Effortless Canapés: top tips from our Cookery School

The tutors at our Cookery School share their favourite canapé recipes to prepare-ahead, and top tips for effortless hosting. 

If you are hosting friends, family or neighbours, serving canapés is a good idea to make everyone feel welcome and celebratory. Here in the Cookery School, we love to create simple, delicious bites using produce from our organic farm and Market Garden. Here are some of our top tips:

GET AHEAD

Plan well in advance and get as much prep out of the way, so all you have to do when people arrive is pass around the platters and enjoy the gathering too!

ALL ABOUT BALANCE

The key to a successful canapé selection is a balance of different flavours with lots of colour and texture, thinking about the complexity of the menu as a whole.

TRY A PLATTER

Platters are a simple, stress-free way of creating something full of colour, texture and flavour with minimum fuss.

Assemble roast figs with Iberico ham and pistachios, pears with blue cheese and walnuts or hot smoked salmon with preserved lemons and horseradish. 

FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

Make little toasts with rye bread or even crisp chia seed crackers, then top with all manner of toppings: try goat’s cheese and thinly sliced apple, seared venison and pickled plums or roasted mushrooms.

HOLD BACK

Don’t put all of your perfectly presented nibbles out at once. They lose their shine very quickly and will be gone before you know it!

TAKE A CANAPÉ COURSE

Sign up to one of our ever-popular Effortless Canapés courses at the Cookery School, hosted on various dates throughout the year, which can be found here.