Whilst I may be 23 I feel like i’m still 15 and it freaks me out, like freaks me out BIG TIME. However with my age, has come a level of adulty type things; such as being responsible for a car and remembering to get it MOT’d, which I didn’t as yeah WHY DON’T THEY REMIND YOU ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING. Amongst many other adulty type things, lol. But one of my favourite parts of becoming more of an adult and taking on the world, is hosting. I’m a bit of an organisational freak and I love an occasion, yeah you see where this is going? I would say throughout my years away at uni and my super sophisticated friends and parents, i’ve picked up a fair few hosting tips, so here are my 3 top tips to hosting an amazing soiree, drinks, get together or dinner party!
1) PREPARATION. The last thing you want to be doing when hosting is running from the kitchen, to the main room, to the kitchen, sweating off that smokey eye look that took you the whole afternoon to create, all whilst checking all your guest(s) are okay. My tip is to not pick a dish that is BRAND NEW to you because who knows how that could go and to pick a menu/foody items/drinks that can be mainly prepared beforehand and then either just bunged in the oven or heated up, voila a hostess who has her sh*t together, looks great and has time to actually relax, chill and mingle with her guests.
2) NIBBLES. ALL THE NIBBLES. More times than not at these sort of shindigs there will be drinks, and when drinks are flowing and consumed, you often get a little bit peckish right? And if you’re preparing a super swanky meal, you want to ensure that your guests have a little something to nibble on beforehand so that they don’t literally inhale your dish/but not something super filling so that they don’t even want to look at your hard work. I can recommend ALL the great nibbles, from prawn mayo blinis, vol au vents, chips and dips etc to the more breadsticky type items. My current fave are the Crosta & Mollica Tarallini (small Italian made dough twists) in both the fennel and multigrain/seed flavours, mmmm, as well as the Grissini Breads, all of which go perfectly with basically ANY DIP and are the perfect pre-dinner/post too many drinks before dinner nibble! They’re also super easy to find as they’re stocked at Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado!
3) RELAX. Let your hair down, dance on the tables, do what you want – it is your place after all. And whilst it may be hard to relax when you have people to please and ensure are okay, these people are your friends, they don’t really care how the food is, as long as it is edible. Just remember to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the good food (hopefully) and amazing company!
What are your top hosting skills?
Sophie xx
*In collaboration with Crosta and Mollica.