Tips for a Successful Wedding Menu Tasting
You’ve chosen your caterer and decided whether you’re going to have a plated dinner, family-style table service, or a buffet. In discussing costs, you have probably talked about some of the menu items. Now it’s six or eight weeks before the wedding and it’s time to actually taste the food! We talked to Anoush Catering to get some advice about how to have a successful tasting! Here's what they shared.
Selecting the Salad and Side Dishes
Most caterers will suggest or let you select three salads or appetizers, three main courses, and a small variety of side dishes to taste. If you’re having a plated dessert in addition to your wedding cake, you should be able to taste several choices for that course as well. Hors d’oeuvres are generally not part of the tasting.
For the salads, you want to sample completely different options as opposed to virtually the same item with three different dressings. There’s not much difference in the flavor between Bibb lettuce and mâche, which are both tender and delicate, but there’s a difference between arugula, which is slightly peppery, and frisée, which is on the bitter side.
Candied pecans and walnuts are similar, but toasted pine nuts have a different kind of texture and flavor. Apples and pears play the same role in salads, but one is crunchy and tart and one is soft and sweet. You may know what a Greek salad, a caprese, and a Caesar are, but your caterer may present them with a twist you weren’t expecting. While you’re talking about the salad or first course, decide whether it will be pre-set on the tables when guests enter the room or if it will be served after everyone is seated.
The great thing about a tasting is that it’s an opportunity to tweak things. It’s your chance to say you’d rather the chef left out the dried cranberries, or served the salad with a choice of dressings rather than pre-drizzled with just one. Caterers obviously give great thought to what’s on their menus, but should be willing to work with you on modifications.
Even though you probably won’t be tasting the hors d’oeuvres, keep your dinner menu in mind when you’re selecting them. Try not to duplicate in miniature what your guests will be served when they sit down at the table.
Choosing the Main Course
For the main courses, the thing you’re looking for is to sample proteins prepared in various ways. If you’ve already decided to serve chicken, for example, don’t ask to taste it grilled with three different sauces; ask to taste it grilled, roasted, and sautéed with three different sauces. You can always choose the roasted chicken but with the sauce that came on the grilled preparation. And, again, you may be familiar with pesto, but didn’t know that this caterer adds cilantro to it. It’s perfectly fine to say you love the sauce but without that cilantro, please.
If you haven’t chosen the main protein yet, you want to try one preparation of each of the ones you’re considering. Once you’ve tasted and compared, you can talk to your wedding caterer about possible variations. Keep in mind that foods that are sensitive to cooking and holding times may be medium-rare when they’re served to the few people at the tasting, but may be well done when they’re served to 300 guests all at once.
Unless your entire menu is vegetarian or vegan, the tasting probably won’t include samples of those options. By tasting the side dishes that are available with the proteins, though, you’ll have a good idea of what the caterer can do for your veggie friends. Ask for our vegetarian option to be something more exciting than pasta primavera or a hunk of eggplant with tomato sauce. There are so many wonderful choices available these days that your caterer should be able to come up with something that’s just as delicious and appealing as the entrée you’re serving the rest of your guests.
Other Details to Discuss
No matter what you’re tasting, take note of how the food is presented. Is what you’re seeing on your plate the way it will be presented at the wedding? Are there seasonal ingredients that may not be available on your wedding date and what would the alternatives be? Or are there ingredients that will be coming into season on your date but you can’t taste now?
The tasting is also the time to talk about details you may not have considered: the kind of bread or rolls that will be served, for example, and if butter will be in pats on the bread plates or in a few ramekins for the whole table. Will wine be continuously refilled or will the wait staff pour the first glass and then leave bottles on the tables? How will coffee and tea service be handled, and will it continue through the evening or be unavailable after dessert is cleared? If you care, find out even something as simple as how the napkins will be folded.
Discuss timing of the courses, when you’d like dessert or the cake to be served, and whether the bandleader or DJ will be making announcements during which time you’d like service to pause so your guests can focus and hear what he’s saying. Don’t forget to discuss the meal that will be served to the band or DJ, photographer, and any other professionals you’ve hired to stay through the evening.
If you’ve got preferences about anything, make them known and make absolutely sure that your caterer is getting everything down in writing. Trust that your caterer is going to do the very best he can, but he can’t read your mind. (The same thing goes for your spouse after you’re married, but that’s another subject entirely.)
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