Alfresco picnic season is almost upon us and with the King's Coronation, multiple bank holiday weekends and outdoor sporting events fixtures hotting up, such as Royal Ascot and Cartier Queen’s Cup Polo, a perfectly curated picnic is a great way to entertain your friends and show off your creativity. It can also be a more intimate and inexpensive way to delight your guests. Why queue up for a £20 burger when you can nip back to the car and unwrap a delightful array of delicious homemade dishes and relax away from the throngs? BYO chilled wine included!
How to prepare the perfect picnic?
Preparation is key for timings for your picnic. No matter if you are at the Ascot races or a polo event, our number one tip would be to plan your day! Soggy sandwiches, sweaty cheese or boiled fruit are not the nicest. So, either pack your picnic with ice packs, or choose items that can resist the heat. The later in the day you plan to eat, the more important this becomes. Here are our top tips for your Sunday polo picnic:
Top Tips:
- Use frozen bread to make your sandwiches so that they cool over the day and are fresh as a daisy by lunch time.
- Add salad dressings at the end to keep it crispy.
- Freeze butter in individual pats the night before for your guests.
- For a simple yet effective dish – prep and refrigerate cold pasta salads the night before with raw veg to soften overnight for lunch time perfection.
- Keep soft and hard items separate so they don’t squash.
- Let bread and similar items breathe
- Think tapas. Lots of little dishes will appeal to everyone and when displayed, the variety looks super appetising instead of sticking to one or two main dishes.
- Ask everyone to bring a bottle of something to drink and keep a chilled basket packed with ice purely for the tipples.
- If there are more than 4 of you, ask everyone to bring a dish either savory or sweet and their favourite tipple.
How To Set Up The Perfect Picnic?
Lay out your picnic and design your spread! If you don’t have to have matching plates or cutlery, you can make a theme from it being mismatched! Ask everyone to bring either cutlery, glasses or plates. You could also jush up your display by bringing flowers from your garden or trinkets to create interesting table pieces.
Being comfortable is key! Our Safari Lounge Chairs are part chair, part lounger. Perfect for relaxing in the sunshine and the ideal size to fit into even the smallest car boot! Our Safari Folding Roll-top Tables come in either 90 cm long or 120 cm and are a perfect centrepiece for your outdoor picnic. Not to mention, our furniture is half the weight of leading camping chair styles so even after the picnic, you can carry it to sit and watch the remainder of the outdoor sporting event in style!
The Perfect End To A Perfect Day
A home-made prepared picnic is lovely - until it has been eaten and you are left with the dirty plates and left over food! Make sure you bring a few bin bags with you. Place all the dirty items in the bag, the leftovers in a container and place them in the bag. Voila. Your basket is kept clean and you can just transfer everything to the dishwasher when you get home.