GUIDE TO TABLES, SEATING AND DANCE FLOOR SPACE

Table sizes and numbers

• 5 foot/1.5 metre round table: 8–10 guests
• 6 foot/1.8 metre round table: 10–12 guests
• 4 foot/1.2 metre x 8 ft/2.4 metre rectangular table: 12 guests
• 4 foot/1.2 metre x 10 ft/3 metre rectangular table: 14 guests
• 4 foot/1.2 metre x 12 ft/3.6 metre rectangular table: guests

Seating

• Afternoon reception: allow seating for at least one third of the guests, more if elderly or disabled.
• Short fork buffet reception: allow seating for half the guests.
• Buffet lunch or dinner: all need seats.

Dance floor

• 1 square metre/3 square feet per person. Example: for 150 guests you will need a dance floor space of 5.5 metres/18 square feet. Not all will be dancing at the same time.

SPECIAL DIETS

You will almost certainly have to deal with special diets for people with allergies, who are diabetic, those who are on a low cholesterol diet or who follow a low salt regime.

Generally speaking, those with medical conditions or those who follow strict eating guidelines will know what they can or can’t eat. If the customer explains to a staff member that they are avoiding a particular ingredient it is important for that staff member to find out from the chef if the diner’s choice avoids these items. Guessing just won’t do.

Allergies

Allergies can include the gluten in wheat, rye and barley. This allergy is known as coeliac. Other allergies include peanuts and all derivatives, sesame seeds, cashews, pecans, brazil or walnuts as well as milk, fish, shellfish and eggs.

Diabetic

In those with diabetes, the body is unable to control the level of glucose within the blood. Diets include avoiding high sugar dishes and some from the low cholesterol list below.

Low cholesterol

People with high cholesterol need to avoid polyunsaturated fats and limit animal fats. Food that can be eaten includes lean meat, fish, fruit and vegetables plus low fat milk, cheese and yoghurt.

Low salt (or sodium)

People on a low salt diet sometimes have reduced salt in their food, and sometimes no salt at all.

Vegans

Vegans, like vegetarians, don’t eat meat or fish. In addition, they won’t eat anything of animal origin, such as milk and honey. They will eat vegetables, vegetable oils, cereals, fruits and seeds.

Cultural and religious diets

As our culture becomes more diverse, it is important to be aware of differing requirements and ways of cooking allowed by certain faiths.

Muslims:

• no meat, offal or animal fat unless it is halal meat (as required by Islamic dietary law).

Jews:

• no pork or pork products;
• no shellfish;
• no animal fats or gelatine from animals considered to be unclean or not slaughtered according to the prescribed manner;
• restrictions on methods of preparation and cooking practices;
• preparation and eating of meat and dairy produce at the same meal not allowed.

Sikhs:

• no beef or pork;
• no halal meat;
• may prefer a vegetarian diet.

Hindus:

• no beef;
• rarely pork;
• some Hindus will not eat any other meats, fish or eggs.

DRINKS

As a caterer, you will be asked to advise on wines and buy them in for certain functions. However, many smaller caterers have little involvement as their customers supply their own wines. You can charge a corkage for larger parties as your profits will be affected but I tend not to for small parties. You must feel your way in this as it will differ from client to client, party to party.

To help you with your wine service, the following pages outline wine buying, storage, serving wine, how to deal with corked bottles and the types of wine to match with food. I also look at wine diversity and there is a helpful wine vocabulary list.

Coffee, tea and water are also covered here, this trinity equally important for the caterer to get right.

WINE

Obviously, if you’re running a business specialising in sandwiches, then wine is of no commercial interest. But for other types of catering, it has taken on a very distinctive role.

Choice of wine is of paramount importance. If you don’t have enough knowledge to source wines to match your food, seek the advice of a wine consultant or perhaps approach a wine writer. They have a great knowledge of the trade and attend many wine tastings. Also, they are generally freelance and so not tied to a particular supplier or producer.

Wine buying and storage

A good supplier will hold tastings for you and your staff and will keep cases in storage for you, with the wines kept at the right temperature. A supplier, consultant or wine writer will go through the menu with you and marry wines to go with the food.

Tips for storing wine

• The older wines get, the more carefully they need to be treated.
• Wine doesn’t like wildly fluctuating temperatures, vibration or warmth.
• Red wine should be stored at 14–16°C and white wine at 10–12°C.
• Wine should be stored on its side, never upright.
• Most cellars are perfect for wine storage as they keep the wines at a constant cool temperature and the corks don’t dry out. But cellars aren’t necessary as you will be moving the wines quickly from wine merchant to client.

