Hors d’oeuvres tips

One of the great things about living in the Napa Valley is that the local cooking class teachers are all fancy CIA instructors or fancy executive chefs. Last November, I enrolled in a holiday hors d’oeuvres class at the local colleg. It was taught by master chef Adam Busby from the Culinary Institute of America, the super fancy one.

He gave several tips in the class that work equally well for summertime entertaining:

The Strategy

Plan if you’ll need special containers, boxes or picks. Purchase those well ahead of time.

Make 2 shopping lists, 1 for perishables, one for non-perishables.

Label each platter with post-its ahead of time.

Make a cooking timetable, listing stages of preparation and finishing, work backward from the time you need all food completed.

Cook ahead as much as possible, giving yourself as little to do as possible to finish each recipe.

Get help if you need it! No acts of heroism!

The Presentation

Odd numbers look better than even numbers.

Keep one type of hors d’oeuvre to each platter. Too many is confusing.

Keep platters neat and don’t overcrowd.*

Keep garnishes simple.

Make sure you have a place for your guests to put bones, shells, picks and boxes.

Have more napkins on hand than you think you’ll need.

* This is the number one tip for getting your friends to eat all of your tasty snacks. I can’t tell you how many platters of food didn’t get emptied, simply because there was too much food on it for people to feel comfortable picking up without touching the other food.

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