We've written about serving dinner party food in tiny, individual dishes, and now we're hitting the other end of the spectrum: family-style entertaining. There are many advantages to piling food onto platters and into big bowls. Let us share a few...
Your table looks bountiful — and it's bound to make people hungry. There's just something about a big plate of chicken with vegetables nestled around it, or salad mounded up in a bowl. It looks inviting.
It saves you time. You can dump everything from the roasting pan (or slow cooker, or sauté pan) onto a platter and go. You can serve it straight from your colorful dutch oven! No fussing over individual plates, trying to evenly portion out six servings of asparagus.
Passing platters encourages friendly conversation. It just does. Eating feels communal and familial, which is how dinner should be. And trust us, when someone says, "Hey, can you pass me the potatoes again? Those are good!" it will warm your heart.
Your guests get to eat what they want. If someone doesn't like couscous, she can pass, or take a small amount, rather than eating around a pre-portioned serving already on the plate. Also, guests can help themselves to seconds without your having to get up and go back to the kitchen.
You can show off less fancy food. The best family-style dishes, in our opinion, tend to be big bowls of pasta, roast chickens or chicken breasts, or braises from a slow cooker. These are rustic meals that often involve less expensive ingredients, but when served in a big heap, look majestic. Simple salads also look great in a big bowl. Lately, we can't get enough of this Orange, Olive, and Fennel Salad.
There are so many recipes in our archives that lend themselves to family-style eating.
Here are a few to get you browsing:
- Linguine with Mussels and Dandelion Greens
- Quick Anelletti Pasta with Sausage and Greens
- No-Boil Chunky Cheese Lasagna
- Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken
- Chicken with Shallot-Apricot Sauce
- Friday Night Slow Cooked Brisket and Onions
- Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Herbed Cornmeal Rub
- Bacon Sage Meatballs with Buttermilk Gravy
For the adventurous, serve a truly communal meal right ON the table with Jamie Oliver's Proper Polenta.
Related: Open Door Family Dinners
(Image: Food on the Table, available at Art.com; Faith Hopler)
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I almost always serve food family-style when I'm cooking for friends or my own family, but when my in-laws come over I invariably plate it. I think it's because they always do it that way at their house, so I picked up on that. Does anyone else serve different ways for different crowds?
I almost always serve food family-style, and I love it when restaurants do it. I was at a wedding last fall where they served family-style and it was so much better, too.
But I think for me it depends more on the dish than the crowd. Some dishes - like a quickly sauteed fish with a pan sauce, for instance - just ask to be plated up as soon as they are finished.