A Chef’s Advice for Planning a Dinner Party Menu

Choosing a Theme for Your Dinner Party

When hosting a dinner party the first thing most people think of is the food they will serve. That is fair enough as it is a dinner party and since it is most people greatest fear on the night there is nothing wrong with getting that stress out of the way.

When writing your dinner party menu, pick items that not only work well together but also items that aren’t a lot of work on the day. If you are in the kitchen stressing out on the night your guests will sense this and the whole vibe of the evening will be ruined.

So where do you start when choosing the food? Well you could start with the canapés and pre dinner drinks, and then simply plan the first course, main and dessert from there. Or you could start with an ingredient that you are enjoying at the moment, for instance it may be a summer menu and you may want to incorporate some seasonal stone fruit in the dessert or some seasonal vegetables into the first course and build the other courses around them.

Or you may wish to go with a theme, for instance a seafood dinner party, or an international cuisine theme such as Italian, French or Asian. Or perhaps a regional gastronomic theme, such as a Tuscan, or Provence, or South Indian…whatever really you like most.

There a million ways to get started when planning a menu for your party, the important thing to remember is to stay within your comfort zone, as dinner parties are not the place for experimenting so choose items that you are comfortable preparing.

Ok, so let’s build a menu. For this example we will simply start with the canapés, and then choose the first course and so on. When writing your menu pick items that not only work well together but also items that aren’t a lot of work on the day.

Appetizers | Canapés

Now, when choosing a canapés to offer our guests we want to pick items that don’t take much effort to assemble on the night, or better yet can be made well ahead of time without affecting their quality.

If you choose appetizers that are difficult or time consuming on the night you will never get out of the kitchen and worse yet you will lose valuable time that may need to be devoted to the other courses. Canapés on a dinner party menu, if chosen wrongly will be your worst enemy: they will take a lot of finicky assembly, command all of your kitchen bench space and rob you of valuable time.

If chosen correctly they can be your best friend: they will allow you the time to mingle with your guests upon arrival, keep your kitchen tidy and buy you more time to focus on the remainder of the meal preparation as your guests enjoy nibbling away.

Let’s start with a very simple yet impressive Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus with Reduced Balsamic. This is a great choice as it can pretty much be completely prepared in the morning.

Another great choice might be Chili Lime and Gin Marinated Oysters. This is a great choice as it has a great wow factor and the marinade can be made a day or two in advance, though be sure to buy the oysters on the same day.

Finish your canapé options off with some homemade spiced cashews that can be made days ahead and your canapé worries are no longer worries. You may even find you have some time up your sleeve and want to serve an interesting cocktail such as a Mint Granitas or a Classic Martini to accompany the nibbles.

Doing this will add another level of ‘wow’ factor to your party and help your guests relax even further and is another great way to get some more time up your sleeve (be careful not to overdo it though as you don’t want to kill their palettes before dinner).

As with everything though plan the cocktail prep and do as much or all of the prep before hand, even slicing a few limes, picking some mint leaves or spearing a couple olives will cut into your valuable time on the night.

First Course

Assuming that we have those as our canapé options you are still relatively open to what you can serve as your remaining courses, although considering we are serving oysters and mint granitas it is relatively safe to say this is a summer or spring menu we are building and we will start there.

With that in mind, let’s have a look at the Avocado and Crab Stack Salad. This dish is light, fresh, very impressive visually and takes a medium effort on the night if your prep is done for it earlier. The assembly may take 10-20 minutes for a table of 10 but since you are organized and your guests are enjoying those canapés and cocktails you can afford it.

Main Course

Now having used oysters as a canapé and a crab dish as a first course, we could run with a seafood theme and serve as our main course a Prosciutto Wrapped Salmon with Wilted Spinach & Lemon Beurre Blanc, or some Fettuccine with Salmon, Asparagus and Capers in Lemon Dill Oil.

Either are a great follow up dish to the crab and quite easy to prepare, unless of course you are not comfortable with the delicate butter sauce at the last minute or serving a pasta. If either is the case you could forget the seafood theme and go with either of a couple other options that are easy to prepare well ahead of time and would suit to complement the crab first course such the French Roast Duck with Orange Sauce or Braised Pork Belly with Chili.

As you can see there are no hard and fast rules to the dishes you choose to serve but there are guidelines. Those guidelines are, choose dishes you are comfortable preparing, choose dishes that work well together and choose dishes where the bulk of the work is done well before hand.

Canapés
Asparagus and Prosciutto Bites with Reduced Balsamic Vinegar
Chili Lime and Gin Marinated Oysters
Homemade Spiced Cashews

First Course
Crab, Pickled Ginger and Avocado Stack with Baby Herbs and Lemon Vinaigrette

Main Course
French Roast Duck with Orange Sauce

Dessert

So far the menu is not too heavy and as such we are not really limited. If it were a heavier menu we would be restricted to lighter dessert options as we wouldn’t want to have our guests feeling sluggish or too full.

But since our menu is so far quite light we could serve anything from Kahlua and Chocolate Mousse with Cinnamon Cream to Crème Brulee to Cherry Almond and Mascarpone Trifle. All of which are pretty much desserts you can do the day before. In this case, let’s stick with the summer theme and opt for the latter. So once again our menu stands as:

Canapés:
Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus Spears with Reduced Balsamic.
Chili lime and Gin Marinated Oysters,
Homemade Spiced Cashews

First Course:
Crab, Avocado, Pickled Ginger and Baby Herbs with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette

Main Course:
French Roast Duck with Orange Sauce

Dessert:
Cherry Almond and Mascarpone Trifle

Summary
As you can see, with a bit of planning and thinking ahead we have come up with a menu that:

• A. We are comfortable preparing.
• B. The courses work well together.
• C. Most of the work can be done well in advance.

If you stick to these guidelines you will find your dinner parties become much more enjoyable for yourself and your guests.

Paul Hegeman

Paul was a personal chef to exclusive clients in Sydney, Australia and worked at every level of professional kitchens, from the deep fryer in a local burger joint to Head Chef in five-star hotels. Born in the Netherlands, Paul moved to Canada at a very young age. Experience with traditional European meals at home and the diverse multicultural influence of Canadian cuisine gave him a great appreciation for different culinary styles. His recipes emphasize natural, uncomplicated flavors and fresh ingredients, inspired by Mediterranean and Southeast Asian cuisines. Paul is also the founder of Chef's Pencil, though he is no longer affiliated with the magazine.