If you want people to talk to each other, do not put a buffet in the room.

What a buffet actually does

It creates a queue, and a queue is a conversation ending. People join it, shuffle, load a plate too full, then look for somewhere to put a glass down. The mood you spent money building drains away over about twenty minutes.

What bowl food does instead

Front of house carry it through the room, one variety at a time. Guests take a bowl and a fork, eat it standing, hand it back. Nobody moves more than a step and nobody stops talking.

Three bowls a head replaces a light meal. Five replaces dinner.

It has to be proper food

Bowl food fails when it is canapés in a bigger container. Newmarket Musk sausages with creamy mash and red onion gravy is a plate of food. So is a luxury fisherman’s pie with smoked haddock, salmon, scallop and king prawns, or a Thai green curry with sticky rice.

The test is whether somebody would be happy to be given it sitting down. If not, it is a canapé.

The trick nobody mentions

Clearing. Bowl food fails when empties pile up on window sills and mantelpieces, and it fails within half an hour if the staffing is short.

Carrying and clearing continuously is the whole discipline, and it is why bowl food is a staffing decision as much as a menu one.

Where it works best

• Corporate receptions and networking, where seating the room kills the conversation you paid for
• Drinks parties at home
• Milestone birthdays, particularly a fortieth — sitting people down usually ends the party
• Late food at a wedding, where guests are already standing

See the bowl food menus, or more on corporate catering.