Hosting a good party is a skill. And like all skills, there are ways to practice and improve. Whether you’re hosting for the holidays this year, planning a New Year’s Eve party, or just want to have a few friends over on a random weeknight, pick up a thing or two from the hosting advice we’ve gathered below courtesy of some of the best in the business, including Ina Garten, Padma Lakshmi, Claire Saffitz, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and more.
Padma Lakshmi
“It’s nice to have an activity in the kitchen for your guests to break the ice. Like “Here, can you two make the salad?” It’s the people that make a good dinner party. The silverware doesn’t really matter; the plates can be paper. It’s in the exchange.” —Bon Appétit, May 2023
Ina Garten
“Simple always works best for me. When I’m setting the table for a dinner party, I start with the flowers and build from there. It’s kind of like having the dress and then matching the jewelry and shoes.” —Instagram, August 2023
Oprah Winfrey
“The first thing I do is offer Champagne when people come to the door or if you don’t drink, a glass of sparkling water. I learned from John Travolta’s 50th birthday party that starting with some kind of beverage helps people feel welcome and invited.” —O magazine, October 2015
Claire Saffitz
“Do whatever is easiest for you. Delegate as much as possible. Ask people to help out with dishes. Don’t be afraid to modify the plan.” —New York Times, November 2023
Martha Stewart
“I never serve snacks at parties. It’s either hors devours [sic] or a meal … Hors devours are prepared foods one would serve with meals or wine. Snacks are something you get out of a bag or a box.” —Reddit’s Ask Me Anything Series, March 2014
Laila Gohar
“Don’t lose sight of why you’re hosting to begin with. You’re being generous with your time and sharing yourself and your home with other people — that’s really what it’s all about. It’s not about you making a fancy meal. If people want a fancy Michelin-star meal, most likely they’ll get a better one at a restaurant no matter how hard you try. It’s really about the experience. If you’re stressed about something, the people in your home won’t be able to relax either.” —the Cut, April 2024
Allison Janney
“A successful dinner party is all about social chemistry. It’s about the people you invite. You’ve got to really think about who will get along with who. Who’s going to be good at talking? Who’s good at listening? Curating the right group of people.” —the Cut, May 2024
Issa Rae
“Make sure the playlist is correct. Make sure the seating chart is on point and that the drinks are flowing immediately when they walk in the door. And you can’t start the dinner late. When I go to a dinner party, I show up hungry, so there shouldn’t be a delay in the food. The food should be prepared, it should be warmed up, and it should be ready.” —the Cut, October 2023
Nora Ephron
“It is absolutely essential to have a round table. If you have people to dinner and make good food and then put your guests at a long rectangular table where people can’t hear what’s going on at the other end of the table and are pretty much trapped talking to the person on either side of themselves … well, what is the point?” —The Most of Nora Ephron, January 2013
Jenny Slate
“Have just enough of the cooking left that you can have that really fun moment of all standing around in the kitchen with wine. I think it makes everybody feel that they’re in a really fun ’90s rom-com, where they’re just friends and everyone’s living their life and having a really fun time with their adult treat. Love that, where you can give someone the opportunity to lean against your countertop and drink their wine and be like, ‘I’m so glad it’s Friday.’” —the Cut, February 2024
Abby Elliott
“Don’t cap anyone’s alcohol and have plenty of food. Don’t stop anyone at any time from eating or drinking something they want. Letting everyone kind of sit and enjoy everything in front of them is important.” —the Cut, June 2023
Phillipa Soo
“Prepping so you don’t have to work during the party. I’ve hosted a couple times when I was a young adult, and I was cooking in the kitchen the whole time. I’ve done a lot of work over the years to make sure I get everything prepped and really nice so it can be fun and casual. Also, as people arrive, I put them to task putting out crudités platters and mixing up dressings. I try to include people in the process of getting everything ready, otherwise you feel like you’re alone and stressed in the kitchen the whole time.” —the Cut, November 2024
Ego Nwodim
“You’re gonna want two mains if you haven’t checked with your guests, plus two starchy sides and two vegetables. And always have enough wine. I don’t like wine, but people love wine.” —the Cut, August 2024
Kristen Kish
“Working in restaurants for the majority of my career means I have a ‘get it done’ mentality and no wine until after my work is complete. I clean as I go, but the aftermath of dinner dishes, I do what I can to pass those responsibilities off. And I’ll typically try to find someone to make me a grilled cheese. After cooking the meal I don’t really want to eat it. I nearly have an entire tasting menu with all of the bites and tastes I have during the process. Everything tastes better cooked by someone else, unless they are a shit cook. But I do my best to avoid asking those dinner guests.” —Vogue, November 2015
