A good friend of mine Yasith Weerasuriya was one of the first people to have ever told me about celiac disease, what it is and how many people suffered from it. This conversation came up because I was organizing a dinner party and one of the potential guests actually had celiac disease. This of course forced me to change the menu somewhat and it is another one of those key considerations to make when you are organizing a dinner party. There are lots of little details which we have to consider about our guests of course, and these are the key factors to keep in mind.

Food Preferences

Naturally the food which they are going to eat is the most important aspect here, and this is why you need to know as much about your guests as you possibly can. For example it may be that they have illness like celiacs, or perhaps they have peanut allergies or an allergy to seafood. The most important thing when finding out about people’s dietary requirements is that you are not preparing anything with will cause them an issue medically. Of course you also want to prepare food which people are actually going to enjoy, but the medical side is the most important. To ensure you have food that people like, the best course of action is to offer up a couple of options.

Friends and Enemies

When it comes to seating people close to each other this is something else we have to think about, especially if they already know each other. I have in fact made the mistake before of inviting people to a dinner party and sitting them next two each other, because I knew that they used to work together. What I failed to realize however is that whilst they did used to work together, they left things on very bad terms indeed. This of course meant that there was a certain mood at dinner which no host wants to have, and I have made sure to always do a little research on people before I set out the seating plan.

Your Time

Another mistake which I have made before is preparing a meal which required far too much attention from me in the kitchen. Whilst the food went down very well indeed, the problem was that I couldn’t really host very well at all because I was in the kitchen the whole time. This is something that I have certainly learned from and I now make sure that I prepare as much as I can ahead of time, and also that I make dishes which can are cooked very quickly indeed. The balance between hosting and preparing food is a tough one to make, but it is possible if you plan well and if you make the right choices.

These are some very important watch outs if you want to have the perfect dinner party, without any hitches.