Party Time!
Recently I was recruited
to do the cooking for a friend’s birthday party. There were thirty guests
expected. I was given only one directive: Most of the food needed to be
vegetarian since that was the guest of honor’s dietary persuasion. Imagine
that. Yours truly, who believes salad is the kind of food that real food
eats, cooking vegetarian. No problem. I’ll just throw a T-bone in the
broiler for me.
Cooking for a party can be quite challenging. There is an overwhelming
array of variables to consider. The juggling act is including a sufficient
quantity of appetizing foods without inundating yourself with excessive
labor or time demands. Here are some tips for accomplishing the task.
1) To begin, you
will need a wide variety of foods. First and foremost because individual
tastes are so variable. Now factor in the fact that Americans are beset
with countless issues with many common foods. This one’s not eating carbs,
that one can’t have salt, this one’s on the latest fad diet, etc., etc.,
etc. Good Lord. Our enemies don’t need to plot against us. We’ll all
eventually starve to death.
Since the
most commonly vilified food groups nowadays tend to be meat, fat, and carbs,
I would plan on half my dishes being low in or devoid of these
constituents. It’s not as difficult as it sounds. Many dishes will meet
multiple criteria. The beef teriyaki skewers you present for the
meat-lovers also serves as a “low-carb” dish. Vegetable soup, salsa, or
salad will all appease the low-fatters and the vegetarians.
2) If you have
the time to start preparing for the party the night before, you can relieve
yourself of much burden the day of the festivities. I ensure that about
half the dishes in the menu that can be made the previous day with no ill
effects. For example, some foods will improve in flavor after resting
overnight. This is true of stews, soups, some casseroles, salsa, dips, and
other preparations that are an amalgamation of ingredients.
3) Find short
cuts. For example, consider dishes with ingredients that can be purchased
pre-fabricated. Buy the mozzarella that’s already shredded, the shrimp
that’s been de-veined, the nuts already shelled and crushed, etc. These
amenities will cost you more money but we’re focused on saving time and
labor. Ask the baker to slice your bread, your butcher to trim your roast,
and the fishmonger to remove the skin from the fillets.
4) For the
cooked items, do not select dishes that must all be made in the oven or on
top of the stove. By divvying them up between the oven/broiler and
stovetop, you can cook multiple entrees at the same time, and thus present
them together as well.
5) Consider
ingredients that can be used in more than one preparation. At the party I
catered, three of my dishes were chicken with sautéed onions and red
peppers, a goat cheese/red pepper dip, and a rice pilaf that contained diced
red pepper. By having a few ingredients in multiple preparations you cut
down on the number of different items to purchase and fabricate. Cutting up
one large batch of red peppers is more efficient than three discrepant
items, particularly if they necessitate cleaning the cutting board and knife
between each one. Of course, taking this short cut too far will thwart the
diversity of your cooking.
6) Perform
multiple tasks simultaneously. For example, if you were making marinated
chicken, pasta, and a vegetable dish, place the chicken in the marinade
first. While that’s marinating, start working on the pasta sauce. While
the sauce is simmering, get the pasta water going and then start cutting up
the vegetables. Thus, you have the chicken marinating, the pasta water
heating up, the sauce simmering, and the vegetables being prepped at the
same time.
7) In terms of
quantity, remember that everyone is not going to eat every dish. Thus, if
there are thirty guests, you don’t need thirty servings of every item. And
the more items you make, the less amount of each you will need since people
adjust their serving size in accordance with the total number of offerings.
One of the best lessons
I ever learned in culinary school, one that our instructor repeatedly
pounded into our heads was: “Think ahead.” To this day I still slip up
from time to time in the forethought department and hear Chef Ted’s voice
bellowing in my brain: “Think ahead.” Sit down with your party menu and go
through each dish, step by step. Visualize preparing each recipe from start
to finish. As you do, make a list of each ingredient and each piece of
equipment you’ll need. Plan the order in which you will make things and
where you can be addressing more than one dish at a time. Over-organizing
of course, takes all the fun and spontaneity out of the process.
Under-organizing leaves you in disarray and unprepared. Seek the same
balance in your party planning as you do in your party menu.
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