SURPRISE, DELIGHT AND SATIFY:

Your Holiday Catering Trend Success Guide

 
When it comes to adding successful food trends to your catering business, Affinity Group is here to help you surprise, delight, and satisfy your customers with menu ideas that make it easy for them to eat and even easier to enjoy. 

HOLIDAY CATERING TRENDS:
Dare to Do Something Different

 
All too often the creation of a holiday catering menu gets stuck on tradition. Well, there’s nothing like breaking with tradition and serving up something new at an event. Here a few ideas to feed your guests imagination while still satisfying their stomachs.
 

1. A Little Goes a Long Way

Mini appetizers aren’t just a fun way to serve up food favorites, they’re also a great way to serve manageable, bite-size portions that allow people to enjoy eating while still carrying on a conversation. Classic favorites in miniature form such as mini grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup shots or mini pies made from ingredients that aren’t normally pies, such as cheeseburgers, pizza, and lasagna are very popular on holiday catering menus right now.

2. Fancy Yet Familiar

The next time you cater an elegant or fancy event consider serving foods your audience already knows and loves in an unexpected presentation. A trend that has seen a lot of interest lately is serving a familiar favorite in a cone. From fresh fruit in waffle cones to making your own pizza cone, providing a comfort classic in a cone is a delightfully different way to do delicious!

3. Unexpected Flavor Combos

Thinking outside the box and offering new and unusual flavor combinations are a great way to pique the public’s interest and get people talking (as well as eating). Consider these flavor combination innovations found on more than a few recent catering menus: chocolate and avocado, sriracha and peanut butter, and olive oil and ice cream.

HOLIDAY CATERING TRENDS:

Easy Does It

 
Making food that’s easy to eat is a must. Absolutely nobody likes to risk ruining or staining their clothes while eating at an event. Here a few ideas to help you keep your menu stay both simple and simply delicious.

 
1. Serve it on a Stick

From fruit to dessert to hors d’oeuvres, creating your own kebob combinations not only makes your food instantly more interesting, it also makes it easier.

2. Hold the Sauce

Unless you can find a way to serve a sauce in a way that it won’t risk getting all over people’s fingers and chins and spilling all over their clothes and other unexpected places, it’s probably best practice to put the sauce on pause.

3. Incredible, Edible & Sustainable

Self-contained, edible serving solutions are all the rage because they create less waste and make messy food even easier to eat. Edible Spoons are a both a creative and efficient serving solution for any event. Foods that already come self-contained like samosas, egg rolls, and wontons are also great ways to cut back on waste.