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Cold Meats for Buffet Presentation
Appears in
By Jaclyn Pestka, Wayne Gisslen and Lou Sackett
Published 2010
Some of the most complex and painstaking work done by a garde manger chef involves preparing large roasts of meat or poultry for a cold buffet. While cooked in the same manner as carving station meats, they are presented in a more elaborate manner. They are included not only as food items but also as decorative centerpieces for the buffet display.
To function as a décor item, a roast must remain largely intact and attractive throughout the service. Thus, you should plan ahead to have enough meat both for service and for display. If the buffet is for a smaller number of guests, the chef prepares a large roast and slices one-half to two-thirds of it for service. The remaining section is placed on the platter as the focal point of the presentation. This large, intact section is referred to as the grosse pièce [gross pee-YEHSS], literally “large piece.” For a greater number of guests, an entire small roast might be used as the grosse pièce, and slices from a separate, larger, roast are arranged around it.