I am busy preparing for our annual dessert party which we had been unable to hold due to the the pandemic for the last few years. Since it is the party holiday season, I thought it was time to re publish this post all about the art of the buffet!

Serving buffet style is a great way to entertain a few friends or a lot of people at once. Buffet service is also ideal for open house style parties where people come and go at various times. 

Buffets are versatile: they can be indoors or outdoors, casual or more formal, for just a few guests or a crowd, for cocktails or dessert or anything in between.

This is our 4th post in our Elegant Entertaining Made Easy series and it is all about the art of the buffet. Whether you are setting up a buffet on your dining room table or setting up buffet stations on a server, sideboard, or kitchen island the same tips apply.

If you missed the previous posts in the series, you can find them linked here. The first is on The Key Ingredients for Entertaining, the second is on The Basic Essentials to keep on hand, and the third is on setting a beautiful table with Mix-and-Match Tableware.

Buffet parties can be for dinner, brunch, pasta, dessert, appetizers, cocktails…the options and combinations are endless!  They are a nice way for people to surreptitiously take as much or as little as they want. And remember, we “eat first with the eyes”…so a spectacular looking buffet is instantly more appetizing. 

This outdoor event featured individual ‘jarcuterie’ served with sparkling cider, and sangria.

And for this casual event, we packaged individual s’mores kits for guests…which were a big hit and made a fabulous tall display arranged in a large vase. We also served individual cups of crudite veggies and dip, popcorn, and crackers and cheese.

Buffet service is great for offering refreshments for ANY gathering from celebrations to volunteer meetings to book clubs.

This small gathering of some of my favorite ladies was for Valentines Day (or what I like to call single awareness day…)

Large family holiday gatherings are a perfect application for buffet service as well.  No fussing about who to seat next to whom and which relatives to relegate to the far end of the table.  Everyone can get their food and mingle with whomever they please.

Of all the buffet style parties I have done, dessert parties are the most fun because they are pretty low maintenance logistically – nothing needs last minute heating, AND desserts are generally quite show-stopping to display in and of themselves! 

For many years BC (before c@vid), I hosted an enormous annual “Nutcracker’s Sweets” dessert open house during the holiday season featuring a dozen or more spectacular desserts and a table of appetizers for some savory nibbles between sugar comas…and I’m happy to finally report, it is BACK!

The arrangement of a buffet table needs to incorporate the food, obviously, but also the plates, napkins and utensils for your guests, and usually some sort of centerpiece which often helps define the theme of the party…but centerpieces are a topic for a whole other post! 

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Here is a rundown of our secrets for a great looking buffet table

Best Buffet Tips

Refill serving dishes

This is a simple, but often overlooked idea.  Your buffet always looks its best before it has been decimated.  I like to offer a mix of family style dishes (whole cakes, salads, charcuterie boards etc.) alongside an assortment of individual sized servings (cookies, canapes, miniature desserts, etc).  This way it is easy to tidy up and refill many of the serving dishes as the party goes on so that the table display always looks fresh and abundant and inviting. 

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the beverages as well.  Nothing is less gracious than an empty wine bottle, coffeepot, or cream pitcher!

Use nice tableware

Please please PLEASE do NOT default to plastic utensils just because you are hosting a buffet.  Even a casually elegant table should contain real dishes and real flatware - they are much sturdier than paper and plastic and so much more welcoming and pampering for your guests.  

For an open house with a rotation of guests, you can hire a helper or two to wash and reset the dishes as guests cycle through to replenish the supply.  If you are serving a buffet meal, borrow (or rent) any additional flatware or dishes you might need to supplement your own supply.  

I’m less militant about paper napkins - these can be pretty and add to the theme of your event…and there are even paper dinner napkins of substantial enough quality to be mistaken for cloth.  Click here for cloth like disposable napkins 

Nicer, heavy quality, clear plastic “crystal” disposable tumblers are fine for cold beverages if you are inviting a crowd since they stack, but please use real stemware if you are serving wine or champagne.  The plastic stemware that has to be assembled is barely a step above cheap plastic forks, and those should be banished from the planet!  

