A good dinner party is mostly finished before the doorbell rings. Here is a timeline to work from, whether you are cooking for four or for twelve.
Two to three weeks before
Set the date and the guest list
- Pick the date and the time, and check them against your own calendar first.
- Count how many people your table seats comfortably. That number is the ceiling for the guest list.
- Invite your guests, and ask about dietary restrictions when you do. It is far easier to ask now than to find out at the table.
- Decide on the style of service: plated courses, family-style platters, or a buffet. It changes how much you cook and how many dishes you wash.
One to two weeks before
Plan the menu and the wine
- Choose the menu. Make one dish the ambitious one and keep the rest simple — ideally things you have cooked before.
- Check every course against your guests’ dietary restrictions. One dish everyone can eat is better than a separate plate for one person.
- Look back at what you served these guests last time, so nobody is given the same dinner twice.
- Choose the wine to suit the main course. Allow about half a bottle for each guest who drinks, and have something good on hand for those who don’t.
- Check the equipment: chairs, plates, glasses, serving dishes, and a pan big enough for the main course.
- Follow up with anyone who hasn’t replied.
The week of
Count, scale and shop
- Confirm the final number of guests.
- Scale each recipe to that number, so the quantities are right the first time.
- Write one shopping list for the whole meal, grouped by the aisles of your store.
- Buy the wine, the pantry items and anything else that keeps.
- Write a cooking schedule, working backwards from the time you want to sit down.
The day before
Do everything that can be done early
- Buy the fresh ingredients.
- Make whatever keeps: desserts, sauces, soups, dressings. Do the chopping you can.
- Set the table, and clear space in the refrigerator.
- Chill the white wine and the sparkling water.
- Choose the music.
The day of
Cook, then stop
- Follow the cooking schedule, and aim to be done with the last task an hour before guests arrive.
- Open the red wine.
- Empty the dishwasher and the trash, so the cleanup starts from clean.
- Leave yourself half an hour to get ready. Guests remember a relaxed host longer than a perfect sauce.
Afterwards
Write it down
- Record what you served and who came.
- Note which dishes were a hit, and which wine people enjoyed.
- Note what you would change next time.
This is the step most of us skip, and the one we wish we hadn’t the next time we invite the same friends.
Keep the whole checklist in one place
La Tavola began with exactly that problem: remembering what was served to which friends at the last dinner party. It is an app for iPhone and iPad that keeps your recipes, your guests and their dietary preferences, and every dinner party you have given — so when you plan the next one, you can see what each guest was served before.
Recipes scale to the number of guests who accept. One shopping list covers every ingredient for the evening. Wine pairing suggestions come from the menu you have planned, and the date goes on your calendar with reminders.
Free to download. More about La Tavola →