Anthony Bourdain's Tips For Hosting A Successful Dinner Party
Hosting a dinner party can be a particularly stressful thing if you haven't held one before. There are tons of little details to get in order, in addition to the food. Not to mention, you also need to be engaged with your guests. Fortunately, famous chefs have given their tips on how to host a great dinner party. While Ina Garten believes in planning and being relaxed so everyone can have fun, Anthony Bourdain has some particularly interesting advice (via The Kitchn).
In a video segment with The Globe and Mail on YouTube, Bourdain gave his two best tips for hosting a dinner party and why you want to follow them. Of course, in true Bourdain style, he added some colorful explanation that's sure to give his fans a laugh. He started the segment by saying, "If I never had to wear pants, I think that would be the height of success." And while that might be his definition of a successful dinner party, it's definitely not one of his tips.
Keep things simple and reasonable
The first thing Bourdain recommends is getting organized. "Make a coherent and comprehensive list," Bourdain told The Globe and Mail (via YouTube). "Mise en place, meaning organize your stuff so it's laid out in front of you, all your ingredients. The most advanced preparation you could have under the circumstances before your guests arrive." To really drive the point home, he explained just why you don't want guests waiting around longer than they have to for dinner. "You know, you don't want your guests sitting there drinking all your liquor and getting ugly drunk while you're dicking around in the kitchen," he added.
Bourdain's next tip is all about keeping a realistic goal for the dinner party. "Have reasonable expectations of yourself [...] cut yourself some slack and understand that repetition, repetition, repetition," he said. "Some dishes take repeated doing until you get them right." Another important component of this tip is that you want to stick to what you know and are confident making when you are trying to impress people. "If you're trying to do something completely new, you know, then invite only people over who've seen you naked already," the chef said. In pure Bourdain fashion, it certainly drives the point home.