Barbecue - food presentation

To create the right mood for a good evening barbecue, put a little thought into the way you present your food and accessories.

Pick two colours that you can work with easily and use them to accent the whole event. So you might by paper tablecloths in pink and green and follow this theme through the whole meal with a piled high centrepiece of green and pink fruit that your guests can tuck into at the end of the meat course, pink and green drinks like lime spritzers and strawberry daquaris decorated with strawberries, sugared mint leaves and twists of lime, and napkins that pick up the colours too.
For illumination on the table, uses a tall vase filled with pebbles in your chosen colours and square candles that pick up the theme. The larger and thicker the candle the longer it will burn, and the better it will stay alight in evening breezes. If you can't find candles in the right colours, use coloured candle holders.
Provide finger bowls, but not little individual ones - instead fill big glass bowls with warm water, lemon or lime slices and a little cologne so that when your friends dip their meat greasy fingers into the water, the cologne not only strips the meat juices from their fingers but gives a nice fresh scent. Provide extra napkins or even cheap flannels in the same tones for them to dry their hands.
Your dessert can pick up the same colour themes, a key lime pie with a raspberry coulis for example, can be served with a pretty blossom from an orchid or other highly scented flower to give a beautiful scent to the plate. Don't be afraid to use flowers to garnish the meat course too.

Barbecue presentation photograph by Jetalone, used under a creative commons attribution licence.