Iron Chef Cooking Party

Party Idea.

The economy is forcing everyone to be a little more creative with entertaining these days. Many people get anxious thinking of hosting parties, between the shopping, cooking and clean up, where is the enjoyment? Well Hip Hostess has come up with a way to enjoy your own party and make sure everyone is having a great time as well. The Iron Chef Cooking Party! This party will allow guests to flex their creative muscles and bond, while attempting to out-cook the opposing team.

Unless you have a kitchen as large as The Iron Chef, I would suggest giving each team an allotted time slot for strategizing, prep, cooking and clean up. The remaining teams then follow in course order with the same allotted time. The best thing to do is pick an easy theme such as Mexican where the same ingredients can be used for many different dishes and this allows you to stretch the budget.

I would lay out the pre-measured ingredients beforehand so that people can take in the ingredients and start formulating a plan from the moment they arrive. Each guest then chooses a number to tell if they will be part of the appetizer, main dish or dessert. Each team will then be allowed to choose "X" amount of ingredients from the pile to begin their dish.

For the all important added twist, you can include a secret ingredient which must be used in each dish. Provide a way to keep dishes warm until the end of the competition. Once everything has been completed and the dinner is ready to serve, guests will get ballots to rate each dish on a scale from 1 to 5. Allow a little extra room in the budget for some cute prizes.

If you are providing the food and the entertainment, guests are always happy to bring an adult beverage of their choice. The host is then only responsible for buying the ingredients. And after choosing a theme, this should be your easiest shopping list ever…just cross reference a couple of recipes for common ingredients. An example would be tortillas which could be used in quesadillas as an appetizer, Burritos as a main dish and Mexican dessert tortillas with ice cream. The guests will take care of the cooking and the clean up and everyone will have fun doing it. Now that is my kind of hosting!