Kris Jenner
“One of the things I enjoy most about entertaining and cooking for my family is the joy I get from the table setting … I am notorious for my table settings and my dishes. If I’m cooking an Italian meal, I will grab my red Hèrmes china to go with the red sauce … Some people paint, others make music and dance, I make table settings. That’s my way of expressing my artistic and creative side.” —In the Kitchen With Kris, October 2014
Elsa Maxwell
“Don’t just invite people you think will ‘get along.’ Have controversial figures. I always make it a point to invite a few people who can’t abide each other. There’s nothing that adds zest to a party like a couple of enemies who keep bumping into each other over a dish of stuffed olives.” —Los Angeles Times, April 1961
Stacey Abrams
“When I have guests over, I have this really nice set of plates from Crate & Barrel … that’s what I use. I’d do a runner as well. It makes a table feel sophisticated without it being too complicated. And then nice placemats that fit with the runner, but it’s not stuffy.” —Bon Appétit, May 2021
Julia Child
“I don’t believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make. When one’s hostess starts in with self-deprecations such as ‘Oh, I don’t know how to cook…,’ or ‘Poor little me…,’ or ‘This may taste awful…,’ it is so dreadful to have to reassure her that everything is delicious and fine, whether it is or not. Besides, such admissions only draw attention to one’s shortcomings (or self-perceived shortcomings), and make the other person think, ‘Yes, you’re right, this really is an awful meal!’ Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed — eh bien, tant pis! Usually one’s cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, as my ersatz eggs Florentine surely were, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile — and learn from her mistakes.” —My Life in France, 2006
Sohla El-Waylly
“If I’m just having, like, four to eight people over, we gather around the table, and it’s more loose. But if there’s more than 20 people coming over, then I think about setting up different stations in my home to force people to mingle. We’ll have a corner where the beverage station is set up, then we’ll have the appetizers across the room, which forces people to walk through. When you have more folks coming over, you’ve just got to tweak things a bit — and also budget more time for everything.” —CBC, December 2023
Dorothy Draper
“The first requisite for such a party is good liquor. The second is plenty of it.” —Entertaining Is Fun! How to Be a Popular Hostess, 1941
Maya Angelou
“Every December, I host a tree-trimming party. I serve chili with cornbread and lots of good wine. It’s a wonderful party, and it shows how much adults like to play. I put out ornaments in four different colors, and I name captains for the red team, blue team, green team, and silver team. You hear them getting into it and shouting, ‘Don’t put the blue ball there; it’s too close to my red!’ But every year, the tree looks more beautiful.” —Redbook, November 2010
Lana Condor
“I really just love matte, muted blues. I love that for my dishes. And then I like to have one statement serving dish in a different color. I recently got this Dutch oven that’s so great. It’s a beautiful pot that was gifted to me by Jenny Han, who wrote To All the Boys. It’s from Great Jones and it’s just a delicious evergreen color. It’s not so heavy that you can’t just pop it on the table. I like to put it in the center. That’s where I’ll have my soup so everyone can just ladle it out of there.” —Bon Appétit, March 2021
Elizabeth Gilbert
“I consider a good dinner party at our house to be where people drink and eat more than they’re meant to. My husband is a really fantastic cook. His mother is Italian and if you walk into our house, we assume you’re starving. And we also assume that you’re thirsty and that you need good caipirinhas and wine, so there’s a lot of running around, filling up glasses and plates.” —GQ, May 2012
Margaret Atwood
“We’d begin with a salad that involves oranges, avocados, and endive. Then Graeme would make this chicken dish that involves putting a lot of legs and thighs, a huge amount of garlic, an onion, a bouquet garni, and some cloves into a big Le Creuset. You make a dough out of flour, water, salt, and oil, roll it out like a sausage, and wrap it around the pot’s rim. As it bakes, it forms a seal and the chicken steams in all that garlic. The dough gets quite hard. It’s a ceremonial moment when you crack it with a hammer. We’d serve it with potatoes and green beans. For dessert I’d make the fluffy baked lemon custard from The Joy of Cooking. I’d set out white china with red trim (which belonged to Graeme’s grandfather), candles, and either some florals or a crystal ball — which, yes, I have in my possession. —Bon Appétit, March 2022
Laura Jackson
“I hate fancy dress, but I love a themed dinner. It makes it easier to have a subtle note running through the night … I’m doing an Italian night for a friend’s birthday. I’ll print Italian menus, serve a spritz to start and we’ll have meats from Lina Stores — the theme gives a purpose to the night.” —Elle, May 2021
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