Hostess with the mostest
Interior designer Joanna Plant has curated a comprehensive guide to hosting the perfect soirée, from what to serve to picking the perfect playlist. Before it’s your turn to host the gang at yours, read all Joanna’s tips and tricks for a failsafe evening of fun, food and general frivolity.
Let’s face it, we are not going out in the way that we used to and come September, when we return from whatever sort of holiday we have managed to have, we will need to start to think about how we are going to entertain and see our friends, family and colleagues in a way that doesn’t include going to restaurants. Like it or not, we will need to brush up our hostess skills and bring it all home.
Some people are natural hosts, making it all look effortless - something which is actually underpinned by planning and tried-and-tested formulae. One thing I have noticed is that guests don’t actually mind that much about the food and actually, there are other priorities which are higher up the list. Here they are in order:
MusicMusic equals atmosphere. Simples. No one wants to listen to ear splitting techno or the same terrible uni-days-mixtape whilst eating. There are very clever people making mood-specific playlists for drinks parties and dinners which you can rev up a bit later in the evening when you might get the odd person who wants to fling themselves around the sitting room on a Saturday night. Get on to Spotify and earmark some in advance.
Drinks
Pre-prepare large glass bottles of vodka martinis and put them in the freezer. Have large buckets of ice and glasses set up on a drinks table so that, as soon as a guest arrives, you can pour them a drink without too much faff. I also really love the tiny, pre-mixed Campari and soda you can get in little bottles – chin-chin!
Food
When you have people over for supper, it’s much nicer to mingle and chat with other guests for a while before being seated. To this end, I always forgo fussy starters in favour of large platters of snacks to eat whilst sitting soft, or if you are the host, mingling with your guests. By the time you seat everyone you can go straight into the main course which can be placed directly on the table for people to help themselves. The point of being at home is to embrace informality and passing things around gets everyone involved. You can’t go wrong with roast chicken and a nice salad, or a fancy pie from the butcher. Some good cheese and chocolate for pudding and you are really cooking. And if you really can’t face any sort of cooking, a standing supper where people don’t sit at all is a lot of fun and you can just order dim sum on Deliveroo and be done with it.
Flowers
Try to avoid your house looking like a hotel and keep it simple. Go for abundance and simplicity – single colour, single flower works every time. It’s best to buy them the day before so that they have relaxed and opened up a bit which also means you have less to do on the day.
