Tips for Hosting a Featured Ingredient Dinner Party

Tip 1: Before choosing your featured ingredient and recipes for the dinner party, poll guests to make sure no one has any food allergies or extreme aversion to certain ingredients.

Tip 2: Create place cards at the dinner table so guests know where to sit. Strategically place guests around the table to encourage socializing.

Tip 3: Create a menu that lists the appetizer, main course and side dish, and place one menu on each guest's plate at the dinner table.

Tip 4: When bringing out each dish, describe the dish - talk about what is inside of it, how it was prepared and mention any interesting tidbits about the flavor - just like professional chefs do during a tasting.

Tip 5: Create mini recipe cards for each of the dishes. Hole punch the recipe cards at one corner and bind them together with bakers twine or a ribbon so guests can take home new recipes to replicate for their own family and friends.