The brief arrived in a single sentence: a party in the style of an Italian summer. Yellow, white, blue, and everything in the smallest possible format. Mini canapés, tartlets, nothing that would have to be cut or carried on a plate.
That brief looks simpler than it is. The work grows with every millimetre you take off a bite. Each piece is filled separately, seasoned separately, and has to look as good as the one beside it. What you get in return is guests with both hands free all evening, and nobody sitting down purely in order to eat.
I built the table under a wooden pergola: tiered platters, olive branches, lemons, blue hydrangea and delphinium, blue gingham paper under every tray. I let the brief's colours do the work: the yellow came from lemons and peaches, the blue from the flowers and the paper, the white from the cheeses and mozzarella. Nothing had to be dyed.
The client wrote afterwards that her guests grazed the whole evening. At a table like this that is the best feedback I can get, because it means they kept coming back to it.
