If you’ve ever hosted a book club, baby shower, or holiday party, chances are you’ve put meat, cheese, fruits, and vegetables on a board for people to eat. Whether you’re putting together a charcuterie board, crudités, or maybe even a much-talked-about butter board, a recently published cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen has tips on how to elevate your boards.
America’s Test Kitchen Executive Editor Chef Elle Simone Scott recently visited WTTW for a demo and tips on bringing the different types of tables to life. And she’d know it: She offered tips on food design and more as part of Boards: Stylish Spreads for Potlucks. Scott will also be one of the judges for America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation, which premieres December 9 on Amazon Freevee.
The goal of the new cookbook, according to Scott, is to make beautifying food less intimidating and get people to spend less time in the kitchen and more time with guests. It goes beyond the run-of-the-mill cheese boards, but includes tips for them as well, with recipes and tips for putting together breakfast boards, snack boards, candy boards, and even boards designed for dinner.
For example, the “Ballpark Board” includes Chicago-style hot dogs, buns, lemonade and condiments, plus soft pretzels and in-shell peanuts. The low-slung brunch table includes muffin frittatas, store-bought pastries, bacon, and more. The idea is to allow home cooks to be creative and have fun while doing it.
In his introduction to the cookbook, Scott writes that creating boards isn’t just about how the food looks, but more about how it makes the guest feel. Scott has a personal connection to many of the recipes in the book, including the “Pizza Parlor” board, which has a simple French bread pizza along with a number of pizza toppings that you can make yourself.
“My uncle used to make me these pizzas after school. They would be the Stouffer type and he would buy peppers and stuff from the grocery store, and we would make our own pizza. It was a lot of fun,” says Scott.
Elle Simone Scott wants to make beautifying food more accessible to the average home cook. Image: courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen.
But you don’t have to host a meeting to create a board, she says.
“Meetings aren’t always about entertaining,” she says. “It’s really more about how she decides to serve her guests and to do it in the most creative way.”
That could mean “grocery shopping” as a way to use up food that has been sitting around the house for a while. It could also mean making a table for dinner. The Steak Frites Board is your go-to for a family of four.
“Hands down, everyone loves fried steaks. You couldn’t go wrong with that,” says Scott.
If I had to pick a favourite, it would be Tapas Board, which has Spanish tortilla, olives, Spanish cheeses, cold cuts, aioli and more. Scott said he had a lot of fun meeting with cheesemakers and going to specialty shops to create that board.
“It’s a travel concept and it encourages people to eat things they don’t normally eat,” he said. “I like any board that gets people out of their comfort zone a bit.”
Scott’s advice for creating a board doesn’t have much to do with the food itself. First, determine the topic of the meeting and what the occasion is. Then think about who will attend and what time of day it will be.
“If it’s brunch and it’s a bachelorette party then you might want to do the Afternoon Tea [board]. But if it’s a birthday party or just catching up with friends, you might just want to do the Nacho Board,” says Scott.
Half the battle is not being intimidated by the concept of beautifying food, says Scott.
“[The cookbook] speaks volumes about how simple it really is to make food beautiful. It’s really just choosing fresh ingredients, looking for colorful things,” says Scott. “It is doable. It is accessible. A lot of people are intimidated by that, or feel like they don’t know how to make food beautiful when they could be trying to make brown rice look beautiful. And it is not like that! Not all food is beautiful, but that doesn’t mean you’re not good at making it beautiful.”
Source: news.google.com