Popular Catering Food Stations
Posted on Sun, Oct 30, 2011 @ 08:08 AM
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Food Stations are a great way to engage your guests. It provides entertainment, allows your guests to create just what they want, and, it’s a fun way to offer your ideal menu selections. This popular style of catering service probably started with the ever-so-popular Salad Bar and progressed from there. Since the popularity of guests helping themselves, creating just the perfect salad allowed for great customer satisfaction, the hospitality industry grasped the concept and created “food stations”.
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| Photo by NatalieMaynor |
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One of the first to be born: the Mashed Potato Martini Bar
Mashed potatoes with different styles of potatoes and all kind of toppings like fresh chives, sour cream, bacon and herbed butter were displayed in fancy martini glasses allowing the guests to create their perfect potato dish. Different style of potatoes and more gourmet toppings were added to the traditional potato line up and this station probably pioneered the food station concept popular in today’s catered events.
From that popular station’s success grew the idea of the Macaroni and Cheese Station
This station typically features different shaped pasta, all kind of cheese options, toppings similar to the mashed potato bar and again, another very popular and fun menu item populated catering menus. To these traditional catering menu ideas came even more creative stations like: Sushi bars, pasta stations, crostini stations and risotto stations which are now all popular menu offerings for catering.
| by TheCulinaryGeek |
Dessert Stations
But Stations aren’t just for appetizers. Dessert Stations can be a terrific way to offer this style of service too. Consider a Cheesecake or Cup Cake station with different flavors of cake, a variety of icings or sauces and decorations for a sweet ending to your meal. A Sundae bar with hot fudge, chocolate sauce, caramel, fruit toppings, nuts, whipped cream and even bananas can be a fun way to end the meal. The list of ideas is endless. A professional caterer should be able to take any menu item you’d like to offer and create some sort of interactive food station for your guests. All you have to do is ask.
