28 Feb Our Dinner Party Top Tips
With over 12 years’ experience in the business we’re quite confident to say that we can offer some sound advice when it comes to planning a dinner party. We’ve hosted over 1,000 dinner parties and it’s safe to say we have learnt a lot on the way so this week we’d like to share with you our top tips for preparing for a dinner party!
Plan, plan, plan. It’s so important to plan your party, this seems obvious but we are going to highlight some factors that are essential to consider. How many guests will there be? This seems like a simple question but you can easily slip up if you’ve found a recipe to prepare on the internet for your dinner party for 10 and you only realise moments before your guests arrive that the recipe is only for 6! So it’s essential if you’re following recipes to tailor them to your group number.
It’s also a good idea to consult your guests before you finalise your menu, does anyone have any allergies or dietary requirements. If you’re planning on doing a meat course and find out two of your diners are veggie you can plan to do a separate dish for them or if someone has a gluten intolerance you can look at amending their dish for them.
Once you have your numbers and dietary requirements down you can now get to the fun bit, deciding on the menu. How many courses will you do? Do you want to match your dishes with wine? These are some things to consider. It’s worth thinking about what will go well together, for example having a pastry starter and main may be a bit too filling!
Next you want to be thinking about time. How long is it until the party? When will you do your shopping? What time will the guests arrive? What time will they eat? How long will each dish take to prepare and then cook? It can be a bit overwhelming! But don’t worry, as long as you plan your time in advance your dinner party should be a breeze.
You want to look at the ingredients for your dishes, is there anything that will be difficult to source or that you will need to buy fresh on the day? Look over the recipes, in the preparation for each dish what can be done either the day before or earlier on the day of the party? How long will each dish take in the oven and do they require different temperatures? It is worth writing out a time plan for the prep beforehand and then for the cooking of each dish to make sure that your guests won’t be waiting for their supper when it comes to the big day!
If you follow these tips you’re sure to have a stress free dinner party!
Alternatively you could have a truly stress free dinner party by getting one of our chefs to do all the hard work! To organise your dinner party with Chef’s Compliments contact us today, you can call 0208 226 37 59 or email info@chefscompliments.co.uk or simply click the contact us link above!
