Beige Buffet

[PrincessGeorge]

Hi all, I’m planning a ‘beige buffet’ for my birthday party at the end of the month. I know it sounds tacky but I’m planning to make as much as I can myself. Not in the UK, so I’m really missing a beige buffet for any and every family do, birthdays, funerals even.
I’m planning to make the following:
Sausage rolls (pork, apple, sage)
Scotch eggs
Triangle sandwiches (tuna, egg and cress, cheese and onion )
Open faced sandwiches on half a bun/bap (salmon and cucumber)
Cheese and pineapple hedgehog (best cheddar I can get here and fresh pineapple)
I’ll do a charcuterie board (with cheese, meats, pickles. Chutneys, baguette and crackers), but is there anything else you can think of that’d be nice ? And beige ;)
I’m thinking a homemade guacamole to go with some chips too.

Those little cheese and onion rolls, definitely vol au vents, quiche

And then you have to do the desserts too! Mini bakewells pies and jam tarts etc, I’m so jealous I love a beige buffet

I've not heard of the term 'beige buffet' but been to loads🤣 - some better than others obviously!

Homemade sausage rolls are completely irresistible.

How about adding homemade cheese straws/cheese twists? Can make using puff pastry or from scratch; lots of recipes online

Also savoury pinwheels-can do different fillings

Twiglets
Football balls

@CaptainMyCaptain

How can you not have heard of a beige buffet.

All the buffets I have ever been to have involved colourful salads and fruit salad. Beige buffet sounds like pure stodge. Casting my mind back to the 70s there might have been the odd buffet consisting of sausage rolls, sandwiches and pork pie but I thought they were just cheap and unimaginative not a 'thing'.

Pure stodge is the point here! Not a way to eat every day, but once in a way, why not? I absolutely love buffets like this and would be delighted. I second the recommendation for Campbell's condensed mushroom soup as a filling for vol-au-vents, possibly with some chopped cooked chicken stirred through, with or without additional fresh mushrooms. Or you could add tuna flakes. Better eaten hot or warm than cold, in my view.

OP, do you think you might have any friends who would react like @CaptainMyCaptain at being offered largely high carb/high fat food? If so, you could put out some sticks of carrot, pepper, cucumber, celery and so on, a bowl of cherry tomatoes and a platter of fruit. Hummus is beige but also fairly healthy.

You can never have enough sausage rolls. Please can I come?

Got to throw a retro Black Forest Gateaux in there....

Well, I've learnt something knew today but don't think I'll be hosting one.

Really? My worst nightmare. In all seriousness unless you are in New Zealand is this a good idea. We are being advised against buffets as they are higher risk (always were)

Pasta salad
Potato salad
Mini baked potatoes
Chilli poppers

Don’t forget the twig keys and watsits too

Twig keys — twiglets

Little Apple pies

I just love a beige buffet, or British tapas as it often gets called in our house.

Best part of Christmas for me is a huge Boxing Day spread of all things stodgy and beige.

I’d also add pate, pizza slices, pringles and dips

I have never heard of it.

What’s a buffet without salad and olives and cheeses?

"I’m thinking a homemade guacamole to go with some chips too."

I hate to tell you but guacamole isn't beige.....unless you leave the avocados to go beige first?

What a great idea during a pandemic! Cheese and covid on a stick, yummy

I just think a large part of the appeal for British people in this kind of spread is nostalgia, though. (I mean, I'd never heard of the term 'beige buffet' being used apart from a criticism before this thread, but I understood immediately what the OP was getting at).

I tend to think that if she's abroad and serving this primarily to non-Brits, the nostalgia of the vol-au-vents and cheese and pineapple hedgehog will be completely lost on them, and they'll just see it as weird, stodgy food?

I know what a buffet is. I know what beige food is. I have just never heard of it being called a ‘beige buffet.’

We usually call that a party tea. Well my kids do.

Lots of other great ideas, thanks 😊 It’s a small outside gathering in line with what we’re permitted to do, and I just really wanted to do something a bit different food wise, haven’t had one for years !

Pasta salad.
Potato salad.
Bread sticks and hummus.

I often make a dip which is a layer of cream cheese, a layer of salsa then topped generously with grated cheddar. Make in advance but bring to room temperature before serving with a bowl of Doritos on the side to scoop up with.

@PrincessGeorge re: vol au vents, the chicken and tarragon sounds lovely. Cheese and ham (like a cheese sauce with ham hock pieces in??) would be nice too, or a creamy mushroom sauce?

Seeing all these suggestions is making me hungry!

I call it an '80s buffet' at home or if DM/DUncle is asking, it's 'one of those spreads you do for wakes'. Anyway, I'd do:

Butties: Cheese (grated), ham (needn't be naice), egg and tinned salmon. Triangular and crustless. Half white, half brown for each variety.
Hedgehog: Cheese with pineapple, pickled onion, Mattessons sausage.
Vols: Mushroom and creamy chicken.
Drumsticks: Plain and spicy
Cocktail sausage rolls
Cocktail sausages
Mini Scotch eggs
Coleslaw and pot. salad
Quiche (Lorraine and C&O)
Crisps: Plain, C&O, S&V and a cheesy puff.
Twiglets and nuts