Food Ideas

March 8, 2017

Blue Plate's Caramel Apple Station

In Chicago, Blue Plate Catering brings candy apple stations to holiday parties. Treats include apples dipped in caramel and assorted toppings and sliced up into snack-size portions.

Photo: Courtesy of Blue Plate Catering

Blue Plate's Burrata Action Station

The catering firm also has a new burrata action station. Staffers top the creamy cheese with toasted pine nuts and Italian muscat syrup. The snack is gluten-free.

Photo: Courtesy of Blue Plate Catering

Eatertainment's Salmon Gravlax Station

Toronto catering firm Eatertainment has a new chef action station devoted to salmon gravlax. Salmon is hung from hooks above the station and is sliced to order in front of guests. The raw fish is then chopped and served with root-vegetable crisps, miniature greens, and spiced yogurt.

Photo: Courtesy of Eatertainment

Limelight's Fruit Wallpaper

In Chicago, catering firm Limelight has an innovative format for serving fruit skewers. The fruits are inserted into a custom wall with thematic wallpaper design (which varies for different events). Guests approach the wall and pull of a skewer and can dip the fruit in sauces that are arrayed on a nearby table.

Photo: Courtesy of Limelight

Limelight's "One Potato, Two Potato" Station

Instead of serving French fries at a stationary table, Limelight has used a wheelbarrow to deliver Belgian frites at events. The fries are served in cones, and assorted sauces are displayed on the side.

Photo: Artisan Events

Roar Events' Interactive Margarita Station

Roar Events produced a summertime event at Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa in Southern California. The dinner had a modern Mexican theme and featured an interactive margarita station. Guests chose the type and flavor of their tequila, as well as one of many specialty salts.

Photo: Courtesy of Roar Events

For a dandy-themed graduation party in Hollywood, Canvas & Canopy designed a dessert buffet that eschewed the twee look in favor of a sophisticated display of treats on cake stands made from vintage candlesticks and shelves built using industrial pipes.

Photo: Jonathan Moore

Marcy Blum Associates built a bakery-style display case to offer guests breakfast-to-go treats from New York bakeries at the end of a wedding reception.

Photo: Eliot Holzman Photograph

Trend: Food and Beverage Carts

Inspired by the food truck craze, Abigail Kirsch in New York created roving carts to bring guests desserts and beverages, like gelato with dipped miniature cones and toppings, or sangria and punch.

Photo: Andre Maier

A baked-goods station had sweet bites, including mini brownie squares, sugary doughnut holes, and bite-size chocolate chip cookies.

Photo: Sara Jaye Weiss

At the doughnut station, guests could top freshly baked plain doughnuts with white or milk chocolate sauce, powdered sugar, chopped nuts, or colored sprinkles.

Photo: Mireya Acierto for BizBash

Strawberry milkshakes from Elegant Affairs Off-Premise Catering & Event Design in New York accompany sirloin sliders as a late-night snack for guests—a sophisticated twist on kid-friendly diner fare.

Photo: Nadia Chaudhury/BizBash

At the Engage! wedding summit held in Colorado in 2014, the event's dessert party offered an easy-to-eat lollipop version of campfire s'mores. (The event's rustic location inspired other various camp-inspired details.)

Photo: Tammy Swales/Engage!

At the Elton John AIDS Foundation Oscars benefit bash earlier this year, the after-party included espresso milkshakes topped with mini doughnuts on straws.

Photo: Alesandra Dubin

Sterling Engagements hosted a party in Los Angeles last year to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The array of catering options there included a sophisticated milk-and-cookies dessert bar including various flavors of milk.

Photo: Alesandra Dubin/BizBash

In addition to the ferris wheel, Occasions Caterers provided a Washington-theme buffet of savory bites such as crab cakes, beer-braised short rib and cheddar sandwiches, Iberico spare ribs, and corn souffles.

Photo: Alex Quijano/Catersource

When guests can grab individual portions, they don't leave a mess on a buffet. Wolfgang Puck Catering creates action stations offering dishes on small plates and mini verrines arranged on trays and risers, which is both convenient for guests and also remains tidy.

Photo: Courtesy of Wolfgang Puck Catering

An Illinois bar mitzvah on March 12 had a Candy Land theme. Designer Event Chicago planned the event, as well as the design and concept for a sweets table—actually part of an entire sweets room—over which colorful candies dangled from multicolored ribbons of varying lengths. HMR Designs handled decor.

Photo: Jai Girard

In 2013, the New York City Opera staged the United States premiere of the opera Anna Nicole. The dessert table got a boudoir-inspired look, with a menu was written on mirrors in lipstick. Candy overflowed from jewelry boxes and glass jars, and Lucite displays offered pink cotton candy presented in paper cones.

Photo: Elena Olivo

At a 40th birthday party, the JDK Group strung doughnuts as decor above the serving table.

Photo: Shannon Confair Photography

At the Museum of Contemporary Art's most recent ArtEdge Gala in Chicago, Jewell Events Catering set up a Pegboard that held chocolate, cinnamon-sugar, glazed, and old-fashioned cake doughnuts.

Photo: Photo: Alain Milotti

For the ESPN ESPY Awards preparty in Los Angeles in July, DNA Events set up a golf-inspired display of doughnut holes on toothpick tees on an AstroTurf-covered table.

Photo: Courtesy of DNA Events

Grilled corn on the cob with assorted toppings; roasted potato salad on chive sticks; watermelon cubes with feta and spinach; spinach salad with chopped eggs and microgreens in bacon cups; “hot dog” and “hamburger” macarons; and apple pie parfaits, by Windows Catering Company in Washington

Photo: Erika Rydberg for BizBash

A shared space for meeting groups, the Hub Conference Center at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel opened in July and offers an all-day refreshment break service.

Photo: Courtesy of Sheraton Gateway