Formal dinner is truly one of the luxurious pleasures of life. Whether it’s a romantic flat rate for an apartment for two or big expenses in the dining room for twelve, there is something special in the combination of delicious food, a friendly fellow at dinner (s) and a beautifully presented table. Fortunately, everyone can enjoy this luxury. Do not be intimidated by the thought of throwing an official dinner party. With a little planning and preparation, you can create food that will amaze your guests and make you an enviable host (essay). To make your event successful from start to finish, keep these three words in your head: Think about it, prepare, give.
Think about it:
The first stage is to think about a pen and paper in your hand. Come up with ideas when they come to you. What event? Is it a Christmas dinner, a party, Valentine's Day, or something just for fun? What date will you choose? How many people do you want to invite? How many people can accommodate your desk? Do any of the guests have allergies (for pets, as well as for food)? What kind of atmosphere do you want to create? Brainstorm and you will get ideas and thoughts on paper. After you have done this, look at what you wrote and create a summary of your event, which includes the date, number of guests and any necessary conditions for catering or setting. Here are two examples:
o On December 25th I will throw dinner for seven people with roast turkey as a main course. None of the dishes can contain nuts.
o I will have a party on March 7th. Present ten guests. I need to serve a vegetarian and meat main course and find two extra chairs.
The purpose of brainstorming and resume writing is to focus and organize your thoughts. After you finish this, you are ready to proceed to the next step: prepare.
Prepare:
The impetuous, exhausted and stressed host (ess) makes your guests worry and destroys the atmosphere of your event. Avoid this embarrassment by being prepared. Being trained relatives in all aspects of the dinner, from getting your initiatives released on time, to make sure you have enough space in the oven for everything you want to cook. Make yourself a checklist to keep up with the times.
Two weeks in advance, prepare and deliver the invitations. Your invitation media (email, text message, handwritten, typed, and spoken) will depend on your type of event and guests. If this is a special dinner for two, inviting your guest by phone or in person is suitable. For the interlocutor, a printed or written invitation sets the romantic tone.
For three days (or earlier) prepare your menu and store for your goods in advance. Do not leave this critical part the day before your event. The stores do have things like cranberry sauce and condensed milk on major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Be realistic in your cooking experience. If you are new to the kitchen, focus on cooking the main course, one side dish and dessert. Plan snacks, appetizers, bottled dressings, rolls and pre-mixed salad products. A more experienced chef may want to make his own sauce, bake his own bread and collect his own snacks.
Formal food consists of several courses. The number of courses usually ranges from three to twelve, depending on the case or the preference of the host (ess). Variations include serving salad as a separate course, adding a final course of cheese and fruit, or preparing two small main dishes instead of one large one. Your choice of drinks should also match your courses, especially if you are spending a batch of wine. Be sure to have non-alcoholic options for those who refrain or are appointed by drivers.
The main formal menu consists of:
1 course - snacks. These bite-sized pieces are available to guests as they arrive. Your guests eat them while they mix. Snacks should be easy to pick up and eat with one hand. Plan three snacks per person per meal. Limit your choices so that your guests do not take advantage of these delicious trips and leave no room for dinner. Cocktails, soft drinks and punch are served.
2 course - soup and / or salad and bread basket. Now your guests are at the table. The soup may be hot or chilled, but it should be light and refreshing. Avoid serving a hearty stew and choose a broth or a small bowl of cream soup. In addition, a small plate of baby greens with a vinaigrette or Caesar salad is better than a salad filling. Serve a selection of white and wheat rolls or sliced French bread with butter. Water and wine are provided.
3 course - main course. The main food consistency of a large protein plate and a few vegetable or cereal side dishes. If you do not know that all your guests enjoy meat, you can try an alternative vegetarian or vegetarian main dish. Guests on calories or cholesterol reduce diet, will also appreciate this gesture. If cookies or buns are not part of this course, replenish the bread basket. When the main course is on the table, there should be a lot of colors - it should not be brown. While turkey, mashed potatoes and biscuits are delicious, adding green peas, red stuffed peppers and dried dried carrots will make your table and food more attractive. Water and wine are provided. (Here you can use a photo of the main course on the table).
