Hosting family and friends in summer means fresh produce and seasonal table settings.
Gather your favourite people for refreshing drinks and nutritious homecooked dishes.
Weekends will be packed with family and friends when you host impromptu cocktails, barbeques, and summer evening meals.
The trick to enjoying yourself while entertaining is to choose dishes that can be created in advance. Au revoir the days of being trapped in the kitchen or at the barbeque as your guests mingle. Preparing fresh, simple meals ahead of time will leave you free to relax with your friends and family.
Once the food is ready, spare a thought for presentation. A beautifully styled table can be as easy as freshly cut wildflowers for a fragrant, relaxed setting, or bunches of Eucalyptus and Bottle Brush for a native Australian bouquet with a pop of colour. Add sustainable cloth napkins, ceramic condiment dishes, and beautiful cutlery. To finish the scene, garnish your dishes with homegrown fresh herbs and edible flora for a garden to plate experience.
Ryman village Chef Paul Korunic and Food Service Specialist Scott McGregor share the food styling tips they use to help their summer dishes 'pop'.
TIP #1
“A dish can be enhanced with something simple like microgreens. Just make sure your garnish is edible. That is really, really important!”
TIP #2
“Serve blueberry powder with an ice cream dish and invite everyone to flick it onto the ice cream. The powder has a strong sourness which the sweet ice cream balances down to a ‘pop’.”
TIP #3
“Don’t complicate your dishes with over-styling. Less is more. Focus on your main ingredients and avoid crowding the plate by keeping within its border and looking for height.”
Photo by Lee Myungseong on Unsplash
