In the age of MasterChef, The Great British Bake Off and Nigella Lawson, the reluctant home cook faces a very high bar. Throw social media showoffs into the mix and it’s enough to deter all but the most supremely confident from inviting friends over for a dinner party. No one talks about the dark side: the disparate dietary requirements, the culinary carnage.
As a recovering hospitality veteran of 25 years, Elizabeth Quinn has seen it all. The most common cause of large-scale calamities is overconfidence—unwarranted self-belief has no place in the kitchen. Performing for an audience in an open-plan kitchen ensures guests won’t miss any of the gossip or the preparation, which Quinn says should set alarm bells ringing. She recommends a hermetically sealed preparation area to deter guests from straying in for a chat.
The second sin is a lack of kitchen smarts. A dinner party menu is no place for firsts; it should be a béarnaise-, lemon meringue- and spun toffee-free zone. Quinn advises sticking to what you know and only testing new recipes on your nearest and dearest. Timing is everything: lack of planning can lead to extended pre-dinner cocktail consumption and overcooked meat. Invest in a meat thermometer and create a timetable to reduce stress.
Simplicity is key. Choose recipes with fewer than 10 ingredients and half a dozen steps. Quinn recalls forgetting the eggs in a moist fruit cake, transforming it from show-stopper to door-stopper. Reading glasses are essential to avoid misreading recipes or labels, which can lead to disastrous consequences such as poisoning allergic guests. Inadvertently substituting ingredients, like adding a tablespoon of chilli instead of a teaspoon, is another common pitfall.
