Hosting a dinner party is an exciting but incredibly stress-inducing experience. Every decision you have to make can be a source of anxiety, from the background music you play to the drinks you serve. As the host, you must approach this task prepared and with a clear sense of determination. A successful dinner party is an achievement all home chefs want to claim, but doing so won’t be easy. However, that doesn’t mean you should allow yourself to become overwhelmed. With these seven super tips, you can host the perfect dinner party and have fun.
1. Invite A Select Group
For your very first dinner party, you should avoid inviting everyone you know. The event may not be the Met Gala, but you must still have an exclusive guest list. If you invite too many people, you may struggle to feed them all, as you aren’t used to cooking for a large crowd. When picking your guests, it makes sense to choose people that have similar personalities and interests. This will give everyone something to talk about and limits the risk of your guests not getting along. As you become more familiar with hosting, you can begin to increase the size of your dinner parties.
2. Check Guests’ Dietary Requirements
When planning your menu, it’s crucial that you take guests’ dietary requirements into consideration. Although you may know of your guests’ restrictions and allergies, it’s important that you double-check with each of them. You don’t want to poison one of your close friends, after all. Just remember that you don’t have to prepare special meals for each guest. As long as there are different options on the table, your guests will be able to choose their own food.
3. Cook What You Know
Most hosts want to pull out all the stops with their first dinner party. However, you should avoid doing so with the food. As tempting as it may be, you shouldn’t cook a new meal for your event, no matter how exciting it is. Instead, pick dishes that you’ve tried before and are confident in preparing, like a simple chicken curry or an easy lemon meringue pie. These dishes can look fancy, but take little effort, which means you won’t have any surprises to contend with on the day and your guests will still be impressed.
4. Get An Early Start
Cooking a meal for a group of people is no small task. Because of this, it makes sense to get an early start and prepare everything you can before the guests arrive. Make sure that you purchase all of the ingredients a few days prior to your party so that you have enough time to make another trip if you need to. You should also prepare for the dishes in any way you can, such as peeling the vegetables the day before. Don’t forget the time it will also take to tidy up the house.
5. Set The Right Ambiance
When it comes to the ambiance of your home, a few simple spruces can make all the difference. Candles and string fairy lights allow you to dim the lamps, which will help your guests to relax. You can also decorate the table with flowers and ditch your paper napkins for fabric ones. No one wants awkward silence at a dinner party, so make sure you have music playing in the background. Rather than worry about being a DJ, you should pick a dinner party playlist.
6. Always Wear An Apron
Cooking food can be a messy business, which is why you should wear an apron when in the kitchen. You don’t want to risk ruining your party outfit, after all. Since everyone else will be dressed up, it makes sense to do the same, but you don’t want to have to get changed midway through the evening. You can always take your apron off when you sit down to eat, but make sure you keep it close by, so you don’t forget to put it back on when you need to.
7. Tidy Up Before Bed
The mess in the kitchen will look much worse in the light of day. For this reason, make sure that you clean up the house before you go to bed. Cleaning up as you go will make this less of a chore, so remember to wipe down countertops and place the pots in the dishwasher as you finish using them. If a guest offers to help you, then find something simple for them to do. As a guest, you won’t want them doing too much, but there’s no reason why they can’t lend a hand, if they offer.
Hosting a dinner party is definitely hard work, but with the advice above, you’ll find the experience more enjoyable and rewarding.
This is a contributor post, which has been reviewed and edited personally by me before being published. Links to external reviews are meant to provide additional ideas to readers and do not reflect my personal opinion or review of products.
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