Haute cuisine is a minimum of 7 courses (dessert is one of the 7) but Escoffier, who invented haute cuisine, defined it as 17 courses. Making your guests wait through 7 -17 courses is almost as bad as not feeding them enough.

Have the haute cuisine in a buffet where servers dish up the correct servings. Putting 16 small servings is going to fill a plate quite full. 17th is wedding cake or cupcake.