Turn Your Summer Dinner Party Into The Best Foodie Event Of The Year

 While there are several foodie events that people can attend throughout the year, there is nothing quite as wholesome as hosting your own food event. 

Food events are most popular during the warmer months thanks to being able to spend more time outside. From home barbeques to food festivals, there is always a lot that happens during the summer to satisfy those foodies among us.

Should you be someone that loves to host people and cook good food, then why not host your own summer dinner party and turn it into the foodie event of the year? Whether you want to cook a barbeque or an inside dinner party, here are all of the tips that you need to host the best foodie event of the year.

Wine Glasses Vino - Free photo on Pixabay

Make homemade dips and sauces

Although you might think that cooking all of your ingredients from scratch is enough, it will enhance your dishes if you make your own sauces and dips. 

Store-bought dips and sauces are nice. But, they aren’t the same as a homemade concoction. The great thing about homemade dips and sauces is that you can add more flavor or diverse ingredients to make them unique. You might be able to throw something together that your friends and family ask you to make them time and time again because it was just so yummy.

For example, you could make a homemade tzatziki for your crudite platter and a sticky orange sauce for your barbecued chicken. 

It can take a lot of time to make all of your sauces and dips from scratch, so you might want to get started way ahead of the party so that you can enjoy cooking the main ingredients on the day.

Have a range of drinks on offer

The best parties are those that have a wide range of drinks on offer. You might only host adults, however, some guests might want a soft drink. 

Therefore, having a range of soft and alcoholic drinks will ensure that every guest is satisfied. 

To make your soft drinks extra special, you could throw together some mocktails and hand out your drinks in fancy glassware. 

Allow guests to bring their own recipes

Whether your friend wants to bring their fantastic summer sauteed corn and squash or lentil curry, let them. The more food, the merrier the party will be. 

When a guest asks to bring a dish with them, it isn’t because they don’t trust your cooking. Instead, it will likely be because they want to show off a new recipe that they have mastered. 

Sharing recipes and allowing people to bring their own food will also ensure that there is plenty to go around. If your food is that good, your guests might demolish it. Hence, having some extra food will make sure that guests never go hungry. 

Set the atmosphere

Like a professional food event, you should set the atmosphere. To do so, you could:

• Add decorations. Having your home and garden fully decorated will make the summer dinner party feel like an expert summer foodie event. Making your interior look the part will not go unnoticed and you will look like a host that really cares about their guests. 

• Create a theme. To make your foodie event unique and memorable, you could create a theme. This theme could run into the food choices, drink options, decorations, and dress code. For instance, you could create a Mexican-themed dinner party and make tacos, and margarita cocktails, and ask guests to dress in red, white, and green. 

• Don’t forget the music. Any ultimate summer party (food-based or not) will have music playing in the background. This will set the mood and get people in the party spirit. Again, this could align with your theme and further enhance the fun of your foodie event. 

Small and picky snacks and desserts

Before and after your guests eat, you will want to give them a little something to satisfy them. They might have not eaten all day to save themselves for your feast. Therefore, don’t forget to put out some pre-dinner snacks. This could be fancy canapes or a simple table of crisps, vegetable sticks, homemade dips, and nuts. 

Likewise, don’t forget to offer your guests a sweet treat to finish off their meals with. If you have prepared a large meal, then it is often best to make small and picky desserts. Something like bite-sized brownies, cookies, or homemade chocolate is perfect so that guests can balance out their palates.