Spring arrives and we ache to get outdoors after the cold winter. The weather is beautiful, the flowers are blooming. Dining outdoors feels magical, but it comes with real logistics: food safety, bugs, running in and out of the house. When you plan the serving style thoughtfully, everything flows—and the magic stays."
Dining al fresco, whether an intimate dinner for two, a picnic or cookout comes with its own set of challenges. By planning how you will manage these challenges through logistics of the serving style, the place settings, the foods you intend to serve and the number of people, you can create a setting in which everything goes smoothly for you and the guests.
Outdoor Dining: Choosing a Serving Style that Manages the Challenges Best
The serving style is where we are going to put the foods or serving dishes and how we are going to serve them. Why does this matter and what are the challenges?
It matters because you want to make serving and eating as easy as possible. You want to avoid the friction of getting foods from the house to the outdoors. This can become cumbersome if host or guests have to run to the house for everything. On the other hand if you bring all the foods outside, we run into issues with food safety, spoilage, heat, bugs and insects.
Let’s talk about challenges of different outdoor dining settings and ways to set up to reduce friction for guests and for food safety.
Cookouts and BBQ
Cookouts and BBQ are popular ways of enjoying social time, family gatherings, and celebrating holidays in the summer months. These outdoor meals consist of a meat cooked over a grill or on a spit. The meat is often hamburgers and hotdogs for a cookout; sometimes steaks. BBQ rotisserie involves chicken, pork, or venison most commonly.
These summer food fests involve more than just the meat. Condiments are available for the meats: ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish, and sauerkraut.
A variety of sides are available and depending on how casual the outdoor gathering, this could be potato chips or French fries, or an array of prepared dishes. Common dishes are potato salad with eggs, egg salad, deviled eggs, corn on the cobb with butter, green beans, squash casserole, and macaroni and cheese. Feel free to add your favorites to the list.
Desserts are always appreciated at every event, so don’t forget to have something sweet at your outdoor gathering.
Of course much of this issue of logistics and food safety depends on where the foods are being prepared. With a cookout or a BBQ, the main dish is already outside and serving is easy.
Whether your sides are simply potato chips or a plethora of dishes, it is easiest for everyone to set up a buffet table for the foods and condiments. For a casual outdoor gathering a buffet table with plates, napkins, cups, beverages, and flatware is perfect. Most of the time people sit in a lawn chair and eat their meal or at a picnic table.
The problem is with the perishable sides and condiments. I never worry about ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, and sour kraut. Mayonnaise is always the problem.
Perishable foods like mayonnaise and mayo-based salads should only be left outside in the heat for two hours. If the temperature is above 90°F (32°C), this safe window drops to one hour. After this time, harmful bacteria can grow rapidly and cause food poisoning.
Eggs are also a problem - deviled eggs, egg salad, potato salad with eggs. Even with cooked eggs, it is only food safe to leave cooked eggs outside for 2 hours. If the temperature is 90°F or hotter, that safe time shrinks to just 1 hour.
To manage food safety you can either keep the perishable foods and condiments in the refrigerator in the house and allow people free access. The drawback to this is the inconvenience to guests and having people in and out of your home.
Another way to manage food safety is to put ice chests under or around the buffet table and place perishable sides and condiments inside. This is also a good way to keep beverages cool. Water, iced tea, and lemonade are the usual beverages served as these events occur in the summer and we need cool refreshments. Beer may also be served and you’ll want an ice chest for this.
If you are seating at a table you may want condiments on the table. An ice chest under the table will keep the condiments fresh until you are ready for them. Then you can place them on the table on a nice rustic wooden serving tray for use. When people are done with them, drop them back into the ice chest. This gives the best experience and manages for food safety with efficiency.
If you use paper plates, napkins, and plastic utensils, keep a garbage can nearby.
If you use plastic, melamine, wheat straw or other permanent wares, keep a large plastic storage container nearby for used dishes to be washed.
I like to use a rolling cart with a plastic container for dishes on top and a plastic container for trash on the bottom. Line the container with a large, heavy duty garbage bag. The rolling car makes it much easier to move the bins to the trash and to the kitchen.
One more issue to address: Bugs and Insects
There is no escaping them. They live outdoors and you are dining in their living room. How bad the problem is depends on where you live.
Citronella candles or torches are an option, as are essential oil diffusers. You may also hand fly strips if you have anywhere near to do so. These measures will help guests be more comfortable and help keep pests off their plates while they are eating. Once caution: Do not use citronella, chemicals, or essential oils if you have cats anywhere around. These are deadly dangerous for them.
