Short Review: Beautiful photographs and easy to follow instructions make this an excellent cookbook to add to your shelf.

This cookbook appealed to me because it seems to capitalize on the current charcuterie board craze. The cover is appealing, and the same bright, colorful food photos grace the inside of the book. It's structured in two parts - the first covers the logistics of building a spread, and the second gives recipes and ideas for different occasions and holidays.

A spread is defined in the book as "a series of platters, boards, and servingware that are grouped together by a common theme to create an abundant display of food."

Part 1: Building a Spread
Section 1: The Spread - I love the 'Five Qs to Start' that help you decide on what direction to go with your spread. I also love the timeline, complete with checklist, for preparing your spread. Great for organization and planning! Also includes a table for portioning, a table of cheese knives, a glass guide (what shape to use for what), illustrations of different cheese cuts (the illustrations are cute!), illustrated examples of how to style meat (!!!), vegetable cuts, an illustrated garnish table, and a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' flow chart for deciding on what to include in your spread! This interactive format is typical of the entire book. It almost feels like a workbook, which is great for party planning.
Section 2: The Basic
Section 3: Adding the Wow Factor
Section 4: Anatomy of a Spread

Part 2: Recipes, Boards, & Tables
Section 1: Keeping it Casual
Section 2: Interactive Spreads
Section 3: Holiday Showstoppers

My favorite themes/recipes are the Birthday Breakfast Nacho Buffet and the School's Out Summer Limeade Party.

There are more tables, illustrations, and checklists than I can list. This is a great book that covers all the details that you'd need to prepare a fun and impressive spread. I can see this enjoyed by a beginner cook who wants to be able to create elegant spreads without lots of advanced cooking, while I can also see it benefitting a more experienced entertainer in need of new ideas and detailed organization plans. It would look beautiful on your bookshelf or as a coffee table book.

First of a kind for me on how to set a table and the foods for a festive spread. I’ve heard of pickety bits platter but this book goes all out.

What did I like? I can’t imagine that there isn’t something here for everyone! Platters are a fun way to celebrate and this book gives you a spread for every reason! Five stars.... gorgeous book!

Would I recommend or buy? I’d buy...it’s a gorgeous book with a ton of recipes for everyone. Like I said I can’t imagine the wide variety of people who could love this book due to recipes or entertaining. Five stars!

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review!

Tables & Spreads made me want to throw a beautiful, elaborate dinner party immediately.

The first half of the book serves as a dictionary of sorts for everything you need to know about how to put together a table spread or edible spread. I found parts of it fairly intuitive, but the author articulates this at the beginning, suggesting readers jump around in part one as they see fit.

Part two of the book is an assortment of hosting themes with the recipes and styling notes needed to execute said theme. The accompanying photographs were beautiful and helpful. I’m especially excited to try the Christmas Morning Dutch Baby Party recipes (though I don't intend to wait until Christmas morning)

I think this book would make a lovely housewarming gift, especially if paired with a cheeseboard or set of wine glasses.

Thank you NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the ARC.

We all know table spreads are the up and coming party trend. Fantastic book loaded with beautiful pictures, appetizing recipes and the perfect tips!! Cannot wait to get a hard copy of this book. The new must have!

If you ever hold dinner parties or even just gatherings that involve food, this book is such a great resource. There are so many helpful diagrams and illustrations as well as gorgeous photos that will inspire you to make the perfect table or spread. Shelly is clearly an expert in this realm and it's so obvious from all of her extensive tips and details. She goes through EVERYTHING. If you're looking for a book on this topic, go for this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for this ARC in exchange for my opinion.

This is an excellent guide on how to make delicious recipes and style them. The book is divided into two parts. Part one covers how to build a spread and is further broken down into four sections including The Spread, The Basics, Adding the Wow Factor, and the Anatomy of a Spread.

In these sections the reader will learn the basics of building a Spread such as portioning a Spread; the essentials for your table spread ( serving dishes, shape, size; utensils: cheese knives, ladle, serving spoons, and so on). There are also tips for styling food including balancing flavors and textures🍱.

Another chapter is dedicated to cheese 🧀 and cheese cuts; meat, vegetables; fresh & dried fruits, and so on as well as how to store them.

Another chapter presents color themes and tips on choosing the right color for your table. It includes a color chart. This chapter also includes a range of choices for tablecloths, flowers, and candles 🕯 🌺

The fourth section covers the anatomy of a Spread as well as types of Spreads such as Abundance Spread, Family Style, Drink Station, and so on.

Part two covers Recipes, Boards & Tables; and themes and consists of three sections. This includes how to keep a Casual Spread, Interactive Spreads, and Holiday Showstoppers. They are twenty-one board themes with over sixty recipes in this section. Each theme includes stylings notes, recipes, flavor combination ideas, and a drink pairing suggestion.

