How Sazan Created Her Dream Charcuterie Table

From the archive:

This past weekend something major happened. I finally grasped how to create a dream charcuterie table that was instantly a hit! It all started with me wanting to host a joint birthday party for my husband and his sister. What’s hilarious about this is I literally told myself I was going to keep it as chill as possible. I thought, “What’s cute but chill? hmmm – I’ll go with a charcuterie board!” Well in classic Saz fashion, what started as a small “chill” charcuterie board turned into an extravagant charcuterie TABLE. It was a next level spread that people are still texting and messaging me about. LOL Surprisingly it was actually REALLY easy. I’ll explain…

5 Easy Charcuterie Table Tips:

1. Pinterest: Yep! Before racing to the grocery store, get on Pinterest. Pinterest is literally my best friend when it comes to party-inspiration. I legit made a folder on my desktop labeled “Charcuterie Inspo” and actually studied the photos I loved that caught my eye. ha! I loved seeing all the different fruits, meats, cheese, nuts and other yummy pairings people have used to add variety and fill up table space.

2. Go to Walmart: Whether it’s Walmart or Hobby Lobby – go get a roll of brown butcher wrapping paper to lay out across your table. This is genius (shout out to my friend Jon who gave me the idea)! Not only will cleanup be so easy at the end of the night but it creates a inviting feeling for guests to just walk over and pick away! Love that there was no need for extra plates or fancy bowls. The brown paper is literally the canvas for spreading out all the food like a work of art!

3. Make a Grocery List: Never walk into a grocery store empty handed. I literally broke down my grocery list into categories that’s how OCD I was about this LOL  Walking through every aisle of the grocery store can get overwhelming and exhausting so come prepared.. I started in the deli/cheese section and since I had about 20 guests I wanted to make sure I had plenty variety of cheese (soft, semi-firm, hard) and also same with cold-cut meats. This chart I shared on my Stories was a saving grace! It categorizes and breaks down the Charcuterie pyramid so you literally won’t forget anything!

4. Table Styling: Here’s the fun part!  First you’ll want to measure, lay out and tape the brown wrapping paper to your table. Once it’s set you can place any dishes or wooden cutting boards that you will eventually use to display the meat,cheese etc. This is also a good time to put any candles or center piece decorations onto the table. We used 3 bottles of wine as the center pieces and surrounded them with candles. Anything wet like pickles and olives I placed in mini bowls but everything dry was mostly out and I waited to spread out across the table until after meat and cheese were laid out.  About 30 minutes before guests arrive, we took out the cheese and meats and placed them on the table FIRST. Then we dressed it up with adding wet fruits like strawberries, grapes, oranges, as well as dried fruits, nuts, crackers, chocolate and fun spreads all around to help dress it up.

5. Feel free to break all these rules: What I love about charcuterie boards (and in this case charcuterie table) is that there are literally no rules. Have fun with it and make it your own. The ultimate goal for my charcuterie party was to simply invite guests to gather around the table, enjoy some delicious bites and have good conversations with each other. Safe to say that mission was accomplished for me!

The grocery stores where I got all my goodies: Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Ralphs!
 
Best of all guys, this was the easiest clean-up job at the end of the night because few dishes were used and almost 98% of the food laid out got eaten up by our 20-something guests! Surprisingly, this was the easiest party food idea ever and it looks like I put in tons of effort but I really didn’t! hehe. I might do it all over again for Super Bowl party we’re hosting! xo

Happy hosting!