Planning Event Menus: Tips From FIG Catering

Whether you are planning your wedding, hosting a baby shower, or are planning any upcoming celebration chances are you are trying to figure out how to tackle the menu.  A thoughtful menu can help set the tone, enhance the theme, and most importantly make your guest full and happy!  

When planning our wedding, we really wanted the menu to have personality and to play a role in setting the tone of an intimate summer garden party.  Molly and Justin at FIG Catering helped us achieve that and made the planning simple.  

So for today's "Tips From the Pro's" we have Molly from FIG Catering to share pointers on planning a menu for your event.  FIG Catering, For Intimate Gatherings, provides hand crafted food and impeccable service for private and corporate gatherings from 2-120 guests. FIG is helpful, fun, and inventive in their approach to special event catering, office catering, and in-home cooking classes.

If you're anything like me, you spend at least 15 minutes at a restaurant looking at the menu, forgoing pleasantries and conversation until important dining choices have been made. Regardless of how many times I have been to a particular restaurant or if I have a taste for something specific, I want to make sure that I am making the best decision possible. Now imagine making the dining decision for 10, 50, or even 200 people. That's what planning a menu for an event is like.

Photo by Brian Kinyon Photography

You want to be somewhat selfish because you are hosting the event and you want to serve things that you like to eat. However, you also have to take your guests into account including their food restrictions or allergies, co-hosts or benefactors (this often means parents if they are paying for or helping with the wedding), and your guests general food likes or adventurousness. Beyond the food, the style of service (buffet, plated meal, passed hors d'oeuvres) is also a factor in planning an event menu. If you're navigating the slippery slope of menu planning, here are a few tips:

1. Know your guests. Even if you don't know exactly what they would order at a restaurant, have an idea of their style and level of comfort with service. Some crowds are more unaccustomed to and put-off by passed hors d'oeuvres and won't eat them, while others love when the food comes to them.
2. Approach your caterer with broad strokes, rather than specific menu requirements. Sure, most caterers can accommodate your wants - whatever they are, but if you approach them with a planned menu that's all you'll get. If you give them more general ideas (either of taste and flavor combinations, favorite restaurants, cuisine or ingredients), you are likely to get more creative ideas including items you may not have even considered.
3. Plan the majority of the menu around your most difficult guest. No, you don't want your entire menu to be vegetarian if only 1 guest out of 100 eats that way, but in general if you have a few vegetarians, guests who don't eat pork or seafood, or a significant number of guests who prefer to avoid carbohydrates it's easiest to plan around them. If you and your caterer plan a unique and delicious menu, the other guests won't even notice what they're missing.
4. Consider the season. If you love strawberries, but are having an event in October consider strawberry jam. Choosing seasonal ingredients will make your menu more delicious, less expensive, and more environmentally friendly.Photo by FIG Catering
5. Think about crowd dynamics. If you're bringing together families or different groups of friends, consider a menu and service style that will encourage interaction (buffet service, cooking class parties, light meals or hors d'oeuvres thatto allow formingling). If it's a tight knit group, plan an intimate menu that harkens back to a shared experience.
6. Know your style. If you'd really like a plated dinner, but are concerned that some of your guests will feel like it's overly stuffy make the menu a little more fun and casual but keep the dinner plated. After all, it is your party.

There are a lot of things to think about when planning a menu, but if you approach it will some ideas in mind (and are somewhat flexible on those ideas) you are sure to develop something that pleases you and your guests' palates.

Thank you so much, Molly & Justin!  For those of you in the Chicagoland area, I highly recommend contacting Molly and Justin at FIG to discuss your next office lunch, cocktail party, or intimate wedding.  And regardless of where you geographically, if you are at all interested in cooking, dining, food talk you will want to check out their blog Food Talk With Fig.

Comments

[Joe Groom]

Try going to www.NaplesWeddingCatering.com </a

[Florence @ catering nyc]

It is very important that you understand the profiles of your guests. Guests will have different tastes and preferences. Some may prefer vegetables options, while some more adventurous meals. Offer a variety of food choices so that all your guests will be pleased. http://theculinarystudiocatering.com/