Helpful hints and tasty tips

To liven up a buffet, a few carefully arranged decorative items can have a greater impact than a haphazard scattering of objects. For example, try grouping different-sized candles or bowls of berries. It's best to avoid cluttering the table so that the true star of the buffet—the food—can shine through.

To give your buffet a more elegant look, simply raise certain items, such as the canapés suggested in this guide or the flower arrangement of your choice, by placing them on a pedestal. If you don't have a footed serving dish, make pedestals by placing cardboard boxes or containers upside down and covering them with a piece of decorative fabric.

To serve dips made with Canadian Cream Cheese, remove the soft part of a round loaf of bread, leaving the crust to use as a bowl. Cut the soft part into cubes to go with your dip.

Don't have a festive tablecloth for your buffet? Cover the serving area with pine or cedar branches (they don’t dry as quickly as other evergreen branches). Add seasonal fruit like pomegranates to give your buffet an air of opulence.

Varied, elegant and easy to serve—Canadian cheese is a model of simplicity and good taste. No buffet would be complete without a platter of Canadian cheese.

Choose...
... at least 3 or 4 cheeses from different categories (soft, semi-soft and firm) and savour them, starting with the mildest before moving to the strongest. Or, you could opt for a single variety of cheese (like Cheddar aged 1 year, 3 years and 10 years), or a single type of cheese served with different accompaniments (such as chutney, pear wedges, sourdough bread and nuts).

Plan...
...to have 45 g to 60 g of cheese per person, if the cheese platter is served at the end of a meal, or 250 g per person for a cheese tasting.

Serve...
...cheese as is, without removing the rind. Rinds add colour, protect cheese from drying out, and are edible. Make sure you cut good sized pieces. It's best not to cut cheese in small slices or cubes because it will dry out too fast. To protect your cheese, use a cheese bell or place a clear bowl upside down. And set out a different knife to cut each type of cheese to ensure their flavours don't mix.