Meredith Etherington-Smith's Top Ten Party Tips
- Planning. A successful dinner party should be like an iceberg. All the effort and arranging should be submerged, so what you finally see is the shiny top.
- Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer to invite an even number of people. Have as many as your table can cope with - it's really fun having a bigger party.
- Don't offer guests crisps. You don't want to ruin their appetites. Serve olives instead, or fresh caper berries (from Selfridges Food Hall, or good fishmongers), or Japanese rice crackers.
- Of course, if you serve fish, have white wine; for meat, red. If someone doesn't drink white and asks for red, then produce it, but don't plonk red and white on the table together.
- I always ask guests: "Is there anything that you can't eat?" It's very naughty not to tell your hostess that you're a vegetarian. Atkins dieters are easy to deal with, but a wheat intolerance is more tiresome.
- Be tactful. Don't serve dishes involving alcohol if any of your guests happen to be recovering alcholics.
- Don't seat couples together, even if they are newlyweds. They have plenty of time to chatter together at home. Separate singletons with another guest.
- Don't offer a choice of puddings. Restaurants do choice, not dinner parties.
- If you are having cheese, serve it after the pudding. Or for a change, try a savoury such as devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in rashers of bacon) or mini Welsh rarebits, and serve it instead of both pudding and cheese.
- End with a flourish. It's old-fashioned, but I love setting fire to things - so bring on an ice cream, and flambe it.
