the name of the game

When planning a dinner party menu, the most important thing to consider is balance! Yes, of course seasonality, matching flavors, and other things are very important; however, even if you're serving vegetables you grew yourself and bread from your own oven, if every course is predominantly vegetables and bread, the meal will feel incomplete because there is no protein, and unless you're deep frying your vegetables and slathering your bread with butter, there's no element of richness.

In order to find the right balance between vegetables, proteins, starches, and fats, I find the following rubric to be quite handy.

For a standard, three course meal:

1-2 protein components (So if you're serving a big roast, don't go overboard with cheese on salad or in side dishes. Keep it light--protein is filling!)

2 vegetable components (This is especially important when creating vegetarian menus. No one wants to be served the ubiquitous restaurant plate of eight kinds of steamed vegetables. Vegetarians aren't rabbits!)

1-2 starch components (If you're serving your famous spaghetti bolognese for the main course, don't serve a big bread basket to start. No one will have room for the pasta! Likewise, a big piece of cake for dessert definitely qualifies as a starch. If you want everyone to have room for cake for dessert, keep the starches to a minimum for the other courses.)

1-2 rich components (By this I mean anything with large quantities of cream, butter, cheese, oil, etc. If you're serving delicious homemade cream of mushroom soup to start, you can't give your guests massive servings and expect them to follow it up with a plate of über-rich potato puree on the side of their steak, and end with your famous cheesecake. You want your guests to have a pleasant, mild food coma, not send them into cardiac arrest!)

2 refreshing components (This is absolutely key, and often overlooked. Tart, sour flavors are an absolute must if you want to excite your guests' palettes. Balancing richness with tartness also enables people to enjoy the rich foods more. This refreshing component can come in the form of a zingy vinaigrette, a fresh salsa on top of grilled fish or meat, or fresh fruit or sorbet at the end of the meal.)

Now, this may sound more like a chemistry experiment than a dinner party, but I promise it's a helpful guideline!

It's intimidating to try and come up with all of these components at once, so go easy on yourself and start with one at a time. Start with a dish that you really want to make, and then move from there to incorporate the other elements.

So, for example, if you're planning a spring dinner party this year, you might want to consider using the bounty of fresh green vegetables that are in season now. One dish that I've made many time for such a dinner party is a ragout of asparagus, fava beans, and peas, with mint and lemon, topped with crispy fried halloumi cheese.



This is a great dish because you can serve it in small servings as an appetizer, or in larger servings with more pieces of the (very addictive) crispy, melty cheese as a vegetarian main course. It's also a great dish because it incorporates several of the component listed above: refreshing (from the lemon juice and mint), vegetable, protein, and richness.

So, if it's served as an appetizer, we need 2 starches, one vegetable, one protein, and one rich component, and one refreshing component. In that case, you could serve a main course of grilled fish with roasted new potatoes and sauteed baby carrots (for a variety of vegetable colors--more on that to come in future posts!), and a slice of cake for dessert (but keep it a simple cake to match the general menu theme of simply prepared fresh foods--again, more on that to come!).

Alternatively, if this dish is served as a main course, you might serve it accompanied by slices of plain bruschetta (slices of rustic, crusty bread, simply grilled, brushed with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and herbs). Since the dish is mostly vegetables, with the protein of the cheese as a secondary component, the dish probably counts as both major vegetable items on the menu. Thus, I wouldn't recommend serving a salad to start, but instead perhaps protein-filled soup, like a lemony chickpea soup, or the Greek egg and lemon soup Avgolemono (both of which would count as a second refreshing component). Then to finish, you have the option of including a second starch component, like a simple cake as I mentioned above, or you can forego the second starch and serve another predominantly rich dish, like a panna cotta or mousse.

Recipes for all these dishes soon to come!

what do you mean i can't serve spaghetti and meatballs with tomato bruschetta?!

If the title of the post evokes either confusion or joy within you, then you're probably going to like this blog!

Throwing a good dinner party is like choosing an outfit. You wouldn't wear an all-over sequined top with shiny metallic shoes and lots of sparkly jewelry--that is, unless you wanted to look like a disco ball! It's all about balance, and having too much of a good thing is a risk we run in many different areas of our lives. Like the different components of an outfit, each course or dish that you serve in a dinner party (or lunch, or brunch, or cocktail nibbles!) should be compatible with all the others, and they shouldn't all be fighting to steal the show.

I'm not an expert homemaker, I don't have a culinary degree, and I'm definitely not advocating that you abandon all sense of spontaneity when entertaining! Instead, I just want to share some tips that I've gathered over the years of compulsively planning and throwing parties, and advising my friends on their own menu planning endeavors. The process of planning a menu is an art, not a science; but, when you're aware of how different flavors and textures play off of each other, I promise you'll be more prepared to face unanticipated party challenges. Instead of panicking when you discover that every Whole Foods in your city is out of the star anise you need for your masterpiece braised lamb shank dish, you'll know how to wing it and come up with a new dish on the spot that complements the rest of your perfectly planned meal!

I have lots of nifty tricks up my sleeve, and I hope you'll stick around to discover the secrets behind the magic of menu planning!

Up next: food pyramid basics, and a classic early spring dinner party menu.