hello this is Barbara from Barbara's
Elian touch and today we're going to
talk about setting up a buffet table
it's an elegant way to set your food and
color and height are always important
part of the buffet presentation you can
even set your platters up the night
before and then place your food out just
before guests arrive levels are very
interesting a part of the buffet so I
would suggest that you make if you do
levels that everything is secure and it
doesn't tip the day of your event and
you have an accident you can use a one
sided buffet or you can use two sided
service for over 20 gifts this would
allow for better flow it's best to
remove any food that's been sitting out
for four hours or longer to prevent any
foodborne illnesses okay so the first
thing I did was I put my tablecloth on
the table the next thing you want to do
to create interest is to put an overlay
on and you can use fabric from a fabric
store what I'm using here is just a
curtain like a sheer curtain and then
what I do is I kind of scrunch it like
this to create more interest in the
cloth and I think that it looks really
pretty this way so again you can use a
themed fabric if you're having a themed
party or anything you can think of to
put on your table but I'm using a sheer
curtain I think I paid $5.00 for it at a
resale place and I'm going to create a
beautiful buffet out of it the next
thing that we're going to talk about
today is and the most important thing is
our Schaefer because this is what's
going to keep our food warm during the
evening so that our guests can enjoy it
but before we start with this I wanted
to show you the different types of
sternum that you can use underneath your
Schaefer here the first one is a wick
sternum and the wood comes off and you
have to just light it right there
now this this one will last about six
hours and then there's another type
called a gel
the gel one will only last you about two
hours so depending on how long you're
planning on having your food out you
have to decide which one would work
better for you so the next thing I'm
going to do is get my Shafer ready up
for for heating so what I'm going to do
is pour about an inch of water into my
shaker and if you do more than an inch
what's going to happen is once it starts
heating up and you have your food in
there let's get a bubble over and it's
going to hit your tablecloth so be
careful not to use more than a 1 inch of
water in here so then I'm going to put
my cover back on and I'm going to light
my Stern up so I'm going to leave this
on with the cover on
for about 30 minutes and let the water
get heated up then I can put my food in
here and we'll be all set to go another
way to keep your buffet organized is to
take a paper napkin put your silverware
in the center fold it in half and bring
up your two sides start rolling like so
take your ribbon or anything else that
you think you want to put on there you
can use your imagination I'm going to
tie it in a bowl here and there you have
your little silver package easy for your
guests to pick up along the faint line
the next thing that you can do to
enhance your buffet is to make different
levels so I'm going to use a book today
but you can use a box you could use a
Tupperware container whatever you have
in your house you can use to make
different levels so I'm going to start
and I'm going to put one underneath here
and this will be a lower lower level
that I'm creating on the buffet and the
next one I'm going to create I'm putting
two hooks here to create more of a
higher level so we're going to be
creating kind of an up-and-down effect
and I'll show you that you would put
your platters on top of there and it
kind of gives you an idea of the
difference in height and this is a great
idea to do it this way with the boxes or
books because when you're running kind
of close and there isn't enough room on
the low face if you use varying kites
you can put more on the table that way
okay so here we go the buffet is all set
up so I'll start to go through a few
things this is where we put a couple
sticks of books here and it kind of
raises up the shrimp platter here to
give it more you know elegant effect and
what I did too is to add a cilantro or
you can add parsley to your shrimp
platter some lemons to give it a little
bit more interest the next thing that I
did was to companion the napkins in the
same colors as my plates so I had red
and yellow in the fight so I created red
and yellow in the napkins and at my trip
to the grocery store I happen to find a
whole bunch of little peppers so again
companion colors red with the yellow to
match the plates I have my salad hair
and then my asparagus and I put a little
lemon zest on the top of there to kind
of create some more color and interest
there too okay so then I get my beef
tenderloin here and I add a little bit
of mushroom gravy today and I again I
use some lettuce leaves to create
interest on the fight instead of just
having like a plain platter and I took
one of the peppers and I kind of cut it
out and I put my horseradish sauce in
there so that's looking real good then I
created more of a yellow color here with
the eggs and bread always goes at the
end of your buffet with your butter and
then I have mashed potatoes
little paprika on the top of that so
here's your buffet completed I think it
turned out real well the colors look
good
so I hope these tips help you create
your next elegant buffet until next time
Barbara from Barbara's elegant touch
you