A diverse wine list

Gone are the days when French wine dominated the wine list. Wines from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Italy and to a lesser extent, the USA, Germany and Eastern Europe are chosen thanks to the growth of wine retailing. And, of course, there have been vast improvements in wine making, Canada’s British Columbia wines a case in point. The perfect climate, increased professionalism and diverse grape-growing makes this an area to keen an eye on. Don’t dismiss other countries’ wines just because they may be unknown to you. The Lebanon, for example, has a long history of good wine making.

Just as our food is becoming more global, so is our wine. You can choose wines to match the diversity of the food on your menus. This might include previously unknown grapes such as the spicy, fleshy Viognier, the musky, aromatic Pinot Gris, the plummy voluptuous Merlot and the rich, spicy Shiraz.

Go beyond the Chardonnays of this world. They have dominated the market for far too long and are seen as a desperately over-oaked cliche. But there are excellent ones too, particularly from France. Just be discriminating as some of the new world ones can overwhelm the food.

Tips for choosing wine

• Avoid well-known supermarket wines. Customers know their price and may be appalled by the mark-up.
• Don’t pawn the kitchen off with inferior wines to cook with. The poor quality will, regrettably, show.
• The cooler the climate, the leaner the wine. The alcohol percentage can be as low as 9–11 per cent.
• In hotter climates, wines will have tropical fruit flavours, many having a robust 14–15 per cent alcohol content.

Tips for serving wine

• Choose glasses that complement wine. Don’t even think of serving wine, no matter how inexpensive it is, in Paris goblets.
• Choose instead a plain, clear glass with a generously sized bowl that tapers slightly before the rim. The stem should be long enough so the glass is held by the stem, not the bowl, as body warmth will heat up the wine.
• Clean glasses properly, making sure that there is no washing liquid residue on the rim as this will destroy the taste of any wine.
• Glasses need to be stored bowl up, not stem up, to stop trapping stale air.
• Chill white wines but not too much as this can dull their aroma and flavour.
• Red wines can be over-warmed in a warm environment so take care where you store them, e.g. not near radiators, in a hot kitchen, in the bar by the coffee machine or by bright lights.
• There is no need to pull the cork on wines an hour ahead of drinking. The majority of wines these days don’t really need opening up as in past times when reds were likely to be tough and tannic.
• Waiting staff should know about the wine chosen by the client.
• Train staff to open a bottle properly by cutting the foil and removing the cork. Never try to extract a stubborn cork by placing the bottle between the knees and yanking it out.
• Train staff too to pour wine only half to two-thirds full in the glass so that guests can enjoy the aroma, leaving room to swirl the wine around the glass.

Corked and other undrinkable wine

Corked wine has a musty, dank smell caused by cork contamination. It should be replaced. White wine with a sherry smell and usually with a dark yellow colour has been oxidised (too much air via the cork). If it smells like a bad egg or a drain, then there is too much sulphur in the wine.

Thin, sharp wine may not be to everyone’s taste but if it’s sour then it definitely shouldn’t be served. Stewed, baked, rather flabby red wine usually means over-fermentation. Nor should this be served.

Wine and food

Traditionally, white wine went with fish, red with meat. In Britain, with a less strong food culture and in contrast to Europe where food has changed little in comparison, we have borrowed extensively from the globe.

As a result, the guide book has been jettisoned. There are no hard and fast rules and no dire combinations that set the teeth on edge. You may argue that plainly cooked fish isn’t suited to a robust tannic red, but serve it with a fruity light red and it is a successful marriage.

Dessert wines are fast growing in popularity. Chill well and serve them in small glasses. Once opened, dessert wines will keep for longer than other wines. Look beyond the ubiquitous Muscat de Beaumes de Venise. The choice is sensational. And good for profit margins.

Below is a general guide as to what type of wine suits what food but, as mentioned, the rules are there to be broken.

Whites and rosé

• Crisp, dry, fresh whites: salads, chicken and fish.
• Smooth, medium-bodied whites: pasta, creamy sauces, chicken, salmon.
• Full-bodied rich whites: lobster, turbot, slightly spicy style of Pacific Rim cooking.
• Aromatic and medium-dry whites: Riesling with spicy Thai food, Gewurtztraminer with Chinese, Tokay-Pinot Gris with foie gras.
• Rosé: making a comeback. Good with sharply dressed salads, summer food.

Reds

• Light, fruity reds: pasta, pizzas, chicken, vegetarian dishes.
• Smooth, medium-bodied reds: almost anything, French ones more suited to classic French dishes.
• Full-bodied reds: beef, game, casseroles and cold weather food. An enthusiast’s wine.

