Cooking For Guests: What Is the Best Way to Organize Yourself?

With the right organization, cooking for guests is stress-free and relaxed. Start researching which recipes you want to prepare a few weeks before the appointment. Read each recipe through to the end to see if you’re confident if you have all the equipment you need, and if you can easily source the ingredients.

When choosing, consider who your guests are, what they like, and what the occasion is. For an informal evening with friends, an uncomplicated main course such as pasta with sauce can be sufficient. This goes well with a simple dessert such as quark and nibbles for in between. If it’s going to be more festive, at least a three-course menu with a starter, main course and dessert is appropriate. Find out in good time whether the expected guests have certain allergies and whether they are vegetarians or vegans. You don’t have to cater the entire menu selection to individual guests, but everyone should be fed and having fun.

You save yourself stress and hassle if you continue to pay attention to whether the dishes can be prepared well when choosing a recipe. Longer waiting times, which you can bridge by preparing other courses, are also practical. Many desserts such as cakes, tiramisu, ice cream, and sorbets can easily be prepared the day before and left in the fridge or freezer. You can also cook soups and stews the day before and warm them up for the guests the next evening. Roasts and other stews usually require a longer cooking time at low temperatures in the oven. In the meantime, you can prepare salads or side vegetables, for example. If guests are late, a roast can be kept warm for a while with the oven switched off and covered with foil.

When cooking, it makes sense to arrange all the ingredients in the order in which they will be used. Vegetables and many types of fruit can be cut into small pieces in advance and prepared in bowls. Some ingredients may need to be thawed or marinated before cooking, so be sure to plan for this.

Once you have decided on one or more recipes, make a shopping list and get the ingredients a few days in advance. Then you can buy something later if necessary. However, it is best to get fish and meat as fresh as possible.

When shopping, don’t forget the drinks. Sufficient water should be available, as well as suitable wines. As a rule of thumb, the wine that goes with the sauce also goes with the dish. Red wine usually goes well with beef, lamb, and other red meat, and white wine goes better with fish, pork, and poultry. In addition, a small selection of lemonades and fruit juices is not amiss. It’s better to plan too much than too little, after all, the drinks don’t go bad so quickly and can be stored without any problems.