Tamr Jannah Catering
Call us to Order 010.0528.5450
How to plan a Menu
Start by identifying the number of guests so as not to make too much or too little food. If you or your guests like classic food, then this should be even easier. The classic dishes are well known and anyone can make them. But it’s nicer to try and make dishes that are not very common or traditional, you will be surprised that most of the guests will enjoy them. It is also nice to make a theme for your event in the house and table decorations like having a certain color or design as your theme. You can go further by having a theme for the menu like choosing a certain food cuisine (Italian, oriental, Thai,..etc) and choosing the same type of serving platters to match it then decorate the house using the same theme.
Most people find planning a menu the most difficult part of inviting people over for lunch or dinner. Actually it isn’t, it should be quite easy and smooth. Follow the steps in this article and you won’t have any difficulty in planning the menu for your next “3zouma”.
Start by identifying the number of guests so as not to make too much or too little food. If you or your guests like classic food, then this should be even easier. The classic dishes are well known and anyone can make them. But it’s nicer to try and make dishes that are not very common or traditional, you will be surprised that most of the guests will enjoy them. It is also nice to make a theme for your event in the house and table decorations like having a certain color or design as your theme. You can go further by having a theme for the menu like choosing a certain food cuisine (Italian, oriental, Thai,..etc) and choosing the same type of serving platters to match it.
There are two main approaches in composing a menu; first one is to have fewer items/dishes with larger quantities and second is to have a wide variety of items with small quantity of each. Never do both otherwise it would look bad, people would be confused and you will end up with a huge quantity of leftovers.
MENU COMPONENTS:
Salad
Appetizer
Main dish: meat, chicken, seafood
Side dish of carbohydrates: rice, pasta, vegetables, pastry, or wheat derivatives
Vegetables
Dessert
Fresh fruits
Some dishes combine 2 categories like Fattah (it contains meat and rice), or pasta with chicken, or vegetables with noodles (they contain vegetables and noodles are considered light carbs). You can also serve some main dish and its matching side dish in the same platter like roast meat with vegetables or roast chicken on a bed of rice.
If you are inviting 8-10 people, this is the easiest; make a few items with small quantities. You should have:
1 salad
1 appetizer
2 main dishes (meat, chicken or seafood)
2 matching side dishes to the main dishes, mainly carbohydrates
1 vegetable dish
1 dessert
1 fruit item
For 15-20 people, you could go with the first approach and have the same items as above (menu for 8 people) with more quantities, or you could go with the second approach and make smaller quantities. It’s best to have:
2 salads
1 or 2 appetizers
3 main dishes
2 side dishes
1 vegetable dish
2 desserts
1 or more fruit items
Note: Here it would be smart to use one of the main dishes a combined dish like pasta with seafood or stuffed chicken with rice. If you don’t like to include seafood in a menu, replace it by a chicken or meat main dish.
GENERAL GUIDELINES:
- Start building the menu by first selecting the main dishes, then find the side dishes that match them. Finish with the appropriate salads and appetizers, and finally the desserts.
- The menu items should have a variety of colors (red, green, brown, white, yellow,…) but are in harmony in texture and taste.
- Salads should contain mostly greenery and other vegetables. Adding cheese or fruits to the salad has become more and more popular.
- Appetizers are not supposed to be very heavy, remember they are just starters to warm up people to the rest of the food.
- Main dishes should include a variety of tastes and cooking methods; one main dish with a sauce (white or red), the other is roast with gravy or brown sauce, the third is fried or grilled.
- Side dishes must match the main dishes; this is their most important job. So if the main dish with a sauce, its perfect side dish would be plain rice or pureed potatoes. If the other main dish is roast, its perfect side dish would be roast or grilled vegetables or baked potatoes. If you have grilled or fried main dish, its perfect side dish would be pasta with sauce or stuffed vegetables.
- It’s always nice to have one homemade dessert and a fresh seasonal fruit dish. A fruit salad with ice cream or a homemade pie is always a winner.
- If you serve a cheese platter with its condiments along with the desserts or after them, you will be surprised at the great effect it has on people and the whole atmosphere of the gathering.
1.
First list item. Add your own content here or connect to data from your collection.
3.
Third list item. Add your own content here or connect to data from your collection.
5.
Fifth list item. Add your own content here or connect to data from your collection.
7.
Seventh list item. Add your own content here or connect to data from your collection.
2.
Second list item. Add your own content here or connect to data from your collection.
4.
Fourth list item. Add your own content here or connect to data from your collection.
6.
Sixth list item. Add your own content here or connect to data from your collection.
How to set up a Table
As a general rule, when you are inviting a number of people that can all be seated at the dining table for a formal lunch/dinner, or if it’s an intimate gathering for family and friends, you use the dining table to seat people and also arrange the food on the same table. And if you have a larger number of people, you use the dining table in addition to other tables that you may have as a buffet, and then seat the people at other rooms in the house/garden.
Start by deciding where the food will be set up and where it will be eaten. If it’s in the dining room or if you will use the dining room only as a buffet and people will eat at other rooms in the house, or if you will set a separate buffet in the garden.
As a general rule, when you are inviting a number of people that can all be seated at the dining table for a formal lunch/dinner, or if it’s an intimate gathering for family and friends, you use the dining table to seat people and also arrange the food on the same table. And if you have a larger number of people, you use the dining table in addition to other tables that you may have as a buffet, and then seat the people at other rooms in the house/garden.
IF IT’S A DINING TABLE:
- Arrange plates, cutlery, cups and glasses with napkins in front of each seat.
- Serving platters should be in harmony with each other and with the type of food you are serving; matching colors, sizes, material and preferably a set.
- It’s always nice to use colorful napkins that match the type of food and your plates better even if they are paper napkins.
- Put a nice vase of flower arrangement in the center of the dining table. You can add a nice candle holder on each side of the flowers if your table is oval or rectangular but not round.
- Use plain and simple table cloth of a light color and texture like white and beige. This gives you space to play with the colors of accessories and decorations like flowers and candles. It also allows you to bring out the colors and patterns of the food and plates. It would be nice to use a table runner of matching colors.
- Make all the serving platters easy to reach for most of the guests. Try to make the platters arranged away from seated people (i.e towards the center) at a higher level to make them more reachable.
IF IT’S A BUFFET:
- If you are using the dining table as a buffet, then apply the same rules as the above but without arranging the plates, cutlery and cups on the table.
- If it’s a buffet table(s), put plates, cutlery and napkins at the beginning of the buffet or on a separate table. Put drinks, cups and glasses on another table to be accessible to guests at all times, before and after the buffet, even if it’s not in the dining room.
- Decorate the buffet table with long vases of flower arrangements scattered at equal distances. It’s also original and more modern to fill the vases with colorful vegetables and fruits but use only one kind in each vase, e.g. tomatoes in a vase, lemons in a vase,…etc. You can use candles whether in long chandeliers or scatter floating candles around the platters.
- Arrange the platters on the buffet in eating order; start by displaying the salads, then appetizers, then main and side dishes, then desserts. Arrange each main dish next to its matching side dish. If you don’t have enough room for desserts, you can arrange them on a separate table or serve them after removing the savory food when people are finished with it.
- Try to arrange the serving platters at different height levels. This makes the display nicer and also gives you more space for food display. You can do so by putting some platters directly on the table and use other platters with short legs or high stems. You can also put a box covered with a nice cloth underneath the platters you want to raise their height. Always put plates with lower levels at the front and those with higher levels at the back. Tip: an excellent thing to use here is an empty shoe box or a short stool.