It just makes sense
We have catered all sorts of functions over the years. Weddings overflowing with freshly tied spring blooms. Parties with jazz bands strumming foot tapping numbers. Sweet carts decorating corners, offering up oodles of sugary treats. And venues, lit up with a profusion of glowing vintage lanterns. Whatever the party, whatever the occasion, it’s always a true explosion for all your senses – hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch.
This got us thinking about food. It’s obvious that most people think of taste when it comes to food. After all, the way our taste buds react to whatever we put in our mouth is one of the ways we discern whether we like what we are eating or not. And smell. Everyone knows that the smell of freshly brewed coffee and freshly baked bread is a sure-fire way to coax a potential buyer into falling in love with your house. But what about your other senses? Surely to truly appreciate food all our senses have to be indulged! We think so, and whenever we plan our menus here at Parties to Go, we make sure there is always plenty going on to feed every major sense.
So, let’s start with taste. As we’ve already said it’s the obvious, but evidently still of great importance. When we are prepping and planning, our main goal it to make sure every morsel that is devoured sends ripples of delight to all the right places. This is why flavour combinations are so significant when constructing our dishes. Each combination we put together has been keenly thought through so that flavours combine to create something delightful. Food pairing is not just an art, it’s a science. It’s all based on senses (and deserves a blog in its own right), but the experience we get from paring the right flavours together is what ignites our other senses, and this is what leads us to smell.
Smell. Aroma. Their importance cannot be diminished. Apparently, as much as 80% of our flavour experience isn’t down to taste, but to smell, which means we’re not only looking for great aroma after we’ve prepared our food, but also from our ingredients. That’s why we endeavour to source the freshest and best components for each of our dishes to ensure we have the best start for everything we prepare. So, when we serve up our pan fried sea bass, drizzled with a sauce of coriander, lemon, garlic, chilli, cumin and paprika, we’ve hopefully already delighted your taste buds before you’ve even taken a bite.
Touch is a feeling we experience not only when we hold food, but also when we are biting into it or chewing. We experience texture, consistency and freshness in every bite. From the expectation of a crunch to the delight of chewiness, we judge food by not only what we expect it to be like, but actually how it feels to us, and whether we like that physical feeling. Therefore, we never downplay the flakiness of our pastry, the smoothness of our chocolate mousse, or the way a way your fingers get a little bit sticky as you hold one of our honey and mustard glazed sausages.
They always say you eat with your eyes, so the way our food looks is just as vital, when we cater any party, as how it tastes. We love to add colour to our food so garnish touches are a must for us and colour infusions in our food make any buffet table look vibrant and inviting. We want our food to look enticing, to say ‘eat me’, that is why when we put our dishes together, watching the staff construct a main course, canapé or dessert is something of a work of art! And this spills over with delivery too. Pressed uniforms, crisp white linen – it all goes to towards an added experience for one of our most important senses.
Any finally hearing. There is obviously nothing like the signature ‘crack’ of our brandy snap basket, or the ‘crunch’ of our parmesan crisps, but, in our profession, the sound of people enjoying your food is something we couldn’t enjoy more. And we’re not just talking about all the lovely things our customers have to say to us after their event. We’re talking about the assuring noises the guests make as they savour a canapé and the sound of a great time had by all and the fabulous atmosphere that we have helped create. There is, in our opinion no better sound.
If you’d like us to help you and your guests delight in an all-round assault on your senses, then please do give Carole a ring. She’d be delighted to talk through everything you need to know to help deliver all of the above.
