The Menu: The most crucial part of a good menu composition is to include a variety of tastes, textures, aromas, and colors. Try to choose a menu with contrasts. Choose a variety of hors d’oeuvres that will give your guests a balance of sweet, sharp, spicy, salty, and sour flavors. Remember that hors d’oeuvres should always be a small bite with a big flavor. Review the guest list for vegetarians and anyone with special dietary requirements, whether religious or medical. Provide something to please everybody. The Quantities: A range of different factors play a part in how many pieces your guests will eat. Hors d’oeuvre consumption goes up and down in direct relation to when, where and who. -Time of year: we are heartier eaters in the colder months. -Time of day: Consider when your guests will have last eaten a full meal. Guests who have had to travel or have arrived straight from the office to a party will eat more. -The following quantities are only general guidelines, but can be a useful tool for menu planning: Our basic rule is to allow 6 pieces per guest for the hour and 4 pieces for each additional hour that the party continues. For pre-lunch or dinner drinks, allow 3 pieces per guest and choose 3 different hors d’oeuvres. For hors d’oeuvres served instead of a first course before a lunch or dinner party, allow 5 pieces per guest and choose 5 different hors d’oeuvres. For a 2-3 hour cocktail party, allow 10 pieces per guest and choose 5-10 different hors d’oeuvres. For an hors d’oeuvres only party served in place of a meal, allow 14 pieces per guest and choose either 7 or 14 different hors d’oeuvres. For a stand-up reception, allow 12 pieces per guest and choose 8-10 different savory hors d’oeuvres and 2-4 different sweet hors d’oeuvres. We prefer to offer a smaller range of different kinds of hors d’oeuvres in a greater quantity. We recommend if you want to serve 10 hors d’oeuvres per guest to choose 5 different kinds. Presentation: Hors d’oeuvres must be tempting to the eye as well as pleasing to the palate. If food looks fabulous, people will feel confident that it tastes fabulous too. Follow these tips for beautiful, mouthwatering results. - Arrange one or at most two, kinds of hors d’oeuvres on a serving tray at a time. Too many kinds are not only visually confusing, but impractical, since guests have to break the flow of conversation to make their choice. - Place hors d’oeuvres in neat, evenly spaced rows to maximize their aesthetic appeal. - Odd numbers look better than even numbers, and diagonal lines are more pleasing to the eye than straight ones. Remember this golden rule of food presentation when arranging hors d’oeuvres on a serving tray. - Make sure your guests have somewhere to put skewers or shells after they have finished eating an hors d’oeuvres. - Have more napkins on hand than you think you’ll need. When offering food, always have cocktail napkins handy for any guests who might need one. Creative Serving Ideas: Innovative presentation doesn’t have to be expensive and always makes food memorable and for some, even more delicious. Use leaves to line trays or platters. Be sure to wipe fresh leaves clean with a damp cloth. Banana, fig, vine, palm, and cabbage leaves of all colors are ideal. Dried leaves, such as chestnut or louts, should be brushed with sunflower oil before using. Visit Asian and other ethnic stores for unusual but inexpensive serving ideas. A bamboo steamer used as a serving dish, chopsticks as skewers, sushi mats and noodles to line trays: these are all easy and inexpensive was to add style to the presentation of an Asian-themed hors d’oeuvre menu. Use your imagination to come up with ideas of your own. Stationary hors d’oeuvres Hors d’oeuvre parties are an easy way to entertain a large number of people at home. Think, no chairs, no plates, no cutlery! Not all food has to be passed around on trays. A less formal approach is to arrange everything on stationary platters, trays, bowls and baskets. Place them on tables around the room and allow people to serve themselves.