Hosting tips for Weekday Dinner Parties

Contemporary
HDB (Resale)
~1,100 sqft
3 br
Couple Living

We love to host dinners and occasionally we have guest over on a weekday. Before we start, I would like to caveat that we do work from home, which makes hosting much easier as we are able to do prep during our “lunch time”. Hosting Tip #1 - Get an extendable dining table!! Our table can extend to seat up to 10 people (we have squeezed 12) and it’s been extremely useful to host gatherings. Everyone has a comfortable space to eat at the same time, which make it easier for conversation to flow.
Hosting Tip #2 - Prep Ahead The biggest tip I have is to prep what you can ahead of time and try to use hands off cooking methods! For this dinner, I prepped the chimichurri sauce in the afternoon and cooked the beef rib via sous vide. The benefit of sous vide is that you can cook without having to think too much and keep the food warm without the risk of overcooking the meat! Making use of appliances like the oven and air fryer, as opposed to stove top cooking, also allows me to continue working while the food is cooking.
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- #4roomkitchen
Hosting Tip #3 - Delegate tasks! Get help if you need it and don’t be afraid to delegate things to you guests, e.g. bringing drinks / desserts. Most guest are more than happy to be able to contribute to dinner. We also like to delegate to our trusty robot vacuum, to do a sweep of our home just before guests are due to arrive.
Hosting Tip #4 - Seating Ensuring there is adequate seating is also integral to hosting! Our sofa is a 3 seater so we added in some storage bench seating in our living room to expand the available seats for our guests. We added cushions to make it comfortable and visually signal it as a seating area and not just a cabinet.
Feasting time!! I like to decide on what plates and bowls I’m going to use ahead of plating, to the extent of doing a sample layout the day before. This helps prevent any last minute stress when I have to serve the food!
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That sums up our hosting tips, we hope it’s been helpful!