5 Top Tips for Winning Come Dine with Me Among Friends

Hello World!  Welcome Friends!  Have you ever found yourself watching the popular Channel Four cooking program, seeing all of the botched soufflés and catastrophic curries, and thinking ‘I could do better than that’? Well, what’s stopping you? Hosting Come Dine with Me style dinner parties is a great way to spend quality time with the friends you’re always insisting you’ll catch up with. Add in a little healthy competition, perhaps even a financial reward, and everyone finds it that little bit easier to make time in their hectic schedules for a three-course meal. Of course, you don’t want to go home empty handed, so here are five great tips to help make you a Come Dine with Me champion.

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1: Prioritize Preparation

Anyone who has watched the TV show will know that leaving hungry dinner guests waiting is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Make sure your starters can be plated up and ready to serve quickly and that your dessert has been prepared and stored in a cool place prior to the evening of the dinner party. For your main dish, go with something that can be partially pre-cooked to avoid leaving your guests hanging, or a popular meat, such as steak, that can be fried quickly.  Here are some ideas for starters that can be made pretty quickly.

2: Don’t Be Afraid to Take Shortcuts

Although you might get called out if your food is too conspicuously pre-bought, there are a few shortcuts worth making to help your night run more smoothly and ease your anxieties about the apple crumble. For example, if you’ve gone to the effort of making a delicious homemade dessert, you’ll be forgiven by most if you choose to accompany it with a shop-bought ice cream, particularly if you push the boat out on a more expensive tub. Taking your friends out can also be an experience that is more than just the food you’re serving. People going on vacation to Sin City often invest a lot in planning a large group dinner in Vegas to make the experience more fun. The same can be said for a dinner party among friends, so don’t be afraid to get creative and have some fun with it.

3: Make Your Presence Felt

Although it can be difficult to always be around at the dinner table when you’ve got so much else to be getting on with, make an effort to check up on your guests while you’re cooking and select dishes that will allow you to leave them on simmer and socialize with your friends, rather than keeping you glued to the cooktop for fear they might burn or boil over. 

4: Pick a Theme

This can be useful particularly if you have a culinary specialty. If you’re more confident with one cuisine than any other, why not tie all of your dishes to that theme? You can even decorate the house or assign a dress code to enrich the theme further, as well as providing entertainment and music that ties in well with the theme. This needn’t be a burden on your wallet. For example, if you’re running a fancy black tie dinner party, why not check out some cheap champagne offers to add a touch of class to the evening at a minimal cost?

5: Remember to Relax

If you’re nervous, it might well rub off on your guests as it can give the impression that you’re not at all confident in your own cooking. Beyond that, it might simply create a tense atmosphere and make your guests feel uncomfortable expressing themselves the way they want to. Remember to relax and enjoy the evening and your company above all else.

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Make it Pretty Monday

The Sunday Showcase from Make it Pretty Monday

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