Finger Foods and Buffets

Finger foods are a new way of serving meal that began as a fashion, but became a real new way of eating, probably due to its simplicity in being served with no need of dishes and cutlery.

Eat without using cutlery already existed in many cultures, as the Ethiopian one. But it concerns different kinds of meal, as they eat the whole meal using no forks or knives, but taking it directly with the hands or pieces of bread.

The terminology Finger Food was created to distinguish these cultures from what European and American people consider eating with the hands, that does not mean the same, but means eat a one bite portion using the hands to take it to the mouth.

Finger foods are much more than a simple canapé, as these were usually made using a bread basis and were limited in fantasy, and were strictly served as entrance or a cocktail. Creative chefs have been showing that it is possible to eat everything … with one bite portions.

This means not only an easier way to serve, but also a cheaper choice regarding wedding receptions or other kinds of parties.

This new kind of food service gives an alternative option as it allows serving people without having seats or room for all. People can stand in groups or seat in small lounges, where the waiters pass serving different choices of finger food.

Food culture evolves besides other cultures. Our senses ask for new tastes and stimulus, not being satisfied anymore with the old fashioned finger foods served in cocktails and parties. Our new stimulating way of life asks for new flavors, new looks and different ways of eating the traditional food.

The expression finger food was yet unused when Claudia Vasconcellos began to sell her finger food appetizers successfully to her buffet’s private customers, calling this new brand Aerocanapè.

Her party finger food ideas were then largely copied, creating a new way of serving cocktails or parties.

She began using products that were less known then - as the Arabian sheet bread, produced only in a few specialized bakeries - combined with black olives to create an original and tasty canapé that still distinguishes her creations nowadays.

Different matches that bring different flavors to please our taste like combining fois gras pate and orange marmalade. New ideas that were not only a fashion, but are keeping their place in the market since their creation about ten years ago.

Her creations reached high success also with her innovations concerning new ways of serving traditional food. Traditional recipes were turned into small servings that allow people to taste old fashioned food in a very up-to-date way, otherwise tied to heavy and long meals.

Recovering these old tastes to a more doable way of serving them is an idea that is born to last, as it gives what the modern society asks for without losing the old traditional tastes that are then preserved keeping alive the food culture of a region.

Claudia Vasconcellos works as consultant and as parties organizer; arranging all size parties, from the home dinner to big companies meetings as to wedding ceremonies, where her finger foods are the distinctive label.

She speaks English even if her website is only in Portuguese for now. She worked for big companies as Globo (Brazil), TIM, events concerning Davis Tennis Cup among others than can be seen in her website http://www.cvplus.com.br