Simple Additions Serving and Selling Ideas

Awesome Simple Additions ideas from Director, Tracy Godat.  (She was watching a cooking show where the gal was demonstrating how to 'plate' your food.)  She recommended a white ceramic platter to show off the food colors best and with the most versatility.  She drizzled melted chocolate on a white plate then put in the freezer for a few minutes.  Then she put the dessert onto the plate with a few mint leaves, etc. and it was gorgeous.  She used the line, "Be a guest at your own table".

The cooking show also showed a simple salad being prepared and displayed on a large, white ceramic plate.  The director in my group demonstrated this at my last director meeting and our jaws dropped.  Try to picture this: put sunflower seeds in the small boat.  Place that diagonally on the small plate with fishy crackers on either side of the small boat.  Now place the small plate in the top left corner of the large square platter.  Take one bag of lettuce and fill in the remaining area (a backwards 'L').  Now chop and slice your favorite veggies... coarsely chopped broccoli, diagonally sliced carrots, sliced egg, grated cheese, sliced olives, sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, sliced onions, etc.  Now place these veggies in individual 'rows' putting contrasting colors next to each other on top of the lettuce.  My director also showed us how to cut up and cube a mango, and used that as one of the rows for texture, color and flavor.

Serve this with salad dressing in the small bowls (once we get them) placed on the rectangle platter, place the large serving tongs on the salad, and the small serving tongs in the sunflower seeds.  She also grilled 2-3 chicken breasts with one of our seasonings, then carved into strips with the carving set and set in the medium bowl to be served with the salad.  What a gorgeous display!

I have now made this at 3 shows and the hosts/guests love it.  Here's a tip I learned:  prepare the salad before the show so it's all set up. Cover with tin foil and ask your guests how they serve salad at home... in a bowl?  With the veggies cut up and served in cereal bowls?  Don't they just love to bring 'salad' to potlucks because they're so beautiful?  Well, you will NOW! Take off the tin foil and unveil a beautiful salad that looks like it came from the Four Seasons chef.  It's jaw-dropping and sells the Essential Set easily.  I did this for my family first, and they wondered where I bought it.

Guests can eat the salad while you show a few tools and perhaps the dessert, so they've already 'experienced' Simple Additions by the time they order. Mention half-price and free tools while pulling off the aluminum foil, and bookings will not be a problem.  Because the salad was prepared ahead of time, the demos have been very simple and quick, and show high-priced tools allowing a few extra minutes for the guests to shop and socialize.  It's been a hit.

One more hot idea:  take the medium square and use a dry/wet erasable marker to write the menu for the evening on it.  Place on a plate holder or decorative cookbook holder, and set on the table or next to your display.  Very classy.<o:p></o:p>