Dinner parties are designed to be very enjoyable, but they may also be a source of stress and dissatisfaction for the cook. The way to avoid this is through careful planning.
glaringly you may give extensive consideration to your guests, their likes, dislikes and even any allergies they may have. But it’s’s equally as critical to think about your own wants what you like to cook and what you are good at.
It’s better by a long way to create dishes you are acquainted with than to attempt something new because you hope to impress. The trick is to make everything look straightforward, and the way to do that’s to use variations on recipes you already know backwards.
On the other hand, if that suggests no improvement on spaghetti Bolognaise, another approach might be called for and a bit more planning may be required. Select your recipes with care.
Decide terribly early on how many courses you propose to serve. It is in no way critical to serve three courses plus cheese just because that tends to be the norm. But if you do make a decision to follow that convention there are just a few things it’d be useful to consider.
Avoid, for instance, employing the same most important ingredient in more than one dish. I.e. Don’t serve a quiche followed by something else in pastry, or add a strong flavor like chili to over one dish.
Plan, also, how you intend to deal with both preparing and serving the food. If your menu means that you will need to spend more time in the kitchen than you do with your guests, you want to re-think
Design your courses so that as much as is possible can be prepared in advance. A simple way to do that is to serve just one hot dish, perhaps the main course, one course at 70 degrees and one straight from the fridge. The cheese can take care of itself.
speaking of which, here is something you might like to consider. In Australia and the UK, cheese is served at the end of the meal. In France it is served before the pudding. I suggest the second course.
The reason for that’s because it puts the timing strongly in your hands as to when the meal is over and it’s time for the guests to go back home.
Let them linger over the cheese until you are prepared to bring the evening to a close. Then serve the dessert with only one bottle of good pudding wine, having cleared all the other dishes, including the cheese board.
You do this by bringing two dishes to the table, and taking one or two dishes away as if to create space for more. With a little practice you will become very adroit at this and the table will clear as if by sorcery.
Once the dessert is finished, select your time to supply coffee and a last nightcap of port or brandy, if that is what you would usually do. Most guests will understand that the coffee indicates the end of the evening and won’t even remember that you have manipulated the timing in this way. And even if they are , they’ll doubtless admire you for it and adopt the same system themselves.
Above all, remember that everything you serve has turned out just as it was meant to. Never come up with excuses or apologize for your food.
Create it with conviction, serve it with panache.You can read more about dinner party planning here: http://www.partyplanninghelp-mark.com/dinner-party-planning/
