Serving food on shareable boards is one of the greatest ideas in the history of eating, says Maegan Brown and I couldn’t agree more! Boards connect people through sharing food together in a way that surpasses a traditional plated meal. With a variety of foods, there’s something for everyone and it doesn’t require much effort at all.
In Beautiful Boards, Maegan shares her snack board mindset, explaining how any meal can be boarded. Boards are also a great way to use up leftovers, cater for diverse appetites and feed people without cooking. Maegan advises on ingredient selection and how to assemble a board for maximum impact. The goal is to prepare the board in advance so that you can also enjoy the experience of sharing a meal.
Meagan creatively presents 50 snack boards with layered flavours and textures. She includes step-by-step instructions for a range of boards. Anytime boards include an after school board, gluten free, vegan boards, plus fruit and dip boards. Entertaining and special occasion boards include charcuterie, cheese, birthday dessert, movie night, plus rainbow, unicorn, princess and sports themed boards. Seasonal and holiday boards include spring, summer, autumn (fall), winter, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and more. The meal boards are mouth-watering and include pizza lovers, build-your-own sandwich, build-your-own salad, build-your-own taco and a Mediterranean mezze board.
What I enjoyed most about Maegan’s book is she goes beyond the classic cheese and charcuterie board with artful boards for holidays and special occasions. Even though Maegan is based stateside, she includes metric conversions in her recipes.
Although I am already a fan of grazing boards, after previewing Maegan’s book, the very next day (my husband’s birthday), I was inspired to curate a birthday breakfast board! I filled every space of my largest circular board with breakfast treats - croissants, waffles, pain au chocolat, rock melon, grapes, pomegranate, passionfruit, pear, apple, orange and even a mini chocolate cake!
Maegan Brown started her food blog The BakerMama seven years ago to share her favourite family friendly recipes. She is mum to four children and lives in Dallas, Texas. Read more here about how Maegan created Beautiful Boards, including 21 hour days photographing food and how she decided which recipes to include.
Reviewer: Andrea Molloy
Quarto, RRP $27.99