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WHAT'S NEW
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Start a dinner party club
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With a wide array of themes and styles, a dinner party club is the perfect way to spice up girls night in.
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By Julie Hunter
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It's the end of another exhausting month and everyday pressures have left no extra time for reading this month's new book club title. It's great to be able to have a girls night in but does it always have to come with such weighty homework?
Book club flunkie Mary Jane Hill doesn't think so.
"After the first five minutes at our first book club meeting with the girls, we knew we were in trouble," says Hill. "None of us had even picked up the book. After a few laughs and a few more drinks we decided to reassemble ourselves into something new and something we were passionate about -- food. We then decided to throw monthly dinner parties with different themes; I mean, what's better than sitting with friends over a meal? Ever since we started our dinner party club we look forward to our monthly get together and actually enjoy the cooking homework."
So how does one start a successful dinner party club?
Pick a group
"The most important thing is having the right members," says Hill. "The energy of the group determines if the group is a hit or a flop."
When choosing members, start off with a core two to three people who love good food and conversation and ask them to invite two or three of their food-fanatical friends. By doing this you will have a solid number of foodies in the group and an opportunity to make a few new friends. Try to avoid recruiting members who have a long list of dietary issues -- they usually end up hurting the group dynamic instead of strengthening it.
Pick a style
Rotating houses or stationary meeting place? Potluck or host served? These are only a few of the questions that need to be resolved before the first event.
"The biggest concern for us was how to arrange the dinners," says Hill. "We finally agreed to let every member host, but to make it a potluck -- where everyone brings a dish -- to relieve some of the pressure on the person hosting."
Once the group has been organized, ask all the members if they would prefer a turn to host at their home or if they prefer a set locale, be mindful that not everyone may have the space to host an entire group. Once the locations have been agreed upon it's time to start planning the specifics. Will these events be potluck or will the host be responsible for the meal? Another style idea that can be presented to the group is turning the dinner party into a cooking class where the host supplies the food and the recipes and the rest of the members come and cook the meal.
Pick a theme
When Hill and her group first got together they chose to go with a broader theme, deciding that each member could bring any food dish from any culture as long as the dish's name corresponded to that month's alphabet letter, starting first with "A" and ending 26 months later with the letter "Z".
Some other theme ideas include:
• Nights where the menu is dedicated to a specific ethnic cuisine (Chinese, Mexican, Moroccan, etc...)
• An hors d'oeuvres-inspired menu where all appetizers, entrees and even desserts are bite-sized
• Re-enactments of famous meals such as: Dinner on the Titanic, where members would dress up, the table would be elegantly set and the menu would contain items that might have been served on the Titanic (such as Coq Au Vin or Beef Wellington). Other famous dinners might include anything from the latest Oscar party feast (the official Oscar party menu is posted on the Oscar website) to The Last Supper.
Pick an aperitif
Of course, what fun is a dinner party without the drinks? In Hill's group one member on a rotational basis is in charge of bringing the wine or spirits for the group. Here is a great opportunity to be creative in matching the perfect drink with the theme of the evening. Think Mexican with margaritas or French with Bordeaux.
Although every member may have a different reason for attending a dinner party club (meet new friends, learn about different foods, etc.) the outcome of a well-planned event is always the same: success.
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