The Return Of The Buffet

Forget Stuffy Canapes And Fussy Recipes, A Heaving Table Of Help- Yourself Deliciousness Is The Modern Way To Feed A Party.

- Grace Dent

Two-thousand-and eighteen is the year of the buffet, and as a restaurant critic, I applaud this. When Sabine Getty – queen of the dinner party super leagues – recently told Vogue that she favours a buffet, it was a sharp thrill to know that the beau monde was finally resurrecting the cornerstone of 1970s entertaining. Case in point: creative director Alex Eagle’s loft in Soho, where celebrities, fashion designers, and editors regularly gather around a trestle table. ‘A buffet sets a familial tone,’ she says. ‘Plus, it’s hard to compete with the drama of a well-done buffet on an aesthetic level: a whole leg of jamón; colourful tapas; baskets piled with ripe figs…’

It’s about time the buffet had its moment of culinary glory. In my job, as the scourge of chefs, the question I’m chucked daily is: ‘But, Grace, can you even cook?’ To which my answer is always: ‘Well, you won’t find me standing by a sous-vide machine studiously broiling a veal cheek to within a millisecond of tender. Or erecting my own croquembouche tower.’ Lord no. I leave that style of hospitality to ruddy-faced, kitchen-bound bores. But if you want a buffet, I say, then I am your girl.