Ah, the chafing dish. This pan, designed for heating food until it’s presented to dinners, has long been a mainstay in a caterer or chef’s arsenal. There are drawbacks to the chafing dish. The metal tray can be clunky and bulky, not to mention it may not keep food as hot as other foodservice solutions on the market today.
Why not try something else? One chafing dish alternative is the Multi-Chef Warmer by Rosseto.
What Is the Multi-Chef Warmer?
Instead of just using a lid and metal tray to keep food warm, the Multi-Chef Warmer connects to fuel burners with its own burner stand. This can be used to adjust the temperature as needed and comes in two configurations.
“Use the stand in the low position to accommodate full-size chafer water and food pans or flip it over to the high position and add the grill top to showcase your main dish. The Multi-Chef collection even offers an ice tub insert for cooling,” says Rosseto.
For F&B managers and caterers aiming for a certain design or color scheme with their buffets, the Multi-Chef Warmer comes in stainless steel and black matte to match most other cookware.
Now that you have Rosseto’s Multi-Chef Warmer in your arsenal, what other food display innovations are there for you to keep track of? F&B managers, caterers, chefs and others in the foodservice industry should check out these 12 trends and ideas in food display.
Appeal with Layers of Desserts
Want to get people’s appetites going and their mouths watering? Caterers should follow the advice of Monica Parpal at FSW Season’d, who says “just about any baked treat, whether loaves of bread or chocolate chip cookies, look better when there are a lot of them all displayed together.” She suggests using mirrors to make even the most miniscule dessert selection look huge.
Repurpose Unique Vessels for Soup
The bowl and ladle approach caterers use for soup is commonplace for a reason. It’s practical. However, Food Network Canada recommends changing things up a bit, and tickle guests by serving soup in sugar pots. “…Sugar pots will come with a lid to keep your soup warm and side handles for easy moving from kitchen to table,” the writers say.
Make the Inedible Edible
You probably wouldn’t want to nosh on a tree, right? At Celia Cline Banqueting though, company leader Celia Cline often mimics the looks of trees for her wedding dessert displays, says The Jewish Chronicle. She likes to use “plant pots to display desserts.”
As Cline explains: “We make little trees to go in the pots. The stems are made from licorice sticks and the foliage from green tea microwave cakes. We make the ‘soil’ from chocolate mousse topped with chocolate crumble.”
Elevate Finger Food
Speaking of the idea of trees and food, Fine Dining Lovers wrote about Smarin, a design firm, which also embraced tree-like structures to display food. These wooden trees have longer or thinner branches that are ideal for affixing finger foods.
“How to furnish your tree of finger food is up to you,” says Fine Dining Lovers. “From a colorful composition of soft fruits as a fun finger food party dessert solution to simply indulging your sweet fantasies by turning it into a candy tree.”
Add Math (or Science) to the Equation
Meetings Imagined says it’s perfectly acceptable to play up the nutritious qualities of catered food through math. They posted about a corporate meeting where the caterers chose small bowls of healthful brain food like a yogurt berry mix, chia seeds and dried goji berries. They put the bowls on a large sheet of paper, labeled the food on the paper and threw in some math equations to get clients’ minds revving.
Food Made for Networking
If you are serving a corporate crowd, you may want to present portable food. These people are often busy and have to shake a lot of hands, so appreciate on-the-go options. As meeting planning company Site Solutions Worldwide says, “almost any type of food can be placed on a stick these days. And unique containers really impress attendees.”
On-the-Go Food Is Also Drinkable
If your clients have no time to sit down and enjoy dessert, let them drink it instead. Bridal Guide notes this idea is popular for weddings, but it also works perfectly for catered corporate meetings or events with children. The whole dessert is edible, from the chocolate chip cookie cup base to the gooey chocolate lining and milk shot inside.
Include Nature as Part of the Display
Both Executive Caterers in Mayfield Heights, Ohio and the WeddingWire blog incorporate trees (real ones this time) and other greenery when setting up food displays. This is especially effective for holiday parties, says WeddingWire. Its writers note having “placed multiple varieties of pine, fresh cranberries, and Christmas bulbs under a three foot by eight-foot piece of glass,” which “created a show platform for our simply prepared organic food items” for a holiday event.
Change the Garnish Game
Intrigue guests with unique garnishes they’re not used to seeing (or tasting). “Just because a certain item traditionally comes with a certain garnish doesn’t mean you’ve got to stick to that rule like glue,” says the blogger at Divine Dinner Party. “Instead, add bright colors to otherwise boring trays by using bright fruit and vegetable garnishes.” Another recommendation is sprucing up a shrimp platter with colorful grapes.
Liven up Food Labels
Labeling food for a buffet doesn’t have to be boring. Amanda Jayne, an event planner and owner of blog Planning It All, suggests inserting mini labeled flags into foods like cheese. These would also work well with desserts and other soft dishes.
Appeal to Hungry Clients with Color
Although the bloggers at professional resource eXtension wrote about how to stand out at farmer’s markets, most of their advice is directly applicable to caterers and F&B managers, too.
“Use background colors that enhance what you are selling. Avoid using colors that will clash with your product,” they say. “…When you select colors for table covers, logos and packaging, keep in mind that you want to emphasize your products. In general, for food products, select colors in natural earth tones and avoid loud prints and bright shades.”
Wow with an Ice Cream Station
For a wedding, party or other event where the pace is more relaxed, an ice cream station will certainly get guests talking when dessert time arrives. Amy Moss at Eat Drink Chic designed her own quaint ice cream station with all the components laid out and ready to go, including toppings, whipped cream, and cherries. Rosseto’s topping dispensers would make this setup a breeze for caterers.
Images by:
Unsplash, xavcristou
