Dinner Debut: How to Host a Smashing Autumn Party

When the weather gets chillier and frosty, there’s no better place to be than in the kitchen - gathered around a steaming pot with a handful of your friends. We tend to meet around food bit more often during the colder season, perhaps because we need that extra bit of warmth and comfort from each other or maybe just because there are too many delicious autumn recipes not to share with each other.

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Start out by inviting your friends over for some healthy comfort meals, and wait eagerly for them to invite you next. It’s free food, after all, and great company.

The autumn table

Setting the table for a summer BBQ is something quite different than preparing it for your autumn guests. It all depends on how fancy you’d like it, though, but it is something mesmerizing about polished cutlery and lit candles when the world is dark and gloomy outside. Make sure the lighting is dim and maybe even just from the candles alone unless it makes the atmosphere a bit too romantic.

If you want to spend a lot of time on the details and making it beautiful, such as getting that cutlery sparkling polished and folding intricate art out of your napkins, it’s a good idea to start the evening before. That way, you won’t be busy with it by the time your guests arrive - and you can enjoy the cocktails instead.

If you have a lot of them coming over, it’s also smart to think about who should sit where. Don’t pair them up with their friends but try to make the new faces sit next to each instead, so that you can watch those friendships being formed over your delicious cooking.

Start with a raw starter

Your guests will be impressed no matter what, but a surprising starter can really help put those stars in their eyes. A small selection of cured meats, for example, or a lamb filled tartar, and pair it with an interesting drink; have a look at this review kikori Japanese whiskey and check out their recipe selection if you want to include it in your cocktail menu as well.

Serve it all up on a large wooden board and let your guests help themselves to avoid that formal feeling throughout the dinner.

Use autumn elements

The different seasons gives us a lot of options of great vegetables which you can use as much in your cooking as in your decoration. While spring also has its share of delicious vegetables, it’s not quite the same to decorate with cucumber and asparagus as it is to put out a few bright pumpkins - although it may look quite eccentric. Embrace game, mushrooms, brightly colored squash, and plan your menu around these.

Nature has a lot of decorative stuff you can use too, by the way, and nothing should stop you from throwing a few red leaves over the table if you feel it will work with your autumn theme.

Try to plan as much as it upfront and save yourself the stress of not finding the right ingredients when your guests are due to arrive in a couple of hours. Make it easier and ask one of them to bring dessert, for example, if you’re willing to share the credit. The most important thing is that you enjoy each other’s company - and that your responsibilities as a host are over for this season.