The Hosting Edit

About this workshop

A menu-planning and cooking session for people who want to host with confidence. You will cook a four-part make-ahead menu and learn how to time, serve and finish it so you actually enjoy your own party.

Hosting is half cooking and half choreography. This workshop starts with the choreography: building a menu where most of the work happens the day before, deciding what is served cold, warm or at room temperature, and sketching a simple timeline for the evening.

Then we cook. You will prepare a sharing menu of a make-ahead dip, a large composed salad, a hot small plate that finishes in minutes, and a no-fuss dessert plate of fruit and cream. We discuss shopping lists, scaling quantities for four, eight and twelve, table setting and the little finishing flourishes that make a meal feel like an occasion.

You leave with a hosting playbook, three menus ready to adapt and the confidence to invite people round.

On the menu

1. Make-ahead whipped feta or hummus
2. A large composed salad for a crowd
3. A hot small plate with a ten-minute finish
4. A simple fruit and cream dessert plate

Techniques you’ll learn

• Backward planning and timelines
• Scaling recipes for groups
• Make-ahead and finish-at-the-table techniques
• Serving temperatures and holding food
• Styling a casual table

How the session runs

1. 0:00Welcome and menu planning
2. 0:25Make-ahead dishes
3. 1:00Composed salad and hot plate
4. 1:45Table styling
5. 2:00Serve and eat like hosts

Timings are a guide and flex with the group.