Drinks include Quick Harissa Bloody Mary Mix, Smoky Carrot Bloody Mary Mix 🍸 🍹 ( Interactive Spreads) and Classic Dry Martini 🍸, Cranberry-Orange Syrup ( Holiday Showstoppers)

Casual Spreads includes The Standard (Spicy Cantaloupe Jam; Pickles Zucchini Ribbon; Herby Brown Sugar Nuts
The Lunch Spread: Roasted Leek, Apple & Blue Cheese Farro Salad; Cacio e Pepe 7-Minute Eggs
Interactive Spreads: Savory Focaccia Party and Ladies' Night Lettuce Wraps; Falafel Mezze Spread.

The last section covers Holiday Showstoppers such as Birthday Breakfast Nacho Buffet (Sour Cream & Chive Scrambled Eggs; Loaded Guacamole; Poblano & Pepita Verse Sauce.

There are also meat🥩 pairing suggestions throughout the book suggested by the author’s partner.

The book is accompanied by mouthwatering photos and easy-to-follow instructions on how to create your delicious Spreads. Highly recommend.

Thank you to Shelly Westerhausen Worcel and Wyatt Worcel; NetGalley, and Chronicle Books for the ARC of this book.

This book contains everything one would need to know to put together a killer get together which, after a year of pandemic-related quarantine, is something we can all look forward to. The information is clear, well put together, well illustrated, and informative. The recipes are healthy but delicious. The planning checklists and ideas make all of this accessible. All in all, a truly solid book of its kind.

This book was fab if your wanting help and guidance on making your table spread look every bit as appetising as they make it

Loved this book, it has some nice and helpful information for every occasion, Which knife to use, which flowers to use, different kinds of cheese and whatnot. It's a full package of the table spread. Also there were a lot of recipes that make the book even more interesting.

The photos in this cookbook are beautiful. I like how it's broken down into parts and goes into how much time you'll need for prepping. I also like that there are check list-type things in here like the Five Qs. I really enjoyed the fact that there is a portion page because you don't want too much of some things and not enough of others. I am SO THANKFUL there's a page with illustrations of different cheese knives. I learned all about different cheese knives today and I had never known there were so many different ones!

This literally has everything in it to plan your next spread. I really want a copy of this!

Must have for anyone planning any kind of get together or just wants to make Tuesday a special occasion! Lots of different ideas and recipes. And the pictures are gorgeous! My favorite part is the authors give you a formula on how to make the perfect board. This would make a wonderful gift as well.

4.5 stars

What a feast for the eyes!

This book is deliciously good. Easy to understand and fun to read. I love the illustrations that make for no-guesswork recipe reading. I love the creativity of the ideas. I love that you can be a beginner or an advanced table spread maker and still find plenty to absorb.

This would make such a beautiful gift.

Very aesthetically pleasing. Great ideas for dinner parties! I would consider gifting this to a friend.

With its beautiful photos of spreads and tablescapes and delectable recipes it makes me long for a time when we could all easily gather together. Although most of the ideas could be adapted to use in a fun way to do something different with your family or housemates to give a night a special feeling.

It is both a how to with helpful tips and food porn.

Wow.. what an indepth look into the Art of Spreads. You will have so much know-how by the end of the book that you will be drawing out ideas for it. Details on many things - cheese knifes, cheese cuts, meat cuts, styling, cracker types, candles, table cloth, color wheel, music, drink pairing. With so muhc thought put into it, you and your guests will enjoy the party even more.

An awesome book to help take some of the stress out of planning out a table spread for gatherings. I found this book really interesting, made me consider things that I'd never thought of, like actually setting out the appropriate amount of items based off of how many people and how many they would (or should) typically eat. When we host parties, we just put out platters wherever they fit and have at it. But there's an interesting rhyme and reason and I'm looking forward to trying it. This book had some great information and had some awesome pictures to go along with everything. I wish my palate was more than just chips and dip because some of the recipes looked and sounded delicious! I think this book would make a great book to have on hand for planning gatherings!

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy.

A beautiful book. The pictures pull you in and make you want to try out all the recipes. Definitely makes me think I could up my charcuterie board game.

Such a great book for any hostess! Filled with great ideas on beautiful spreads to offer your guests or even for a nice night in with your family! My family personally loves snacks & charcuterie so this was perfect for us!

It is a fabulous, fun, beautiful book!!! Tables & Spreads is the complete perfect, guide for those who love to have gatherings at home. It is full of practical advises about how to built your spreads, the wow factor, delicious recipes and more to help you welcome your family and friends into a cozy, delicious table..

This book explores big questions like these, explaining the breakthroughs and discoveries that have shaped our modern-day understanding of medicine and helped us protect and promote our health. Written in plain English, The Medicine Book cuts through the jargon and is packed with pithy explanations of the most important milestones in medical history, with step-by-step diagrams and witty illustrations that untangle knotty concepts.