You decided to have a party at home or organize a holiday, for example, on the occasion of a birthday. But how to do everything so that the guests please, and not to overdo it yourself? In a professional event-environment it is customary to rely on some standard principles of organizing a holiday. So do everything according to the rules to make life easier for yourself and give pleasure to the guests.
Professional organizers of holidays - in the capital there is a set of agencies that provide such services - advise first deal with the format of the event. Do you want to arrange a traditional feast or choose a buffet table? From this depends largely on the choice of the menu.
Standard feast
Let's say you decided to celebrate an important event for you to circle close (or not so) relatives, among which there will be not only a youth, but also representatives of the older generation: grandparents, or just a relatively conservative family. In this case, it is better to give preference to an old-fashioned banquet. This type of celebration has been tested for years and will not put anyone in the wind. Each guest has a separate place and there is no need to puzzle over how to place people. But how to serve the table, what to put on it and in what order to change the dishes, so that it would be delicious and quick?
First, do not prepare too exotic dishes, which are usually served in restaurants. And you will spend extra time, and you can not please the guests. Homemade meal suggests homemade food: it is not necessary it should be bored "Olivier", but frog legs stuffed with unknown crustaceans, too, should not be served.
Secondly, as much as possible you need to try to prepare in advance, so that during the holiday not to run and not fuss. It is better to prepare on the eve of the products that require it, so that on a festive day just crumble the salads and put a festive dinner in the oven.
In order for the menu to be varied, it is desirable to include in the non-tritical components: snacks, hot and dessert. The general rules are as follows: Begin the lunch with cold fish and light snacks, then go on with meat appetizers to salads. Hot dishes can be several, for example, from fish and from meat, and the garnish should be one for all dishes. Or maybe one large dish, for example, roast veal or stuffed poultry - it will be effective with a table decoration.
Fruits and sweets are served at the end.
The organization of a buffet table
If you plan to arrange a noisy party for which your peers are invited, then a large table in the middle of the room will only interfere with you: there will be no place to turn around, and young people usually do not like to sit all evening in one place, you need space for maneuvering the Itans. Ideal for such a holiday - a buffet or cocktail.
For a cocktail reception it is better to choose the largest room in the apartment. It is necessary to take out all unnecessary. Arrange the table, that is, the future buffet, in a way so that guests can conveniently put food and space for entertainment.
If there are many guests, place the same dishes in two rows, drinks and food are placed in different places. Clean plates, appliances and napkins are usually on the edge of the table. In order to calculate the number of necessary utensils and appliances, multiply the number of guests by two, or even three. Better still, let the extra food remain, than someone will not try some dish.
The buffet menu usually consists of cold and hot appetizers, sandwiches, marinades and desserts. All these dishes do not require long cooking, which greatly simplifies preparation for the holiday. Required attributes of buffet table are rolls, canapés, as well as tartlets with all kinds of fillings - salads, caviar with butter, pates or crabs under sauce. Hot snacks are also easy to prepare: these can be shish kebabs, meat balls in sauce. For dessert, in addition to cakes and fruits, you can also prepare canapés, for example, cheese and Iananas, cheese and grapes and tartlets with sweet stuffing.
If you are hosting a cocktail party, focus on preparing a variety of cocktails. In this case, you can do without hot, limited to cold snacks and desserts. But before calling the guests, be sure to inform them in what format your party will take place, so that the guests can have a snack before coming to you, rather than sitting with sour faces cold and angry.
And of course, when arranging a party at home, remember that the pledge is not at all in the quantity and beauty of the prepared dishes, but in your good positive mood, which will necessarily be passed on to all your guests.