Helping caterers design provocative food displays is part of the job for NYC Event Planners. Catering is a requirement for most events. However, making sure your food displays aren’t taking up too much space or too much of your guest’s attention is part of the challenge. You don’t want to take away from the décor of the room, and you definitely don’t want to distract anyone from the event’s buzz.
But, your foodies need to get fed.
Removing the catering is not really an option for NYC Event Planners because your guests will surely complain, especially if it’s an all-day corporate event. So, the idea is to design food displays that integrate well with the theme of the event, don’t take up too much space, and that visually attracts the crowd.
When NYC Event Planners make the catering the center stage of the venue rather than tucking it away in a corner, it will immediately draw everyone’s attention. Now, to make sure it doesn’t take away from the event you’ll want to make your food stations interactive and event relevant. This way you are being strategic by tying the food into the theme, you’ve now delivered a social media worthy component to be shared online, and now you’ve satisfied both the client and the attendees.
Here are 5 provocative ways to create food displays to impress your guests and your client.
Shrimp Cocktail Display
Photo Credit: Chisel It Ice Sculptures
NYC Event Planners know that shrimp cocktail is an all-time favorite as an event starter and designing a creative display for it is an excellent way to give it a new edge. Of course, you must keep those little guys at the proper temperature (especially for events that last many hours), so go extravagant and futuristic by getting an ice sculpture designed that will keep the shrimp chilled. More importantly, that instantly attracts the eye!
French Fries for Hors d’ oeuvres
Photo Credit: Meaps
Listen, corporate doesn’t have to mean boring. IT IS OK for NYC Event Planners to add a bit of fun to the food display. Especially with something as simple as fries! Who doesn’t love French fries? Who?! In this awesomely different approach to serving fries as hors d’oeuvres the event professional created small portions of fries on a tray to make them easily mobile. It’s a great grab n go concept for corporate functions. The newspaper wrappers were a great way to differentiate the display from what attendees are used to seeing.
Chalkboards
Photo Credit: Royal Fig Catering
Not just used for signage, chalkboards can create an awesome food display idea for build-your-own stations. Although excellent calligraphy would be perfect here, it’s an informal but classy way of sprucing your display and completely adaptable if you need to reuse tables throughout the event. Clearly labeling food is a must to keep lines flowing and anyone with allergies and dietary requirements well catered for.
Conclusion
There’s no excuse for NYC Event Planners to lay out a boring buffet table at events, and we hope that this post can inspire some great ideas for food displays. Talk to your caterer about the possibilities for food displays early on so that you have enough time to come up with a great way to integrate food with the event’s purpose.
For more inspirational ways to display food at events, be sure to attend The Event Planner Expo in New York each year!