Someone has thrown up in your toilet. There are empty beer bottles on the kitchen counter, and the prospect of cleaning up tomorrow is already ruining tonight. Ah, the house party: fun while you’re there, depressing as you stare at the aftermath. Yet somewhere out there in the night, there’s a group of people sitting around a candlelit dining table, eating, drinking and laughing.
Dinner parties offer a chance to slow down and be present with the people around you. No shouting over music, just the kind of laughter that makes your chest hurt and makes you forget to check your phone.
University is full of people, yet it can be surprisingly lonely. Friendships are difficult to maintain, and everyone is caught up in deadlines and busy schedules.We all just want to feel like we have our lives together, and a dinner party seems so … grown up. It’s the image I think of when I imagine my 20s. Dinner parties are a welcome pause from the whirlwind, a reason to stop rushing around for an evening.
Hosting a dinner party doesn’t have to be daunting; I find it to be a lot less stressful than hosting a big house party. You can actually enjoy your evening, rather than spending it worrying about the state of your flat or whether people are enjoying themselves.
Collaboration is key to a good dinner party. I once hosted a Spanish tapas-themed dinner party where I made every little complicated tapas dish myself, spending a fortune on food and drink, and while it was a huge accomplishment, it was also exhausting. The next dinner party I hosted, we did it potluck style. Everyone brought something they’d cooked: tarts and pasta, cakes and salads. Safe to say, it was a roaring success. It wasn’t long until the texts came rolling in asking when the next one would be. So, having apparently earned the title of The Hostess, it’s now time to pass on that mantle and lay down some words of wisdom to help you host a killer dinner party.
Whatever your budget, you can make it work. For £5, a big pot of pasta is an easy staple. Stretch your budget to £10, and you could add homemade garlic bread and a salad. For £20, make homemade dessert, and you’ve got yourself a three-course meal. Or, to keep costs low, get everyone to bring a dish. By letting people bring their own food, you don’t have to stress over whether your vegan friend can eat anything, or whether your fussy-eater friend will throw a tantrum (no judgement, we all have our preferences!)
Also, now is not the time to try a new recipe; go for a tried-and-tested dish and don’t over-complicate it — people will just be happy that you’re feeding them.
For post-dinner games, keep a deck of cards on hand, or set up your own trivia night. For drinks, mix equal parts red wine and lemonade, and you have the Spanish cocktail classic tinto de verano. By mixing it with lemonade, you can get one or two bottles of wine to stretch to everyone.
Dinner parties don’t have to be elaborate; they don’t have to be aesthetic. It’s ultimately a time for connection, and I think we sometimes forget that. A dinner party is whatever you want it to be, as big or small, as complicated or straightforward as you want. Sometimes, hosting is as simple as doubling whatever you were cooking anyway and lighting a candle.
Image by Zoe Downey for The Student.
