I love canapés. If I had to cook for my life, I would create a fantastic canapé menu. They are so versatile, and you can be far braver as a chef. If you are producing nine canapes, it doesn’t matter if a guest does not like one or two. It matters that they love seven or eight. Here, I’ll share with you canapé ideas for weddings, including recipes for some of the best I’ve created over the years that can be simplified for at-home gatherings. But first, some dos and don’ts.

Wedding Canapés Should Complement the Menu

Canapés need to complement everything else. When I am discussing a menu with a client (I wanted to say bride/hostess, but in this day and age you need to be careful, except that the sooner grooms learn their opinion is surplus to requirement the sooner they can settle into blissful married life), I never discuss canapés till the first course and the main course have been decided upon. I never believe in having rosemary skewers with a seared fillet of beef with truffle mayo if you serve beef as a main course.

Once the first course and main course have been decided, it is a great chance to liven up the flavours and textures. A menu needs to read a bit like a book. You want to know if you’re reading a romance, thriller, etc. The same with a menu. I am not keen on a menu that jumps around too much. To give a music analogy, a menu should not be “Now What I called Music 2” (yes, I bought it) but rather “Queen’s Greatest Hits” (still the best all-time album).

That isn’t to say that if the first course and main course are, say, a traditional fish starter followed by a traditional beef or lamb dish, the Canapés shouldn’t have an oriental feel to them. I feel they work very well, but then the canapés, I believe, should all be Asian-influenced, light, and full of flavour. What better to precede Beetroot cured gravlax with a sweet dill sauce and herb salad, followed by slow-cooked lamb’s neck fillet with mashed potato and carnalized carrots, than queen scallop tempura with wasabi mayo or seabass ceviche with soy, lime, ginger, and chili?

Tailoring Canapés to Match the Occasion and Menu

Depending on the menu and how filling it is, depends on which canapes I usually put forward. A lot of brides opt for 5 canapés before the wedding breakfast of 7 canapes and skip the starter. There are, of course, usually two to three hours to fill between the end of the service and the start of the wedding breakfast. Stomachs need lining as Champagne needs drinking; the bride’s mother doing cartwheels is never a good look!

The tone of the event also needs setting, and canapés help to achieve this. The canapes need to look pretty. The two jobs can easily be done by serving a couple of smaller prettier canapes to start with. I like to start with Parmesan baskets with goat’s cheese mousse, confit cherry vine tomato and basil cress or Crab Aranchini with crab and cognac bisque. I can then bring out the ever-popular spinach and ricotta tortellini with sage foam and the Crispy slow-cooked pork belly with lemon zest and panko bread crumbs with homemade applesauce.

Keeping Canapés Simple

I have been lucky enough to cook all around the world for every budget imaginable. However large the house and however lavish the budget, I have learnt one thing: King Prawn Tempura with siracha mayo or homemade Langoustine Spring Rolls with wasabi mayo will always be extremely popular. If I could ever create a canapé that was more popular than my butchers’ Cumberland cocktail sausages with honey and mustard with a touch of homemade ketchup, I would retire knowing my work on this earth is done!

A few years ago, I created a Canapé called smoking salmon (pictured in the featured image). I cured the salmon, and we invested in small kilner jars. I filled the jars with crème fraiche, caviar, and a small amount of salad. The salmon was sliced and put on a skewer that also went in the jar. Just before serving, I would fill the Kilner jar with smoke and quickly shut. We would then serve the jars to guests, and as they opened the jars, the smoke would escape, and they would be left with beautiful salmon skewers. There would always be lots of comments of “have you seen this!” However, for a party of 100, only 70 would be eaten. The king’s prawns, spring rolls, and sausages – well,l I always made sure to bring far more than were ordered!

Striking the Perfect Balance Between Seasonal and Themed Canapés

Over the years we have catered for many events and weddings, where the time of year or a theme have been central to the creation of the menu. Christmas is the obvious one and, in a way, the easiest one. We have created menus based on a Canadian theme to a Jamaican theme. A lot of our weddings are in the summer, and it is the perfect time to incorporate seasonal vegetables into the menu.

There is a lovely six weeks when you can offer beautiful English asparagus which we get from our local organic grower. Tempura of asparagus with Hollandaise sauce is simple and, to my mind, perfect. At Christmas time, I always offer deep-fried camembert with homemade cranberry sauce. Maybe not the most sophisticated canapé but a very popular one.

When innovating canapé ideas for a wedding or party, it is sometimes hard to create all nine canapés within the strict parameters of the theme. From experience, it is best to come up with for or five really good ones, adapt a couple of canapes, and then throw in one or two from the menu. A good canape off-theme is better than a bad one on-theme! A good example was for the Jamaican-themed party we adapted the King Prawn tempura to be King prawn and cayenne pepper tempura with jerk sauce mayo. It was as popular as ever while giving a creative solution to a pre-agreed theme.

Vegan & Vegetarian Canapé Ideas for Weddings

When catering for weddings or a party, however large or small, there will always be a percentage of guests that will have dietary requirements. Both Henry and I have been lucky enough to work for Rolex over many years both here and in America. One thing we have really learned from catering corporate events is that everyone attending needs to feel like they are the most important person there. When it comes to creating a tailored canapé menu, we need to consider every guest’s needs.

I am not a vegan, vegetarian, or gluten-free specific chef. I have been lucky enough to work with chefs who are passionate about vegan, vegetarian, or gluten-free cooking. They live and breathe it. While that is not me, I desperately care that my vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free dishes are fantastic examples. My repertoire may be smaller but I have some great dishes up my sleeve. I will always create, say, vegan canapés that are vegan by default rather than by omission. Cauliflower tempura with Korean barbecue sauce is as popular with vegans as it is with omnivores. The same can be said about spinach and ricotta tortellini with sage foam for vegetarians, as can cold smoked duck breast skewers with fig, parmesan, rocket, and extra virgin olive oil be said for those requiring a gluten-free canapé.