How to Place My Food on a Buffet Table

A buffet table, instead of a sit-down dinner, is the ideal choice when you're having more people over than you have room for at your table. It's also handy if you're looking for a less expensive meal for your party. Having a less formal eating arrangement, however, doesn't mean that you can merely put out large quantities of food on a table and tell everyone to dig in. A buffet table requires some thought and preparation to make it look as nice and run as smoothly as possible. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

Placing Food on a Buffet Table

1

Set up your large table and two smaller tables. The two smaller tables should be in a separate area from the large table. Cover each table with an appropriately sized table cloth.

2

Place dishes for your guests on one end of the large table and eating utensils on the other end of the large table.

3

Practice arranging your food on your large buffet table with the empty serving dishes that you plan to use to hold the food. Dishes that will hold salads and vegetables should go on the end with the eating utensils, side dishes, such as casseroles, should could in the middle of the table, and main courses should go on the end of the buffet table that holds the dishes for the guests.

4

Place a paper doily next to each serving dish so that guests have somewhere to set the serving utensils without ruining your tablecloth.

5

Use wooden blocks underneath the table cloth to hold some dishes higher than other dishes to make better use of the space and to give the buffet table some visual appeal. The blocks aren't necessary, but can help when the table is slightly crowded or if you want to make some dishes stand out more than others.

6

Place desserts on one of the smaller buffet tables and drinks on the other small buffet table. On the dessert table you can also use wooden blocks under the table cloth to give the table a little more visual interest.