How to be a Great Entertainer Part 1: Selecting a Theme & Menu
Selecting a Theme & Menu
A dinner is just another dinner unless you make is a PARTY. With this how to series, derived from my Healthy Living Summit presentation, you will make every event you host a great party! Learn how to be not just a great entertainer, but to keep it healthy too!
How to be a Great Entertainer Part 1: Selecting a Theme & Menu
When selecting a theme for your next event, consider these elements:
- Occasion: Is it a holiday? Are you celebrating something? Is it just for fun?
- Season: What foods will be in season? What will people feel like eating. You probably won’t want to serve a hot chili in the middle of summer.
- Guest List: Will you have a large party? A small party? All adults? Kids? Healthy eaters? Vegetarians?
- Amount of Time/Space: Do you live in an apartment? Do you have a nice deck? Is it a week night? A weekend? If you’re hosting a big event, you can visit https://www.stagingspecialists.co.uk/ for staging solutions.
Example: For the Easter lunch (occasion) I hosted this spring, asparagus, artichokes, and strawberries were coming into season (season), and I knew that it would just be a few people coming over (guest list). One vegetarian was coming (guest list) and I knew we could all sit at the same table (amount of space). After considering my theme, I was able to create my menu.
Creating menus is one of my favorite food-related activities. If you think about your menu a bit ahead of time, you will be able to ensure that your menu is cohesive and satisfies all the food groups. I use two different basic menu methods to create menus, a beginner one and an advanced one.
When creating a menu consider quality, flavor, and presentation. Also think about your oven space. You don’t want every single item to require an oven or a burner on your stove top, or your food will not be ready at all the same time. Try to have at least one or two items you can make ahead.
*Use a beginner menu when you are first entertaining, don’t have a lot of time, or are only have a couple of people over.
Menu: Beginners
- Simple Appetizer
- Main Entree
- Vegetable Side Dish
- Salad
- Starch
- Bakery Dessert
- Wine, beer, soda water
Simple Appetizer Ideas (both my own and from HLS attendees):
Hummus with pita
Cheese, crackers, and grapes
Simple Guacamole & Chips
Feta cheese & tomato salad skewers
Mini flatbread pizzas
Zaatar Bread
Raw veggies
Beginner menu tips:
1. Always have raw vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, and celery when entertaining. They are easy to prepare, loved by most guests, and won’t cause your guests to feel full before dinner is even served.
2. By picking up a bakery dessert, you will save yourself a lot of time both preparing it and in the oven.
3. Keep it simple. You might be really ambitious and want to try to make multiple main dishes or a homemade dessert or bread, but for the first few times you entertain and when you are in a time crunch, just keep things as simple as possible.
4. Don’t try a new recipe for a dinner party, no matter what.
5. Remember, quality, flavor, and presentation are the 3 most important elements.
*Use an advanced menu for a large holiday, an event with many guests, when you have entertained many times already, or when you have help.
Menu: Advanced
- Basic Appetizer + Hot Appetizer
- Main Entree+
- 2 Vegetable Side Dish
- 2 Starch
- Salad
- Homemade Dessert, Fruit
- Wine, beer, soda, water
- Signature drink
How to keep your menu healthy:
1. Always make sure to have at least one vegetable and one salad that are healthy.
2. For the main entree, worry about flavor over health. Make your accompanying dishes the healthy star and the main dish the flavor star.
3. Make sure your appetizers are both healthy and light.
Accommodating Dietary Needs:
- Ask your guests if they have any dietary needs- it is that simple!
- If they do, have options available that they can eat.
- Tailor a couple of menu items to them, but don’t change your whole menu because of a dietary restrictions of one guest.
- If they want to, have them bring something that they can eat and will share- they probably want to anyway.
My Easter Lunch Menu
Appetizer
White Bean Crostini
Lunch
PhillyBoy’s Roasted Chicken
Stuffed Artichokes
Asparagus Risotto
Spring Salad: Spinach, endive, strawberries, slivered almonds, balsamic honey dressing
Dolce
Strawberry Shortcake (minis made in ramekins)
Now that we have selected a theme and a menu, all we have left is to decide on our decor, create our table setting, make our to do lists, plan how to make our guests comfortable, and get our house ready! Parts 2 & 3 of this series will teach you how!
If you have any extra tips on selecting a theme and menu, please share them in the comments!!
16 Responses to “How to be a Great Entertainer Part 1: Selecting a Theme & Menu”
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Great tips! I love creating menus ; ) I wish I got to hear your presentation, I heard it was great!!!
Great ideas, love them.
What a great menu! I absolutely looove zaatar bread and every time I try to make it, it’s just a disaster! I think it’s because I bought my own sumac powder and tried to do it from scratch hehe. I haven’t seen it in a mix yet!
Sometimes for a menu theme I like picking a country, or a region and centering all of the food around that!
@Sonia @ Master of Her Romaine, I can mail you some za’atar if you like? Just email me your mailing address! (sabrina @ rhodeygirltests.com)
Wow, thanks for the tips! I love your ideas for entertaining when you are strapped for time. It’s always stressful to try and determine what dishes are necessary!
Sometimes I’ll host potlucks with themes. 🙂 It alleviates the stress of making everything yourself, and some of my friends are FANTASTIC cooks who love to share their dishes.
You break it down and make it seem so easy and doable! I am going to try to have a (simple) dinner party before the year is over. That’s my goal!
@Lauren, If you have any questions let me know!!!!! I am sure you would be an incredible hostess!
These are great tips!
These are awesome tips. I have been trying to get better at entertaining, and I want to be a hospitable person in general. i made a new year’s resolution to have somebody over for dinner at least once a month, and that has helped more than anything. It has given me more confidence, and given me a chance to practice
this is fabulous- thanks sabrina!!
Great tips! I didn’t get to see your presentation at the summit so I am glad you posted it here. That crostini looks delicious too!
Thanks for posting your presentation from the summit. Great tips and can’t wait for part 2!
I was wondering if you call zaatar bread Manoushe(plural) like they do in Lebanon? My father in law is going to Lebanon next week and is bringing me back zaatar from Beirut. (he has a layover in Amman 🙂
PS: I am not sure if this is happening to just me but I can’t see a bunch of the pictures from this post?
I just bought some Zaatar and am so excited to try your Zaatar Bread! Love these tips by the way!
I’m just catching up and seeing this now. All these tips are making me very excited about moving into my apt (so soon!) and having people over. Btw – it was wonderful to see you mentioned in so many blogs from the HLS! Sounds like your presentation went very well 🙂 I can’t wait for parts 2 and 3