Cooks Share Their Favourite Methods to Improve Their Dinner Events — And They’re So Simple to Do

As we speak, among the most magical eating experiences occur tableside. A cart is wheeled to your desk with a full T-bone steak — it’s expertly sliced, positioned in your plate, and completed with jus. Bananas are flambéed earlier than your eyes, the odor of rum and brown butter filling the room. Even the best motions — pasta getting completed with a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano or black pepper from an extra-large pepper mill — can elevate a dish.

“2025 restaurant traits emphasize creating areas designed for entertaining, and remodeling eating rooms into atmospheric, participating environments the place dinner turns into a efficiency that captivates everybody on the desk,” says Kris Padalino, government chef of Brennan’s in New Orleans. “The theatrical facet turns an extraordinary dinner right into a memorable expertise that visitors will speak about lengthy after they go away.”

Tableside eating would possibly really feel like one thing unique to high-end eating places, however in actuality, many of those strategies and flairs could be simply replicated at house. On the forty second annual Meals & Wine Traditional in Aspen, chef and tv host Tyler Florence will probably be educating attendees how you can improve dinner events with the magic of tableside service. 

“I all the time attempt to save slightly little bit of what I name the ‘razzle dazzle’ for when the visitors arrive,” he says. From wow-worthy dish preparations to easy hacks, listed here are seven methods to include restaurant-style tableside eating into your subsequent ceremonial dinner.

Have massive plateware readily available

If you happen to’re making ready meals for a crowd, it’s all the time finest to have a handful of dependable serving platters and bowls. Use them to current your meal household model, or to finish dishes in entrance of your visitors. If you happen to’re going to put money into one, jumbo-sized merchandise, Florence recommends getting a giant wood bowl. 

“Having a very good outsized wood bowl is a superb piece of apparatus to have within the kitchen. You may go away it on the counter and fill it with lemons or apples, however if you want a presentation bowl for eight to 12 folks, you’ve acquired one readily available.” Florence makes use of his wood bowl to toss large-format salads, inserting it atop a humid towel to stop it from sliding round.

For out of doors events, make the meat the primary occasion

At barbecues and out of doors events, Florence will typically grill a big minimize of meat like beef tenderloin, then slice it in entrance of his visitors. “I really like serving beef tenderloin as a result of you may make the most of 100% of it and it’s a showstopper piece,” he says. “Then slicing it into medallions or two-inch slices for everybody to seize a bit, household model, is admittedly enjoyable.”

Discover ways to flambé (safely)

Among the most spectacular, conventional tableside dishes, like bananas foster and steak Diane, are flambéed, however deliberately igniting an open flame inside your house could be intimidating and, frankly, scary. 

If you happen to’re making a dish like cherries jubilee — ice cream topped with cherries which were flambéed in brandy — there’s no want in your social gathering to crowd round a scorching burner. As an alternative, carry the cooked cherries on to the desk to flambée, then rigorously spoon it over every visitor’s bowl of ice cream.

When unsure, make a Caesar salad

“Caesar salad is the best starter dish for house cooks to grasp tableside eating,” says Padalino. The Caesar salad at Brennan’s in New Orleans is among the restaurant’s most iconic tableside experiences, second solely to the bananas foster. “The fantastic thing about the Caesar salad is it requires just about no particular tools past what most cooks already personal.”

You may make the dressing by hand in a bowl utilizing a whisk or two massive spoons, or pre-make it in a blender. Add the lettuce, croutons, Parmesan, and anchovies, and “toss with a dramatic aptitude,” Padalino says. At Miller & Lux, Florence’s San Francisco restaurant, servers are instructed to “stack it excessive and watch it fly.”

“The bigger items of lettuce and people act as a base, after which stack the leaves up like a deck of playing cards from huge to small,” says Florence. “Then with one scoop on the underside and the opposite holding the stack in place, you carry [the lettuce] up, and all of it will get dropped [on the plate] in a wonderful stack.”

End your dish on the desk

On the subject of tableside eating, among the smallest touches make the largest affect. “It’s simply enjoyable to complete a dish in entrance of [your guests],” says Florence. “Grating cheese, drizzling one thing with olive oil, or tossing a salad with a French dressing constituted of scratch — these issues create a magical house.”