8 Ways to Make Your Kitchen Party-Perfect
Create a space your guests will love
By Judi Ketteler
With the end of summer comes the start of indoor dinner party season, and no matter how hard you try to steer them away, guests will-without fail-end up in your kitchen. You can scrub, sweep, and scour your kitchen in preparation for a party, but this room of hard surfaces and functionality often lacks personality. So why not make it a stylish and unique space your guests will enjoy? Here are a few tips from entertaining guru and chef to the stars, Lulu Powers, author of Lulu Powers: Food to Flowers (2010, William Morrow).
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Here are Powers's favorite ideas for making your kitchen a destination hot spot for your guests.
1. Set up a bar.
Transform your countertop, island, or kitchen table into a bar. Be sure to have an ice bucket or two-big glass vases or silver buckets work nicely-along with glasses and drink ingredients. Simple things are best, like a bowl of frozen grapes that people can put in Champagne. Always offer to make your guests a drink when they arrive; but after that, the bar area can be self-serve.
2. Prepare a special drink.
Every party should have a signature drink, Powers says. Take your cue from the season or the theme of the party, if you have one. A favorite of Powers is the Dark 'n' Stormy (recipe below.) She also loves to showcase simple drinkmaking directions in creative ways, like writing them with a Sharpie marker on white porcelain (anything made of white porcelain can be written on with a Sharpie and then cleaned with a cloth), on a pretty gift tag, or on a framed piece of cardstock.
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3. Rent what you need.
Stop stressing about what you don't have in your kitchen or china cabinet, and just rent it, Powers says. Everything-everything-is rentable, from china and glassware to vintage chandeliers, drink carts, and doughnut makers. Renting means you don't have to worry about storing everything, and most rental companies drop off and pick up.
4. Offer simple but inspired snacks.
"You can't go wrong with a great bowl filled with potato chips," Powers says. Or serve air-popped popcorn, but mix some truffle oil in with the melted butter and pour on top. Set out shot glasses next to the popcorn and put a big scoop in the popcorn bowl. "It's cheap and chic," she says and will make your guests feel at home in your kitchen.
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5. Use good-looking, functional pieces.
The pieces you use in your kitchen every day can do double duty for serving. "Don't forget about your cutting board," Powers says. Outfit it with cheese and a few bowls of olives, or bread and butter.
6. Create atmosphere.
Your kitchen is so much more than a work-space. Switch out light bulbs to soft pink, light delicious-smelling candles (but nothing that will compete with food smells; Powers loves cilantro-orange candles), and use earth-friendly, scented sprays to wipe down your counter. (She loves parsley spray, and others available at ecos.com.)
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7. Scape your table.
"An interesting tablescape in the kitchen or dining room is fun to look at, and it can be a conversation piece," Powers says. She loves to pile homegrown tomatoes from her yard on a beautiful tray. Other ideas: Buy a bag of oranges and lemons and put them in a bowl; fill bowls with various candies; put out a series of bud vases, each with a single stem; or arrange pretty flowers and leaves from your yard into found vases (like vintage milk jugs or mason jars).
8. Be prepared.
Have 90 percent of the prep done by the time your guests cross the threshold to your kitchen, she says. Your guests are there to be your guests, and just because they're in the kitchen, they shouldn't be made to work, she says.
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Dark 'n' Stormy
-1½ oz. Gosling's Black Seal Rum or any other dark rum
-Splash of bitters (optional)
-About ½ cup ginger beer ½ lime
Fill highball glass with ice, add rum and splash of bitters, and top with ginger beer. Squeeze lime into the glass, stir, and add the lime to the drink.
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