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Chattanooga Free Press
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Buffet-Style Entertaining Modern hostesses will be inspired by innovative ideas in The Buffet Book.
By KARIN GLENDENNING
Free Press Book Editor
When entertaining at home for more than 10 or 12 people, most modem-day hostesses use a buffet setup for their dinner parties. In fact, buffet-style dining has become so popular that a seated dinner is a rare treat indeed, reserved for the most formal occasions and intimate groups.
Really versatile, buffets can be as informal as burgers offered on wooden platters set on a red check-tablecloth-covered picnic table or as fancy as Beef Bourgingnon served from a silver chafing dish on the dining room's hunt board.
And anywhere in between. When I plan a buffet party, I al- ways try to serve items that can be retrieved easily from their serving dishes and ones that complement, in shape and color, my collection of tableware. Thus I love to pile up fried chicken on my blue 'and white platter, fan fresh tomato slices on bright yellow pottery and arrange fresh fruit in heavy crystal bowls.
It's a simple matter to set up a buffet line. You can put all the food out on a dining table and place the cutlery and plates either on the table itself or an adjoining one, or you can arrange serving platters on small tables around the edge of the room and leave the dining table empty so guests can sit at it. For the most casual party, you can even set out dishes on the kitchen counter and let guests help themselves there and then move into breakfast room or dining room to eat.
For large parties when you have more guests than you do places at tables, you can put all the food on the dining room table and then let your company sit around the house: in the living room: den or on porches. '
If this is your plan, remember to serve items that are easy to eat with a minimum of cutting, and provide large napkins for your guests to spread out in their laps.
Buffets also lend themselves to whimsical presentations. Picnic buffets can be made more memorable by using fun unexpected containers for the food and for tableware.
For instance, a beach-side supper might be served in large shells and plastic sand pails with beach towels for tablecloths, coordinating hand towels for napkins and Frisbees for paper plate holders.
If you are searching for new menus and ideas to liven up your next buffet-style dinner party, a new book, The Buffet Book, (Viking, 298..pages, $29.95) by Carole Peck with Carolyn Hart Bryant has some great recommendations. A beautiful volume with stunning color photographs, it offers 12 menus and 175 recipes for a wide variety of parties. Included are a flower garden party, a sum- mer cookout, a harvest moonfest and a starlight supper.
Innovative suggestions for table settings and advice on pre- paring dishes ahead will be in- valuable to the busy hostess. Each chapter includes tips learned over the years by Ms. Peck, a successful professional chef and owner of The Good News Cafe in Woodbury, Conn. I3y following the author's plans, the cook can enjoy the party as much as her guests.
Most of the offerings presented in The Buffet Book are sophisticated meals that will have your guests raving. Arranged in two sections, Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter, the menus take advantage of seasonal ingredients.
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