As you know, not all venues are the same and some simply won’t be able to house all the guests in a sit down meal. Bowl food is a great solution, but if your client is struggling to see the concept of bowl food and the benefit to an event struggling for space…

Struggling for Space at Your Event? Bowl Food is the Answer!

Published : 8th January 2019

As you know, not all venues are the same and some simply won’t be able to house all the guests in a sit down meal. Bowl food is a great solution, but if your client is struggling to see the concept of bowl food and the benefit to an event struggling for space….

When you’re organising an event or helping someone to do it, there’s always a conversation around the number of guests and the size of the venue. Creating the right atmosphere and giving everyone the right amount of room to manoeuver is critical to the success of an event.

If you’re catering at the event then you’ll be acutely aware that cramped tables are no fun for the guests or for your team who need to service the tables, clear them, and top up the drinks or serve the champagne and coffees.

All too often the guests are cramped purely because the table plan wasn’t thought through and too many were invited in respect of the size of the room.

But you don’t need to cut down on guests…

In 2018 we had a fabulous royal wedding to watch and the guests just kept on coming, didn’t they? Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had 600 guests for their wedding reception and they were smart with the catering decisions they made.

Did they hire a massive venue and 60 round tables? No… they had a selection of canapes and bowl food!

This left many people on Twitter confused and asking “What’s bowl food?” leading us to realise that this concept is still a new one for many and one you, as a caterer, might want to talk about more.

Here are several reasons to choose bowl food over the traditional starter, main, and dessert option.

Bowl food is trendy

With the royal wedding making bowl food a talking point, you can easily reference Harry and Meghan when you’re discussing the idea of bowl food with your client. Bowl food has been thrust into the media again and you’ll probably find that they may well now be aware thanks to the royals blessing the art of standing and eating in 2018.

There’s also a really good counter ‘argument’ to the notion that standing up and eating isn’t very sophisticated as the more traditional guest might suggest. If it’s good enough for Prince Phillip and the Queen then it’s good enough for any of their royal subjects… well we think so, anyway!

Saves on space

Of course one of the main reasons to choose bowl food is space. By removing the need for tables for everyone, bowl food opens up the room and gives your client, their guests, and you as the caterer a much more free-to-move environment and more floor space to move about.

If you don’t have room for tables for every guest then bowl food is the perfect tonic.

Great for a themed event

Bowl food is a great choice for a themed event, too. If you’re catering for an eastern theme or American or South American then some of the food choices might be a difficult one. Theming the food can be tricky if you’re trying to please everyone, but with bowl food you’re not limiting the client and their guests on choice.

Selecting more than one main course with a plethora of options coming out in bowls means that even fussy eaters can be happy and enjoy the event. It’s a really good shout if your client is struggling with deciding one just one main course option during the tasting stage.

Bowl food is handheld, not messy, and keeps them standing

Of course, canapés are a great idea, but many of them can be messy and they’re not as easy to eat stood up as bowl food is. Bowl food is handheld, comes with a fork and of course you can eat it standing up which give us another great reason to choose it…

Bowl food keeps the atmosphere!

Because the guests remain stood up, but more importantly chatting with the reception conversations, you maintain the great vibe from the start of the event and don’t lose it as can happen when you seat everyone down for dinner.

Sitting down to eat often formalises an event too much and that can take the atmosphere away somewhat. Why not keep it going with bowl food? Just let that conversation flow and top them all up with food as they talk. It’s a real winner for many events, including weddings - as the royals proved.

You’re not limited on choices of food!

Of course, you know this – but do your clients? Canapes might mean you have to have limit your choices to the traditional finger foods. Although you can be really creative here, bowl foods offer far more choices and of course the options are still fabulously presented and taste divine too.

From bangers and mash to risotto and even mini fish and chips – bowl food isn’t limited on choice!

More substantial than canapés

The downside of canapes is that they’re just not going to fill up and large crowd of revelers. You’d have to create a heck of a lot of ‘finger food’ to please the crowds and that’s where the bowl food really excels.

Most stand up food comes with a compromise, but the only compromise here is sitting down, not pleasing an appetite! The great advantage to bowl food is it’s far more substantial than canapes and other options for standing room only!

How many bowls will I need to hire?

Bowl food is a great option for events from showroom open nights to wedding, funerals, and birthday parties. There’s really no event that couldn’t benefit from the now ‘royal choice’ so get out there and tell everyone.

For a typical event with 100 people you’ll need around 600 bowls to ensure you have enough clean bowls to replenish the crowd.

You can find our bowls right here.

(You’ll also need as many spoons and/or forks to go with them.)

If you need help with organising the bowls, forks, glasses or anything for your event please do call us now on 01789 491133 or contact us here.

Enjoy!