While generous grazing platters no doubt have their place when it comes to entertaining with style, the edible table runner offers a fresh take and is sure to impress.
Instagram-worthy cheese and antipasto boards have been a key centerpiece to any party – formal or casual – in recent years. You know the formula well. Source gorgeous oversized serving boards in acacia, mango wood, or marble. Top with every favourite cheese, from gouda to gruyère and a decadent gorgonzola. Surround with generous slices of rustic sourdough and summer strawberries, delicate figs, and beautiful green grapes all bursting with fresh flavours. A grazing table like this never fails to impress, delight, and rightly disappear over the course of a fabulous evening with friends.
If you’re looking to freshly impress your nearest and dearest, then wow them with the latest show-stopping centerpiece at your next soiree: the edible table runner. It may look complex, however just like putting together an above-and-beyond grazing board, stick to a simple formula and you’ll find your personal flair for it in no time.
1. Prepare your space. Begin by preparing your surface with a little protection from any potential spills, drips or drizzles by overlapping long strips of baking paper down the length of the table.
2. Group like with like. Keep things simple for guests and for yourself by placing foods close to the items that naturally compliment them. For example, decide where your cheeses will go, then sit cornichons, quince paste, grapes and honey close by.
3. Keep antipasti close. Charcuterie and dips work well together too. Sit these close to the cheese, then decorate any gaps with generous selections of fresh and dried fruit, crackers, nuts and bread so they’re all within easy reach of one another.
4. Create a story. Give your table a beginning, middle, and end that guests can move through over the course of the evening. Arrange cheeses according to taste, from light to heavy, working from the edge of the table in. Follow with a charcuterie offering of cured meats, patés and a selection of antipasti.
5. Save space for sweets. Make cakes and desserts the grand finale to your edible runner. Arrange any full-sized sponge, meringue, flan or gateaux on top of cake stands to create height to your arrangement. Surround these with small bowls of delicate sweets – think truffles, macarons, Turkish delight, chocolate-coated pretzels and even sweet summer berries.
6. Add the final flourishes. Finish your edible runner by bringing in fresh flowers, small foliage and seasonal fruit. Arranged in and among every section of your runner, these final flourishes will work to tie each section to the next and create a style and theme that brings it all together. Anything robust can go in immediately, then add any delicate fresh fruit and flowers just before guests are due to arrive.
7. Finish with table settings. Arrange your place settings along each side of the runner. Choose simple cutlery and glassware, and stick to plateware and napery in pastels and muted tones – they’ll work well together, and provide your edible runner the space and attention it truly deserves.
Shopping List
Antipasto:
l’Artisan Petit Rouge Washed Rind cheese
Rouzaire Camembert
Camembert Rouzaire
Ashgrove Cloth-wrapped Mature Cheddar
l’Artisan Petit Rouge
Le Dauphin Double Creme cheese
Gorgonzola
Pepperoncini filled with feta
Prosciutto Crudo
Duck salami
Tzatziki Fresh Fodder
Taramasalata, Fresh Fodder (topped with salmon roe and chives)
David Jones Sicilian Olives
David Jones Organic Honey
David Jones Dried Pears
David Jones Dried Apricots
Sweet treats
Tiramisu cake 8 inch
Coconut cake 6 inch
White chocolate raspberry mud cake 9 inch
David Jones Chocolate Pretzels
Charbonnel Et Walker Champagne Truffles
David Jones Cornichons
Real Turkish Delight Rose Flavour
Pistachio Macarons
Fresh produce
David Jones raspberries, strawberries, blueberries & blackberries
Liquor