If you have pets or don’t want or need all of the aromatic protection, a simple mesh or mosquito net thrown over the buffet table works wonderfully to keep your foods safe from pests.
Look & Feel
Your outdoor cookout or BBQ is by nature a casual event. That doesn’t mean you cannot add a little flare to make the area feel more comfortable and inviting.
Decorate the buffet table with a pretty cloth tablecloth. Make sure you have plenty of room on the buffet to space out the dishes so the table is not overcrowded. When the table is crowded, not only is it confusing to look at and try to find what you want, but people get bunched up in areas. Use two tables if you need to.
You can even put a separate table for beverages and a separate table for desserts. If the event is rather small, use a smaller table like a folding, square card table with a tablecloth on it.
Just because you are outdoors doesn’t mean you can’t make it pretty and special. Just like with indoors, group the dishes on the table in threes and space the groups apart with decor. Outdoors a vase of flowers or botanicals between groups of dishes is perfect.
For the eating arrangement, if you have a picnic table, a table cloth makes the overall feel more comfortable and welcoming in. It also makes the table more physically comfortable to eat on. A think textured tablecloth - even two of them, layered, protects arms from the feel of rough wood. Cloth napkins won’t blow away in the wind like paper napkins tend to and the feel so much better.
Be generous with the napkins and layer two or three at each place setting. People will be eating hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken wings, chicken, and pork sandwiches with their hands. It is a bit old fashioned, but I love a finger bowl at each place setting.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is a bowl of water for each person to dip his fingers into and then dry on the napkin. I do not know why this is not common practice anymore. It is considerate of the guests as no one enjoys having sticky fingers and trying to get it all off with the napkin really does not work as well.
Make your picnic table shine with some flowers or botanicals, and use nice ceramic serving dishes. For an outdoor meal, a rustic vibe works well, such as rattan or wood plate chargers, rope or rattan trivets and pot holders, and wooden serving spoons; woody bowls for fruits and salads.
Picnic
The setup for a picnic is similar to that for a cookout or BBQ. The difference is you only need to set up for the table family style with all the food on it. This is all you need if you are serving cold cuts with slices of tomato, cheese, and lettuce for sandwiches.
You will still need to manage for food safety so put an ice chest under the table for condiments. A rustic round wooden serving tray on the table keeps seasonings looking like decor and when ready, the condiments can go here.
If you are serving chicken or sides at your picnic, the dishes will look inviting on the table family style. An ice chest below the table can keep any perishables fresh and safe until you are ready for them.
Why protect perishable foods and condiments in an ice chest (or the refrigerator) instead of just keeping them on the table? They won’t be out that long - right?
The answer is “maybe, maybe not”. Time ticks away with them on the table while you are still fixing, fetching, preparing.
We all think everything is done, but then remember something. You will probably also be socializing and chatting while you are doing things and time just keeps ticking away- with the perishables on the table in the sun.
So, by keeping the perishables in the refrigerator or an ice chest until the last moment we ensure the best result and no worries of losing time or getting side tracked. I know I have asked myself before, “How long has this been out?” You won’t have to worry about it.
Look and Feel
Decorate your picnic table. Rustic wood and rattan serveware on thick, textured tablecloth gives us a fresh, plush comfy feel. A mixture of deep solid colors and bright floral linens makes us want to sink into the table and enjoy.
Add fresh flowers or botanicals and you have the perfect picture. Let your wares be decor by using attractive pitchers of water, iced tea, and lemonade, with pretty slices of fruit on the rims. Sprigs of mint on the edge of glasses smells wonderful and refreshes the senses.
Al Fresco for Two
This setup involves cooking the meal inside, plating the food, and taking it to the patio table. This takes care of the food safety issues because your plates are ready to eat right away and the table is outside, but close to the kitchen.
With this plated in the kitchen then served ready to eat to the table set-up you can use a basic place setting and serve a one plate meal, or serve courses. Plates and silverware, and wine glass for each course is take to the kitchen when the course is done and the next is brought out. This makes a wonderful date night.
In this scenario focus on creating a romantic table. Set your patio table with a lovely linen tablecloth, placemats or a short runner, cloth napkins, candlelight and flowers. With the wine on the table, everything is set. Don’t forget dessert- always the highlight of the meal.
Get More Enjoyment of the Outdoors
Once you get the set-up that works for you, eating outdoors and hosting outdoor gatherings is easy and fun. You just have to find your niche. This is a great way to enjoy the outdoors more in the spring and summer and make more ways to socialize with family, friends, and neighbors. Dining “out” is not just for summer holidays.