serving party food banquet style is a great choice for easy entertaining. If you want your guests to be dazzled, tune into the fine art of food display. Learn how to place foods, what kinds of containers to use and how to make it all look mouth-watering. Does this Spark an idea?

Place Your Table Carefully

When you begin planning, think for a moment about table placement. You want your guests to be able to flow to and from the table easily. Placing your banquet against a wall (leaving it open on three sides) makes it easier to create your food display, because your table will only be viewed from the front.
This also ensures that guests flow from the beginning of the buffet to the end. Place stacks of plates on the left and napkins and utensils on the right at the very end. This means your guest don't have to juggle forks, knives and napkins while they're trying to serve themselves.

Dress Rehearsal

The day before your event, place empty serving dishes on the table along with their appropriate serving utensils. This way you can move them around easily and determine where you want to fill in with flowers and other decorations. Keep flower arrangements low to provide easy access to food. It's also a good idea to use flowers with little scent so the flowers won't interfere with the scent of your delicious food.

Food Stylist's Secret

Here's the number one trick that food stylists use to make a table full of food look more intriguing: they place the food at varying heights. This means placing a low, shallow platter of cookies next to a tiered serving stand of pastries or a big pot of soup behind a basket of rolls. Try to have enough dishes to fill the table so that you create a feeling of abundance.
You can fill in any empty spaces on the display with small dishes of nuts, olives or pickles. For table decoration, scatter miniature gourds or figs for fall (at any farm stand), chestnuts for winter, flowers for spring, and seashells or gorgeous garden produce (chili peppers, fresh herbs tied with ribbon) for summer.