Party Time!

by Mark R. Vogel

5) Consider ingredients that can be used in more than one preparation. At the party I catered, three of my dishes were chicken with sautéed onions and red peppers, a goat cheese/red pepper dip, and a rice pilaf that contained diced red pepper.

By having a few ingredients in multiple preparations you cut down on the number of different items to purchase and fabricate. Cutting up one large batch of red peppers is more efficient than three discrepant items, particularly if they necessitate cleaning the cutting board and knife between each one. Of course, taking this short cut too far will thwart the diversity of your cooking.

6) Perform multiple tasks simultaneously. For example, if you were making marinated chicken, pasta, and a vegetable dish, place the chicken in the marinade first. While that's marinating, start working on the pasta sauce.

While the sauce is simmering, get the pasta water going and then start cutting up the vegetables. Thus, you have the chicken marinating, the pasta water heating up, the sauce simmering, and the vegetables being prepped at the same time.

7) In terms of quantity, remember that everyone is not going to eat every dish. Thus, if there are thirty guests, you don't need thirty servings of every item. And the more items you make, the less amount of each you will need since people adjust their serving size in accordance with the total number of offerings.

One of the best lessons I ever learned in culinary school, one that our instructor repeatedly pounded into our heads was: "Think ahead." To this day I still slip up from time to time in the forethought department and hear Chef Ted's voice bellowing in my brain: "Think ahead."

Sit down with your party menu and go through each dish, step by step. Visualize preparing each recipe from start to finish. As you do, make a list of each ingredient and each piece of equipment you'll need. Plan the order in which you will make things and where you can be addressing more than one dish at a time.

Over-organizing of course, takes all the fun and spontaneity out of the process. Under-organizing leaves you in disarray and unprepared. Seek the same balance in your party planning as you do in your party menu.