Plan the Perfect Dinner Party With Military Precision

There are two things for a perfect dinner party: great guests and excellent food. It may seem simple, right? Wrong! The perceived straight-forward foundations of a successful dinner party can be filled with obstacles. As experts in home cooking and entertainment, we have created a list of do's and don'ts, tips, and tricks to ensure that your dinner party is executed with military precision and perfection.

T-2 Weeks - Invitations, Buffet-style or Sit-down, and Theme

To ensure that things run smoothly, how far in advance should you plan your dinner party? Planning a dinner party is not that easy, in order to plan it and host it you will need to consider many important things. It is very important to start preparing for the party at least two to three weeks ahead. This duration will give you a good time to make sure  that you have all the necessary decorations, ingredients, and other supplies. And nothing goes missing on the day of the party.

First things first, compile a list of invitees. It’s very important to decide on the people who're going to join your party and in order to do so you’ll need to plan your guest list. This will help in proper execution. When you’re organising a sit-down dinner, it's very important to get RSVPs from invited guests. This means adding an extra week to allow guests to check their availability and get back to you. For buffet-style dinner parties, RSVPs are not as important, and you should aim to invite 70-80% of your desired guest count.

Do you have a theme for your dinner party? If so, make sure you've communicated this to your guests ahead of time and have purchased all necessary decorations well in advance so you can focus on food and last-minute preparations as the date approaches.

T-7 days - Know your menu and become flexible.

After deciding on who all are going to come you’ll need to take care of the next steps involved in organising the party. This all starts from finalising the food menu. Food is not just nourishment, and if you want to host the right dinner party, it cannot be seen as such. One must know whether the party will be a sit-down party or a buffet-style dinner, you will need to take care of the guests and their comfort. Spending time on arranging dishes and estimating how much time each dish will take and whether it can be prepared ahead of time to allow you more time with your guests is also important. An essential side-note to avoid embarrassment on the day of your dinner party: make sure you have appropriate dishes for guests with dietary needs such as vegetarian and food allergies.

T-1 Day - A Source of Excellent Ingredients

It makes no sense to go through all the effort of imagining the perfect menu if it can be undone by components that are not up to par. Sourcing the best ingredients for your dishes is just as important as the menu itself when hosting a dinner party. It would be the ingredients that would make the meals delicious and would bring a smile and satisfaction on the face of the guests. All guests must have a discussion on the culinary and its presentation when so much effort has been put by the organiser. You need to be rewarded!

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Don't lose your head. You should have done all necessary by this stage to guarantee that the dinner party runs smoothly and that you can spend as much time as possible with your guests. This can easily be done by hiring a professional private chef. He would obviously be very much important in preparing the whole party menu and dishes. Apart from the essential ingredients and arrangements, preparing, cooking, and serving dishes on the day of the dinner is equally important. To allow you to stay where it matters: enjoying the conversation and having fun with your guests.

Check out our list of experienced private chefs who can assist you in execution.