Keep the numbers small
Four to six people, including you, is the right size for a first attempt. Everyone fits at one table and a single recipe feeds them. When you invite people, ask in the same message whether anyone has allergies or does not eat something. Learning that a guest is vegetarian when the roast comes out is a problem with no good solution.
Design a menu that holds
The best main course for a dinner party is one that improves or at least survives while it waits: a braise, a roast, a baked pasta, a big pot of curry or chili. Avoid anything that must be cooked to order at the last second, such as individual steaks or a risotto that needs twenty minutes of stirring. Add one side that can be made ahead and served warm or at room temperature, a salad you dress at the table, and bread. Buy the dessert, or serve good ice cream. Put out olives, nuts and a piece of cheese, so that a main course running thirty minutes late troubles nobody.
Work backward from the hour
- Shop two days ahead and check that you own enough plates, glasses, forks and chairs.
- Make the dessert, the salad dressing and anything else that keeps on the day before, and chill the drinks.
- Write down the serving time on the day and count backward to find when each dish has to start.
- Set the table, run and empty the dishwasher, and take out the trash before anyone arrives.
- Stop cooking twenty minutes before the invitation time, and change your shirt.
Invite people for seven and plan to sit down around a quarter to eight.
Drinks and quantities
Plan on about half a bottle of wine per drinking guest, and have one more bottle than you think you need. Offer something without alcohol that is more interesting than tap water, such as sparkling water with citrus. For food, five to six ounces of cooked meat or fish per person is plenty beside two sides.
During the evening
When a guest offers to help, hand over a real job, such as opening wine or slicing bread. Do not apologize for the food, since nobody else noticed the flaw. Perishable dishes should go into the refrigerator within two hours of leaving the oven. Let the dirty dishes wait until the last guest has gone.
Tip Cook the entire menu once for yourself a week or two ahead and time it. You will learn exactly where the bottleneck is while nobody is watching.