The fourth course is dessert. Use dessert to balance the meal. If your main course was hearty, filled and contained red meat, served something bright and refreshing (sorbet, the fruit was crumbling). If your main course consists mainly of white meat or vegetable dishes, a decadent dessert (black forest cake, cheesecake) provides a pleasant finish. Keep in mind that dessert tends to be an individual taste, so if you need to place a wide variety of palettes, serve a dish of small quarters, chocolate truffles, fruits and chocolate strawberries. Wine, coffee and tea are provided.
One or two days before the event, prepare the atmosphere. The place should be clean and tidy. Formal dinner can not take place in a cluttered, dirty, untidy environment. While you do not need to replace carpets and repaint rooms, you need to have a clean, cozy atmosphere in which your guests can relax and not worry about putting on clothes for dogs. Prepare the room for the powder. Make sure you have extra toilet paper, carefully placed a spray-deodorant jar and clean hand towels.
On the night before the event, prepare the kitchen. This is done after the last meal of the day. Wash the dishes or load and run the dishwasher. You have several clean kitchen napkins and tea towels neatly folded on the counter. Keep armrests and hot mats nearby. Make a quick inventory of your kitchen equipment to make sure that you have enough pots, pans, spoons, etc. If you need a roaster, make sure it is large enough for your main dish (and drop into the store for a new one if it is not so!) Put all your serving dishes in one place where they are easy to grab so that you don’t desperately search for your crystal when your sauce is boiling.
At night before this is also the best time to complete the menu preparation. If you can't do it the night before, do it early in the morning of your event. Go to the menu and take care of items that can be collected, cut, diced, grated, pickled, etc. Combine your salads, but keep the strip off separately. Fill your salt and pepper shakers and cool liquid drinks. After completing the preparatory work, clean the kitchen. Regardless of whether you are doing your preparatory work on the eve or in the morning of dinner, it is important to clear the work area between the preparation and the actual preparation phase. This mid-phase cleaning allows you to organize, frees mixing bowls, pots and other kitchen equipment, and also reduces the chance of cross contamination from raw meat.
In the morning of your dinner, prepare for cooking. After completing the preparatory work, you need to collect only what you need to prepare and place it in the oven at the right time. If you are cooking a turkey or roast, make sure that you leave enough time between cooking and serving for the meat to sit and reabsorb some of the juices in the pan.
With your salads in the fridge and food in the oven, you can move on to the final phase: be present.
Presentation:
We eat every day. What distinguishes a formal dinner from a regular meal is how it is presented. The presentation refers to the food and dishes in which it is served.
An hour before your guests arrive, pick up the table. The type of formal setting depends on how many courses you serve, but there are some general recommendations. (A formal setting may be presented here).
o Forks are installed to the left of the dinner plate. A salad fork sits to the left of the dinner fork. If the salad is part of your main meal, you do not need to provide a separate salad fork. If your dessert requires a fork, set it to the right of the fork.
o The knife is placed to the right of the dinner plate, and the spoons are to the right of the knife. The teaspoon is to the right of the knife, and the soup spoon is to the right of the teaspoon.
o Water and glasses are to the right of the plate and above the knife and spoons.
o If you use a bread plate, it is placed on the left of the dinner plate and above the forks.
o The napkin can be placed to the left of the forks, placed in a glass or artfully folded and placed on a dinner plate.
Present food to your guests in an elegant manner. Orders that provide color, such as salads, are best served in glass or clear dishes. Fried and meat dishes are attractive and convenient to serve on plates. Show your unique ceramic and ceramic dishes using them for serving parties. Make sure that you use the correct serving dishes for oil and seasonings. Do not use seasonings from their original containers.
Now you have the tools for a confident dinner. Remember that the goal of the evening is to enjoy everyone, and that includes you! When you meditate, get ready and imagine, you stay focused, relaxed and organized, and the result is elegant evening food and fun.
