Canapès are the toast of snacks

Matt Damon is a man whose appetites are not easily satisfied. Before the launch party for one of his movies in Britain recently, he was holed up at 57 Jermyn Street making his way through 12 platters of canapès. Each platter - which is intended for two people - costs £16.50. "I had to help cook them," says a former member of the staff. "It was awe-inspiring. We couldn't put the chicken on sticks fast enough."

Canapè Binge Syndrome is a recent phenomenon. A few years ago, the average party guest wouldn't have trodden on one with her Manolo, let alone put one in her mouth - they were what Joan Collins's son Sacha Newley called "dead bits on toast". Now, according to The Savoy's Anton Edelman (author of Canapès and Frivolities), "People eat so many canapès, they don't bother with dinner."

"In the last five years, what we've done is made big dishes small," explains Edelman. "We now put more raw fish, raw meat, vegetarian ingredients, and also a lot of lighter things into canapès. And then we serve them on something special - the glass of an Old Master, a mirror or a simple black slate tile. Take steak and chips - we take a centimetre of fillet, a quail's egg and a matchstick chip. I loved the miniature kedgeree with curry dip I had the other day."

At Buckingham Palace, the catering company Rhubarb took the trend to extremes when they cooked up tiny baby potatoes stuffed with a complete roast-chicken dinner (including bread sauce, gravy and sage'n'onion stuffing). Meanwhile, Mustard, the company that catered for what has been labelled Britain's most expensive wedding, for the coathanger tycoon Peter Shalson, says the trend is for patriotic British fare like tiny steak and kidney or cottage pies. At a recent party at the V&A, the Prince of Wales was among the guests who munched on miniature Eggs Florentine, smoked Scottish salmon on rye bread, and filet of steak with Bèarnaise sauce.

Jonathan Rutherfurd Best of Urban Productions, whose clients this Christmas include MTV and Moschino, serves things like individual naan with monkfish Kerala curry and dill raita. Unlike the others, he claims that canapès are getting bigger, often served in a bowl with a small fork or in a noodle box with chopsticks. His most opulent request recently was for a £35-a-head global dègustation menu where each delicacy - New Zealand mussels, Hawaiian abalone, caviar and truffles - was served with a thimble of matching wine (the Chateau d'Yquem and foie gras was understandably the most popular).

Rutherfurd Best says he has been witness to various Canapè Binge Syndrome incidents. "At a film launch, Ursula Andress dropped one of our mini-Caesar salads down her cleavage. She asked one of the waiters to eat it. We often style our trays with small fish tanks, with fish swimming inside. We were very distressed when a guest actually fished one out with chopsticks and ate it," he adds.

Some caterers now even serve full three-course canapè dinners. Andrew Turner, of Restaurant 1837 at Brown's Hotel, serves a starter of caviar cheesecake, a main course of tempura of lobster canapè and then a mini Christmas pudding ice-cream. But it is Michelin-starred chef

Richard Neat who has brought the vogue for canapès full circle. At his launch party for Neat Restaurant and Brasserie on the second floor of the Oxo Tower, he served vol-au-vents - which everyone thinks retired to Monaco in the 1980s. They may have been witty and "renaissance", but a number of foodies thought that Eighties Monaco is where they should remain.