Wedding Trend #6: Pre Plated Menus

-->Family style, American service, French service, English service, buffet service, side service. Oh my goodness, just give me the darn food! It may all sound like wedding jargons that you don't have the energy to learn, but some of the service styles are actually what we do every day or what we’ve seen in almost every dinner.

Buffet service: All the food is in food warmers and arranged in a row.

Family style service: Family style of food service involves food placed in the middle of the table and guests helping themselves with the food.

American service / Plated service: A method of serving in which portions of food are placed on plates in kitchen (except for bread and butter and salads which are served on the table) and served to each guest.

English service/ Side service:  This method of serving is where each guest is served from a large dish. The large dish is presented to the guests and then later plated to individual place setting.

French service: Food is partially cooked and then brought from the kitchen on a cart that is used also for the final cooking. Food is completed in front of the guests and served by a waiter or waitress who offers a dish to each guest who helps him or herself.

The trend has been changing through years from family style banquets to pre plated service, for the guests everyone gets equal portions of food, for ladies it makes them look more dainty when eating, rather than trying to get their share from the middle of the table. For the hosts it makes the menu seem more “high class”.

So it depends on what you want to achieve for the dinner. It is definitely a growing trend to make all types of cuisine into plated service; from traditional Malay food

to Chinese banquets you will see a fine dining style service being adopted.

Bon a petit!