Ways to Plan the Perfect Dinner Party
Dinner parties are meant to be very enjoyable, but they may also be a source of stress and disappointment for the cook. The way to get round this is thru considered planning.
Obviously you will give careful thought to your visitors, their likes, dislikes and even any allergies they may have. But it’s’s equally as critical to consider your own wishes what you like to cook and what you are good at.
It’s better by a long way to make dishes you are familiar with than to try something new because you hope to impress. The key’s to make everything look straightforward, and the way to do that’s to use differentiations on recipes you already know backwards.
On the other hand, if that means no improvement on spaghetti Bolognaise, another approach might be called for and a little more planning might be needed. Select your recipes with care.
Decide very early on how many courses you intend to serve. It is in no fashion critical to serve three courses plus cheese just because that tends to be normal. But if you do decide to follow that convention there are just a few things it might be helpful to consider.
Avoid, for example, using 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 powerful flavour like chili to over one dish.
Plan, also, how you intend to cope with both preparing and serving the food. If your menu means that you are going to 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 humanly possible can be prepared in advance. A simple way to do that’s to serve just one hot dish, perhaps the main course, one course at a comfortable temperature and one right from the fridge. The cheese can take care of itself.
speaking of which, here is something you might like to think about. In Australia and the United Kingdom, cheese is served at the end of the meal. In France it is served before the dessert. I recommend the second course.
the reason behind that’s because it puts the timing forcefully in your hands as to when the meal is over and it’s time for the guests to return home.
Let them linger over the cheese till you are ready to bring the evening to a close. Then serve the dessert with only 1 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 a couple of dishes away as if to make room for more. With a little bit of practice you will become very adroit at this and the table will clear as if by wizardry.
Once the pudding is finished, select your time to offer coffee and a final nightcap of port or brandy, if that is what you would usually do. Most guests will understand that the coffee signifies 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 may potentially admire you for it and adopt the same system themselves.
Above all, remember that everything you serve has turned out just as it was supposed to. Never come up with excuses or say sorry 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/
Filed Under: Articles by Others
