Royal Wedding Feast? Menu Features Canapes Only
By: Kelsey Ganes
Published: April 27, 2011

Instead of serving a traditional sit-down lunch for Prince William and Kate's wedding reception at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth will serve wedding cake, champagne, Buckingham Palace's famous sparkling lemonade and canapes. Just canapes. Beginning in March, a team of Royal Chefs and sous chefs have been diligently working to create over 10,000 canapes to feed the dignified crowd of 650 guests.
Defined as two-bite appetizers, canapes are a little bit more substantial than typical cocktail fare and typical for diplomatic affairs, but are still quite versatile  "should a guest need to put one away in order to greet a passing dignitary." 
Why? A whole host of reasons, including the public reception of such an ostentatious display of wealth and power during such otherwise difficult economic times; and socially, a reception without seating means there won't be a seating chart or all of the politics and diplomacy involved in its creation. All of that aside, it is perhaps former Royal Chef Darren McGrady who sheds the most light on this decision: “the palace is not geared to do a sit-down meal or huge buffet for 600 or 700 people,” he remarked, "the palace kitchens are better equipped to handle formal dinners for about 150 people."
Photo by Geoff Peters

Comments:
edward
April 19, 2012

Canapes are a great way to enhance an event, since most guests are used to traditional sit down lunches, which can be quite boring. Creating 10,000 canapes must`ve been quite a challenge, and puts a lot of pressure on the staff in the kitchen.