The buffet is coming back… I promise

Every year at the Logues beach house, we have our much anticipated, inaugural sit down lunch, where we invite all of our good buddies, family and friends we haven’t seen in yonks. It’s great to catch up on all we have missed out on over the last bit of the year, being too frantic with work, mince pie production and feeding what seems to be the entire planet.

Last year though a problem arose, when the guest list blew out to over 50 people and the mere idea of cooking a hot lunch on the day made me consider never cooking again. The day would be a mammoth and a colossal effort, and we hosts would not get to spend time with our lovely guests after all.

Problem solved when we decided to prepare a buffet!

It was fantastic, the food was beautiful, all the prep was done in the days prior, and we got a chance to mingle, relax and drink lots and lots and lotttssss of champagne. Our guests were relaxed too! They perched on the side of the couch, sat on the back step and even picnicked on the front lawn.

This is how the menu read:

• Freshly opened oysters, lemon cheeks
  

• Melon with prosciutto, basil, caramelized balsamic
  

• Baby chats, seeded mustard, crème fraiche and crispy sage
  

• Poached trout, dill mayonnaise
  

• Roast turkey with sage and pistachio stuffing
  

• Flinders bay baby leg of lamb, with mint pesto.
  

• Salad of rocket, watercress and nasturtium
  

• Flourless chocolate cake, raspberries and double cream
  

  Are you hungry yet?

  I know the whole buffet idea seems old hat, although who would have thought the bread and butter pudding would have enjoyed the renaissance that it did, let alone the little stint that the prawn cocktail enjoyed just recently.

  It really got me thinking; food is just about fashion really. It comes around in cycles, just like the mini skirt or the flared jeans come and go out of our lives, and it just takes a brave person like me to reintroduce it and to tell everyone it’s ok to eat Pavlova in 2008. What about those lovely little chicken and watercress finger sandwiches we are making so many of these days. Seriously it’s like subway on steroids in our kitchen of late. A tonne of white sliced bread a week and the deafening but sultry tones (not) of ten electric knifes on full speed is enough to send you running off to the pastry section to stuff your ears with a bit of just made short crust dough.

  Oh and there’s curried egg triangles, angels on horseback…. Am I showing my age yet? And how about the fancy smansy Coronation chicken. Anyone for croquet?

  This is fascinating…

  In the 1922 housekeeping book entitled How to prepare and Serve a Meal, Lillian B. Lansdown wrote:

  'The concept of eating a buffet arose in the mid 17th century France, when gentlemen callers would arrive at the homes of ladies they wanted to woo unexpectedly. Their surprise arrival would send the kitchen staff into a panic and the only food that could be served was a selection of what was found in the cool room.'

  There are a couple of rules regarding the buffet.

  The knife is tabooed at the buffet lunch hence all the food must be such as can be eaten with fork or spoon. We Logues don’t stick to that one. And tradition has it that friends of the hostess should always serve. Well we don’t stick to that one either.

  YOUR SAY: Got any great buffet ideas? Share them below!