About a year ago a friend posted some pictures of a very beautiful and elaborate grazing table setup for a baby shower. However looks can be deceiving, because although this looked elaborate I could tell creating one of these for a party was going to be way less painful than spending an entire day in the kitchen cooking up appetizers, and less expensive than ordering from a caterer.
Here are the many reasons i LOVE the grazing table concept. As stated before – I didn’t spend all day in the kitchen. In fact, everything that went into the spread was basically made. I didn’t spend as much money as I would have if I were to caterer it. The grazing table can be as expensive OR inexpensive as you want. I have seen them with deli meat, potato chips, pop corn, candy, fruit, veggies – you can seriously use anything you want. The presentation alone is a show stopper. People will be so impressed with your creative skills, when in actuality you just threw food on a table on brown packaging paper – brilliant!
While doing some research on this concept it became clear that this was very popular in Australia. Practically every post I saw on Instagram, or Pinterest was in Australia. Those Aussies are very clever, great ideas for entertaining and also a great style sense!
So lets get into the basic steps of creating your own grazing table. Start with picking up a roll of brown package paper to lay out on the table top, or counter that you using for the grazing table.
Find Out How Much Food You Need to Plan Your Grazing Table!
For a complete grocery list PDF head over to read The Ultimate Grazing Table Grocery List
Pick a Theme for your Grazing Table
So many options here. Because my charcuterie boards are always a hit I decided to stick with this theme. People love cheese, bread, and specialty meats. Anything else you add is icing on the cake. But you can literally do anything! For instance if you are a mom and hosting a sleepover and movie night i think it would be darling to create one with popcorn, candy, fruit, little cups of milkshakes or koolaid. Or you could do a New England clam bake and have clams, shrimp, lobster, sausage, potatoes, corn on the cob, etc etc laid out. The list goes on and on!
Layer
You can certainly lay out all of the serving platters you have but then that takes away from the concept of a grazing table. My best advice is to keep it simple. I used one slightly elevated serving platter, and then a rustic basket to layer various bread in. Just enough to add a little dimension.
Set Your basics out
In this case it was various cute, and small, mason jars I filled with flowers, honey, fig spread, and old style mustard. From this point all you need to do is fill in the rest of the table. Make sure to leave no spaces!
Use Fresh Flowers
One of my cardinal rules of entertaining – fresh flowers. Anything will do, but be consistent. Pick a couple of colors, don’t go all rainbow bright (unless its for a kids birthday party!). Make sure you remember to add the greens. Honestly Eucalyptus leaves are my favorite because it is a pretty shade of green and they smell lovely! Spread out the flowers around the staples already laid on the table and get creative with it. Have FUN, there is no way you can mess up flowers and food.
Add The Food
Since I went with the charcuterie theme I had room to play. I used fruit, veggies, specialty meats, dried apricots, almonds. There were different styles of loaves of bread, and crackers. I had a various amount of cheeses and hummus. To add a little something sweet I recommend breaking up chocolate bars to scatter around the table – this was a huge hit!
And Voila! You are finished. This really is such an EASY thing to create and it looks so gorgeous that I wont hesitate to do it again! If you make your own grazing table send me photos or tag me on Instagram! I want to see all the beautiful creations you make!!
How do you keep it all fresh for your guests?
Do you cover it?
they eat it all – you have to give yourself time to set it up right before guests arrrived – i prepped by making the dips earlier, cutting what needed to be cut, anything i could do early i did so then all i had to do was spread out the food 🙂
how does it look once the food is taken. do the fats and oils sink through the paper from the meat and cheese! that might look gross. did you use paper or only baskets for everything? I love the concept, just don’t have time to test run before my party!
yes it will soak through a little with the hummus – but i always wipe everything clean after its cleared. you can use cute little ramekins or pottery bowls if you dont want to put it directly on the paper 🙂 there are no rules so do whatever works best for your party 🙂
How do you calculate how much you will need? I’m planning a wedding of 50-100.
finally found enough research to put this together! 🙂 https://shannonshipman.com/how-much-food-grazing-table/
I too am trying to figure out how to calculate for a wedding of 75-100.
oh gosh i thats incredible – i honestly have never planned for anything more than 20-30 people- ill have to do some digging!
Following this. Planning a wedding with about the same estimated number. Let me know what you find out after that digging!
Finally pulled enough info together to figure this out! 🙂 and CONGRATS!!!
https://shannonshipman.com/how-much-food-grazing-table/
I read that its 2 to 3 oz. Of meat as well as cheese and fruit per person. And that’s just the minimum. I have never done one for that many people! Good Luck!!!
I did tons of research and this was the best i could come up https://shannonshipman.com/how-much-food-grazing-table/
I am so excited to find this. I have been asked to do a grazing table for 60 and this is so helpful (as well as your list of calculations and your grocery list!) I had one question – do people eat the bread loaves in the basket or are they just for looks?
thats GREAT!!! be sure to see this post!
https://shannonshipman.com/how-much-food-grazing-table/
I have quite a large table.. what do i do with areas I dont have food to cover? thanks!
Hi!
so if you have a wide table i would put a runner down the middle, i would lay down wax paper first, then i would do a brown paper runner and put the food on that! different ways to to take up space are by adding flowers, vases, and other decor elements throughout the runner so it doesn’t have to be just food 🙂
I have a question about the grapefruit. Are they meant to be eaten? If so, how?
Hi Kite! so yes the grapefruit are decorative, but at as party moves along you can always slice them up to add to the table, if i use the grapefruit I only use 1 or 2!
Where do you source your flowers?
Hi Tansy,
It depends when I do it and where I am…my yard, whole foods, a florist…it really doesn’t matter… 🙂
how far ahead can i prep the cheese? the night before and ………tucked in a ziplock bag and into the fridge, ok ?
hi kate! yes i usually cut it up and put it in baggies until the next morning! 🙂
Where did you get your bread basket from? I love it!
oh gosh I don’t remember, but probably a home goods 🙂
What type of paper do you put down on your table? I was looking for waxed butcher paper, but no one seems to have it. It’s all unwaxed and uncoated. I’m worried about oils leaking through to my wood tabl.e.
I just use regular brown kraft paper 🙂
Yes, i talk about doing this in this post…