And a collection of teacups or mugs is a much nicer experience for drinking hot beverages than paper products, unless, of course, you are aiming to evoke the atmosphere of a fast food emporium like Dunkin’ Donuts rather than a gracious and welcoming home.

If your buffet table is meant to have a starting and ending point, the plates should go at the start and utensils, napkins, and drinks should go at the end. This keeps guests from having to juggle a lot of items while trying to serve food onto a plate.

Use cohesive serving pieces

While cohesiveness is desirable, your serving pieces do not all need to match, and your table will be much more interesting if they don’t. 

As we talked about earlier in this series, collecting a variety of white serving platters and bowls is very practical, and nice quality baskets and trays in wicker or metal or wood...with or without handles are a nice addition as well. 

Arranging the utensils in a holder – I often use a teapot or small pitcher to corral them, and adding colorful, thematic napkins is both practical and a way to add another layer to the overall table design. 

Because I collect teacups, the tiered stands shown below have proven a very practical way to display them in my china cabinet as well as to use them for parties without taking up a lot of precious real estate on the sideboard where I usually set up the beverages.

Add labels to identify food or ingredients

Because not all items are self explanatory, I like to add labels to identify the foods and beverages for my guests....these can be hand lettered on pretty place cards, or designed on the computer and printed on cardstock - attached with ribbons to pitchers and carafes, or stood as tent signs or in place card holders by each offering.  

This is a great way to identify gluten-free or nut-free offerings or whatever specification might be needed if you know you have guests with certain allergies or restrictions.

I’ve curated some options (click on images for links)

Making things as easy for your guests as possible is one of the hallmarks of gracious entertaining.

Vary the heights in your buffet display

For buffets, one of the key ways to make the table look exceptional is to vary the heights of the serving platters – either by mixing in some pedestal serving pieces like cake stands of various sizes – sometimes even stacking two or three, using a tiered plate holder or two as serving pieces, or even using decorative boxes to vary the heights. 

This creates a dynamic visual rhythm that is much more pleasing than a row of serving dishes all lined up like a cafeteria.

Even if you do nothing else, this single change will revolutionize your table display.

Using a few scattered pedestal dishes or tiered racks has the added advantage of leaving a little space underneath in which your guests can set their plate whilst they load it.  Having a table look full and abundant is important but needs to be balanced with the practical need of space for guests to serve themselves easily.

Here are some of tiered and pedestal serving pieces (click on images for links)

Add Candlelight

Scattering candles throughout the buffet display is another lovely addition to an elegant table.  For a very formal buffet with sterling serving pieces, a symmetrical arrangement and candelabras might be called for, but for most occasions,  I prefer a more casual elegance and scatter votives across the table strategically. 

A word to the wise about candles: nothing beats real candles but be sure to avoid floral scented candles on a table with food - there isn’t much appeal in perfume scented food!  

If you MUST use faux candles, please use excellent quality ones that mimic real candlelight, not those horrid cheap ones that are either neon yellow-orange or bluish white.  

The same goes for fairy lights - these can be a great addition to a buffet table centerpiece, but choose real incandescent clear bulb strings, or at least LED’s that mimic incandescent, not something the color of the lighting in KMart. 

These Luminara candles are the only brand I have found that REALLY mimic true candlelight.  The pillar candles are terrific, but the one drawback to the tealights is that the batteries do not last very long - the reviews indicate a battery lifespan of about 7-10 days…still, longer than a real candle, and replenishable.

Click on images for links:

Designing a buffet table is not that different from designing a room or a tablescape vignette….all the same guidelines apply …vary the heights, vary the textures, repeat elements, refine the color palette…experiment until you have a pleasing rhythm of items… and have fun!

Until then,

Happy Entertaining!

For the others posts in this series, click the links below:

PART 1: The Key Ingredients

PART 2: Entertaining Essentials

PART 3: Mix-and-Match Dinnerware

PART 5: Easy Elegant Centerpieces