What are amuse bouche?

Amuse bouche is French expression that it literary means, entertainment for the mouth. In other words the entertainment for the senses with a small bite-sized appetizers.

Amuse bouche are tiny party foods that are meant to entertain the crowd before the main meal on a special occasion. Sometimes they call them Hors d’Oeuvres as well.

They have to be very tasty, eye-catching and super creative at the same time.

You should be able to hold the food bites with one hand, therefore they also call them finger food or munchies mostly in USA. In Italy they call them antipasto. In my opinion Italians are real masters regarding antipasto. I lived in Italy for short period of time and I was so surprised to find out that they even have special shops dedicated to all you might need in order to prepare tasty and creative antipasto.

One of my favorite childhood memories were my first experiences regarding food preparation together with my mum. We would always prepare delicious new New Year’s Eve appetizers for our friends and family. My mom always had a great inspiration and ideas for making amazing amuse bouche. I felt so proud back then because she was letting me help her prepare them. My favorite was the one with her home made biscuit as base cut in rounded shape, home made flavored mayonnaise, smoked salmon and a small touch of caviar on the top.

We were usually playing with fireworks in the garden first. Later on we continued with playing cards around the table, listening music, telling jokes, laugh and enjoy those little bites and drinks, before the main meal.

Even though one of my favorite childhood memories regarding the amuse bouche is connected to our New Year’s Eve gatherings, the truth is that my mom made them for many other occasions all year round. And I am proud to say that I also continued with this family tradition.

Sometimes we made them simple and quickly with supermarket salty biscuits for our movie nights. Sometimes we made them with toast or with small home made breads, cheese, different kinds of cold cuts, boiled eggs, vegetables, fruits, aromatic herbs or tiny pickles and olives.

The only thing you have to do in order to make great amuse bouche is to use what you have available at home and let your imagination and creativity fly.