Thermal Hot/Cold Serving Trays

http://www.surlatable.com/product/id/12 ... erralID=NA

Anybody have any experience with these? Are they worth the money? I was planning on making Sarah Bernhardts and truffles for an event in September until I realized that the venue is not air conditioned. I'd rather find something to cool my treats down rather than redo my entire menu. I thought these might be the answer until I saw this report, stating that the temperature rose from 44* to 62* in only 1 hour!
Any help would be appreciated...thanks

Hi,

I have an old fashioned tray: there is a reservoir for filling with hot or chilled water. I use it for serving vegetables like asparagus, which stay hot as the moment they left the stove.

If your food leaves the trays as fast as I suspect, you may be spending extra money you could put elsewhere.

You can also set up some ice and leave the cold food trays on there. Or pick up at a resale shop those electric sidetable warming pads that keep food warm. They look like a formica cutting board wired with heat to keep food warm. I just don't know what they are called.

Will your warm food taste ok if warmish to room temperature? If yes, then concentrate on keep the cold stuff cold.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,
Will your warm food taste ok if warmish to room temperature? If yes, then concentrate on keep the cold stuff cold.

Most of it, yes. I based the menu on the fact that no open flame is allowed. The only thing I worry about is the smoked salmon canapes with cream cheese, but since this is a savory item, I'm sure those will go first before the desserts. We're also having bleu cheese devilled eggs, but if history is our guide, those will be gone faster than they can put out the trays.

The lone review on Amazon (from 2006) gives it a single star and says it warms for minutes rather than hours and it doesn't chill well either.

Frontgate has chilled serving pieces that look more substantial (thicker walls) but may not be any more effective.

http://www.frontgate.com/jump.jsp?itemT ... tText=null

Pie Lady-

"We're also having bleu cheese devilled eggs"

That sounds interesting! Could we have your recipe or ideas about how to put these together?

Thanks,

Mike

I have a Kitchen Selectives Warming Tray similar to this, which we bought at Target a few years ago. The nice thing is that you can remove the individual serving trays and use the base as a warming tray similar to the way some BBQ places in Texas use a tray to keep their BBQ sauce warm.

MikeLM wrote:Pie Lady-

"We're also having bleu cheese devilled eggs"

That sounds interesting! Could we have your recipe or ideas about how to put these together?

Thanks,

Mike

No idea! We called Rent-a-Chef at 847-676-2433, contact Jeanmarie Reid.

I have no experience, but IMO those trays look like a giant waste of money. If you're really concerned, put your food on metal trays, and nest the metal trays over icepacks (you can skirt the icepacks with some pretty cloth so it doesn't look weird.) Be careful of condensation, though. An easier fix might be to have small trays filled frequently from a well-chilled cooler.

Do you have electricity? You could probably rent an electric chafing dish or two.