Actividades: Variety of food tasting Food stations are great when you have a variety of foods that you want your guests to try out without getting too full. Food stations enable your guests to do a food tasting in a miniature serving and ask for more if they like, instead of having a plated dish that they may not want to eat at all. A way to let people eat what they want and to cut food wastage. They share this advantage with the buffet spread. You can present a variety of foods (vegetarian and meat, heavy and light, variety of nationalities...) and serve in portions according to one’s liking at one single event. Visual appeal Unlike having a big buffet spread, food stations enable you to dress up each station according to the theme of the event, or the type of food being served: Japanese, Indian, Mediterranean, etc. Each station can include a specific setting, using decorative elements (bamboos, large green leaves, seafood and crushed ice...), lights (from cold blue to hot red or even moving lights...), or the way of dressing the waiter! Colours and decoration that will definitely whip up an appetite! You can even add some event decoration such as logos at the food stations or even name them according to your event theme. E.g. the ABC company sushi bar, the ABC company ranch for a BBQ-type of food... Seeing the preparation of the food live can also be a form of entertainment. People enjoy seeing how something is made. E.g. a sushi chef slicing artfully piece of fish and transforming them into neat and delicious sushi, a server carving pieces of meat according to the quantity desired, a pasta chef preparing fresh raviolis with different fillings based on one’s liking, a chef preparing personalised omelette where guests can have the eggs the way they want it prepared: sunny side up, scrambled or simple an omelette where they choose the ingredients… Interaction Having servers behind the food stations also provides interaction with the guests. It beats a “help yourself” buffet where one simply serves themselves, but guests can ask about the food that is being served and adds a touch of exquisitivity to the service and the food, a sensation that there is something to tell about the food. Of course, make sure your cooks/waiters are interactive, open, fun, smiling. They must be ready to improvise a joke, look happy to prepare the food, add a little detail... Guests can also learn something at the dining session. E.g. a wine station can have a connoisseur explaining about the wines that are being served, guests can learn about the wines and their culture, match them with cheese and provide an expert to combine the different wines with the right food. In Spain, you can apply the same concept with olives, anchovies and other artisan products produced locally (in Spain, you can even find olive oil tasting, definitely something new: help people to select the right oil for the right food!!). Even chocolates have a story to tell: the art of making chocolates, different types, with different fillings, etc. You can also offer crepes (where crepes are freshly made on the spot) and guests can choose their favourite fillings: jams, fruits, sauces… Get creative and fun... and involve the public! Guests can also participate in the creation of their meals. You can offer a basic theme in a menu and guests can select and put together a dish themselves. E.g. serve hamburgers (a basic, non complicated dish) can be serve with a variety of toppings where guests can put on their mini burgers, such as different types of cheese, sauces and more unusual topping such as fried leeks, Cambozola and other artisan cheeses, and roasted peppers. Same can be applied with pizzas by providing guests with the dough and they can slap on the toppings accordingly, or crepes. Attendants will be thrilled to participate! (you can even do a contest out of this, to make it fun and challenging). You can also base the choice on a key ingredient, e.g. fish… so you can offer fish risotto, fishcakes, barbecue fish, etc… In the end, food stations turn a meal into a real experience and should definitely be considered. The key risk is time (if things have to be made to on the spot), as you want to avoid long queues. So you have to select the types of food so that preparation is fast, or mostly you can combine food stations with a more traditional buffet so people can always get food.