Champagne and sparkling wines

They are surprisingly versatile. A richer, fuller-flavoured champagne can be drunk throughout a meal but try demi-sec champagne with fruit-based desserts as dry champagne with a rich dessert doesn’t work too well.

Dessert wines

These are pure nectar. Muscats and sweet Bordeaux go well with apple, pear and peach desserts. Australian liqueur Muscats partner chocolate with dash. Mavrodaphne of Patras, a red Greek dessert wine matches chocolate too.

Wine vocabulary

AOC: appellation d’origine controlée, created by French authorities to establish specific areas of production, grape varieties and which also covers maximum yield per hectare, sugar and alcohol, pruning of the vine, cultivation and wine making methods.

Alcohol: an essential element in wine, alcohol is created when enzymes created by yeasts change the sugar content of the grape juice into alcohol, carbon dioxide and heat.

Aroma: the wine’s scent defined by the type of grape(s), fermentation and the age of the wine. The bouquet.

Barrel fermented: wine that is fermented in oak barrels rather than stainless steel tanks.

Blanc de Blancs: literally ‘white of whites’, a white wine made with white grapes like a Champagne from Chardonnay grapes.

Blanc de Noirs: white wine made from black grapes.

Blending: also known as assemblage, this is the mixing of types of wine varieties to make a more balanced wine. Bordeaux wines are usually a blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot fermented grapes.

Body: a wine with good tannic structure and good ageing potential.

Botrytis: a mould that attacks grapes either as grey rot which may endanger the harvest or as noble rot, used to make luscious dessert wines such as Sauternes and the Hungarian Tokaji.

Claret: the British name for Bordeaux red wines.

Cru: literally ‘a growth’, from French. It dates back to 1855 and denotes a vineyard’s rank in Bordeaux which then divided into five classes or crus.

Cuvee: literally, a vatful.

Decanting: the separating of sediment of a wine. Decanting from the bottle to a glass container adds more oxygen to the wine to make it more palatable. If the wine is old, it can be a disaster as it can mean a quicker deterioration.

Fermentation, alcoholic: transformation of the sugar in the must into alcohol and carbon dioxide in the presence of yeast.

Fortified: a wine which has had added wine spirit (brandy) to it, like port or sherry.

Kabinett: high-quality German wines.

Must: unfermented grape juice obtained by crushing or pressing.

NV: non-vintage.

Oxidised wine: sherry-like or nutty flavour caused by the action of oxygen on wine due mainly to exposure to air, heat and light.

Reserve: for special cuvees (vats) set aside for ageing or for future use. It also refers to a minimum ageing period for certain spirits like Calvados, Cognac or Armagnac.

Sec, secco, seco: ‘dry’ in French, Italian and Portuguese or Spanish.

Spatlese: late-harvested German wines.

Tannin: different types of tannins created by the stalks, pips and skins from grapes plus nuts, wood bark and berries which are released during the fermentation process and the pressing. These tannins give the wine its specific character and contributes to its ageing. Wine storage in new wood allows extra tannins to be absorbed from the wood fibres to the wine.

Varietal: a wine made from a single grape variety. In France the wine must contain 100 per cent of the same variety but in other countries small proportions of other varieties may be added.

Vintage: originally meaning the annual grape harvest, now meaning a wine from the harvest of a particular year. Each vintage depends on a combination of climatic factors which determine the wine’s quality and potential for ageing.

WATER, COFFEE AND TEA

Due to stringent drink-drive laws, we have become more of a nation of wine, water and soft drink drinkers. Gone are the days of heavy spirit drinking in favour of less alcohol at some functions so make sure you offer your clients these alternatives. However, there is a tendency to drink to excess at larger functions so do be aware of this unfortunate current trend. Discuss with your client the amount of alcohol they wish to offer.

Importantly, as a result, water, tea and coffee need to be considered as well as die alcohol.

Water

Water is almost automatically asked for by clients these days; there is a huge upsurge in demand for sparkling and still water. A remarkable two billion bottles were bought in 2003.

I tend to offer bottled water in glass bottles at events as they look smarter than plastic bottles. But don’t compromise on the quality. Do check with your client which is preferred: glass, plastic, sparkling, still or flavoured water.

Coffee

It’s worth experimenting with sourcing good suppliers, and if possible, go on coffee courses to understand the art of coffee. Then insist on a good grinder for those wonderful beans you have so assiduously sourced for die freshest coffee around. However, there is some superb ground coffee too.

Have the right cups and saucers to show off your coffee. Dainty or 1970s squat, canteen-like cups are not suitable. Larger, simple, straight-sided cups are best with small ones for espresso only.