It’s all in the Presentation by Sherry Sawyer

Sherry Sawyer presently resides in New Jersey, she’s a wife and proud mother of two children.  She has enjoyed cooking and entertaining guests for years and the best part of entertaining for her has been food presentation the spectacular way dishes can be transformed and served in the most unexpected ways.   In addition to working 9 to5 being a student at FDU Sherry keeps busy cooking and coming up with ways to showcase food presentations.  A creative presentation of food can make a mediocre dining experience an outstanding memorable one if done right.  Sherry wants to take you along on “ It’s All in The Presentation” a  family reunion memory. 


I have always enjoyed spending time cooking and creating dishes to share with family and friends hoping that somehow our time spent together would be filled with good memories in my opinion good memories always included a richness of relationship, laughter and good food.  Every year our family enjoys both aspects of these at our family reunion and one of the most important components of the reunion is the food presentations.

It’s a lovely Saturday morning and the sun hits the walls of the banquet room which at the present moment is stalk bare the room feels hollow and beckons for decorating just something to turn the room into a festive place.  The tall ceilings and plain walls make the room void of excitement it feels more like a gymnasium than a place where we’ll  host our family reunion event.  Everyone is coming together as we always do each year to enjoy the culinary specialties of our grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends to be with family and remember our ancestral heritage.  The presentation of food at our family reunion is a family tradition that’s just as important as the family members themselves.

Remembering in previous years how elaborate the food presentations  where and how great tasting the food was makes coming together that much more special.   There’s grandmothers stuffed cabbage, which consist of cabbage stuffed with seasoned beef, rice, tomatoes, onions and green peppers.  The meat is usually cooked in grandma’s old cast iron skillet with finely chopped onions, peppers, coupled with her special seasonings that have such a good flavor.  Grandmother has shared this recipe with all my aunts in hopes that it would be passed on to the next generation of cooks in the family.

There are other great recipes and dishes from all the family members that get displayed in a massive presentation that resembles the last feast.   The presentation of the food in my family is important because it allows us to visualize the various meals that have been prepared with love each dish represents a part of a greater experience so for the family it’s all in the presentation.  People eat with all their senses  my mom would tell me it’s not enough to make good tasting food you also need to present your dish so that people will want to eat it.   “The visual sensation of a dish is just as important as its flavor.”

With time winding down there’s a need to get the hall decorated so I start the task of draping the tables with linens, placing floral arrangements, the family portraits of past reunions are strategically placed around the room and hung on the walls.  The hall is starting to get some character a family festive feel.  The colors of the linens for the event consist of rich deep hues of burgundy, gold, and caramel similar to the foods that are prepared.  We have the golden color of grandmas old fashion lemon butter pound cake who can resist the decadent chocolate layer cake aunt Louise always makes and of course the deliciously burgundy hued glistening colored barbeque ribs that my granddaddy grills for hours on his barbeque pit which was built by hand with the help of my uncles.

Yes our family reunion is filled with good food that deserves a wonderful presentation.  Time is moving quickly the food table needs to be finished the presentation of each dish at the table is important because every dish is like the person who cooks it.  Grandma who makes the best potatoe salad and chicken dumplings in the world (at least that’s my granddaddy’s opinion along with the rest of the family who also agree), there’s my auntie’s mouth watering stuffed shells and many different dishes all of them need to be a part of the presentation.  Our family eats with their eyes first  so if the food is not presented in an appetizing way trust me the dish in question won’t be eaten.  Most of the food tastes good although in past years we had a not so good dish experience, like the time my auntie Cheryl made what she thought was a good pan of mac and cheese however the dished looked more like a watery pan of noddles that where over cooked and  no one touched it!   My relatives won’t eat food that doesn’t look good, they will claim that they’re stuffed and can’t eat another bite but in reality they don’t see the dish as being appealing enough to venture out and taste it because of the presentation and the way it looked.  In my family most folks know each other’s specialty and look forward to partaking in the wonderful tasty family reunion dishes so if grandma decides not to make her potatoe salad we’re going to be disappointed.   Family and friends of all ages share their favorite dishes as well as their spirit and love for one another. This kind of attention to detail is important when serving food to guests it indicates that you value your guests enough to go through the trouble to try and achieve something beyond the mundane – it’s part of the gift you’re giving them.

This year’s family event is filled with excitement and color and  a feeling of richness like the chocolate layer cake and deep green colored vegetables that fill platters on a large oblong table the sizzling of seared beef served on a hot platter on top of the cast iron hot plate is surrounded with whole peppers in an array of colors, red, yellow, orange, green  the side dishes keep coming as people arrive, I’ve got to find more room on this banquet table.  There are long platters of ribs stacked high slathered with a spicy bbq sauce round bowls filled with all types of salads, and the pies, cake and bread pudding look delectable.  The table resembles the likes of the last feast, there are peaks and valleys of food on the table which spans about 18 feet long, I’ve draped the table with layers of fabric and created an illusion of  depth as I try to find another space on the table for the condiments that accompany the dishes.

Laughter begins to feel the room as relatives continue to arrive for the festivities.  My aunt comments on how exquisite the banquet table looks with the draping and gasps at the multitude of dishes, desserts, meats, salads hot and cold entrees food selections are endless and presented in a pleasing way folks are ready to devour the food.  This presentation beckons to everyone to eat and we can’t wait to hear the grace completed by granddaddy so we can start heading toward the table to eat.

The walls are now decorated and brought to life by the colorful bounty of both decorations and presentation of food, the ceilings now seem to wrap themselves around the room like a warm cozy cloud the enticingly rich aroma of  family dishes both from young and old generations make for a beautiful collage of color texture and aromas, this is an awesome presentation of both people and scrumptious dishes.  I know that really good food is made with the best ingredients and presented in exquisite forms to enjoy with the palate and eyes because it’s all in the Presentation.