The World Needs More Culinary Meetings (and How to Host Them)
In cooking, as in life, a little bit of healthy competition can motivate people to show up, show off and shine. Cooking, baking, any food-related event – designing a food-themed meeting as a competition will make guests want to contribute to the party.
Cooking is a simple concept: choose a meal and ask people to cook and bring their best version of that meal. Everyone eats other people’s food. A winner is chosen and the losers are slightly ridiculed, but it’s all fun because there are no real losers in cooking (because everyone eats a lot). But organizing a fun and laid-back culinary feast (or baking or whatever) takes a little planning.
Choose delicious food
This is the first and most obvious step. It is best to choose products that allow for many variations. Making croquembush wouldn’t be very fun and wouldn’t make much sense, as you would have to be a pretty advanced pastry chef to use such a standardized recipe (one exception is our microwave method ).
Chocolate chip cookies, on the other hand, allow for a lot of riffing. Chili is another culinary icon, as are wings or any kind of barbeque. Lasagna, meatloaf, meatballs, mac and cheese, and sauces also work well for cooking. If your friends can’t cook, you can always have a martini.
Provide boring things
Don’t count on your guests to bring anything other than food for which they will be judged. They won’t bring chili bowls, they won’t bring wing napkins, they probably won’t bring any serving utensils. It is up to you, as the host, to provide these things. If your cutlery drawer only has stock for a house of two or four, you might need to complete your collection with a quick trip to Goodwill – my store for serving and dining utensils, and bowls, cups and plates that are so cheap, you won’t be sad if they break in the line of duty.
If your guests are planning to bring multicookers, electric heaters, or anything else that needs to be plugged in, make sure you have enough extension cords and extension cords so that everyone can keep their meal at the appropriate temperature.
Oh, and don’t forget the ice, especially if you’re hosting martini-offs.
Keep Portions Small
The whole point of cooking is to try many different variations of the same dish. If you give your guests large bowls or plates, they will fill them up. It’s just human nature. Use saucers instead of dinner plates, mugs instead of bowls, or maybe even those little paper food boats you see at all food festivals.
Provide fun things, too
If the garnish is not part of your guest’s special vision for your dish, the task of providing garnishes and various accessories will most likely fall on you, the host. For chili, that means cheese, sour cream, and jalapenos. For baking, this could mean a jug of cold milk or whipped cream. For martini offs, you should provide olives and lemon zest , and maybe even some pickled onions .
Keep it a secret
Even the most emotionally mature groups of friends are full of prejudice, so it’s best to remain anonymous until a winner is revealed. Instead, give each dish a number. Everyone will get colder as soon as their stomachs are full.
Give people multiple ways to “win”
“Best” is such a subjective metric, so I like to provide additional ones. In addition to handing out simple scorecards to “score” each entry, give people the opportunity to write superlatives such as “most creative”, “most savory”, “best use of chocolate” or “most alcoholic”, depending on the dish in the restaurant. . hand. (This will help ensure that the competition stays healthy, a state I aspire to achieve someday.)