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Dinner Party Theme Ideas

Like musical chairs, the idea of this dinner party theme is for guests to mix things up and partner with another to prepare and serve a course of the dinner. And in the process, have a little friendly food competition.

Invite 4 couples (or 8 singles) over for this friendly food fight. Send Personalized Aprons/Chef Hats as your dinner party invitations. As each couple arrives, add one of their names into a pot. If you want mixed partners and you have an even number of men and women, add only the men's names. Once everyone is present, let the women choose from the pot. The name she draws become her partner chef for the night. Once everyone has a partner, hold a drawing for the courses of the meal that they will prepare. Or have a small competition with the winners choosing the course they want to prepare.


Have a score card at each place setting for judging each course as it is served. Each team is judged on taste, presentation, cleanliness, and teamwork. You could add other categories to be judged such as Most Culinarily Challenged.

Make sure that the menu is simple enough that even the less talented cooks can handle the recipe. Encourage the cooks to add their own flair to each dish. After all, they are being judged on their course. Have all the recipes, ingredients, dinnerware, and serving pieces that will be needed to prepare each dish. You may want to gather up and label what should be used for each dish to save confusion once things get started.