apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm lucky. My guests are most frequently friends who have been over many times before. The first thing I do is greet them, offer sodas, etc. And the first thing they do is offer help! Normally I decline (my kitchen is WAY too small for more than one person) and let them talk amongst themselves.

If needed, I can talk and cook at the same time as long as what I'm doing isn't terribly complex. Most of the time I'm just putting finishing touches on something or just putting it in the oven so conversation can happen. A good trick is to ask questions and let THEM talk! Another good trick is to serve simple things that are super easy to prepare.

Depending on who we have over, most of our dinner parties include lots of foodie friends who enjoy cooking and like getting their hands dirty, it usually ends up being a cooking party rather than a dinner party.

As long as we have drinks and one or two hors d'oeuvres we are good to cook. :D

No, I can't. I prefer to be in the kitchen solo. Unless I'm barking orders at a willing sous chef, that is!

I've been told I'm bossy in the kitchen (and I'm definitely too distracted to talk)... so I prefer to keep my guests out. I'd hate to accidentally be rude to someone!

I can talk and cook, but if I get flustered I have no problem saying "Wait! gimme a sec to figure this out!" And then once I do, we continue our conversation.

This is my routine:

1. Offer a drink BEFORE you cook.
2. Take off your shoes if you're cooking with someone else (toes get mashed ALL the time).
3. Decide what order things need to be done in.
4. Strike up a conversation
5. Chop all your veggies while gabbing
6. Put the pasta on and SET THE TIMER for however many minutes to remind you it's there (not necessarily the cook time)
7. Give the other person a job too - chopping or tearing meat, making salad, whatever. People are usually happy to help.
8. Ask someone to set the table.
9. Invite them into the kitchen so that they don't feel awkward.
10. Enjoy cooking and dinner with your guests!

I actually get internally cranky (my guests never see it) but that is why I prefer having dinner mostly done (things in the oven staying warm) when people are due to arrive. My brain can't concentrate on cooking and talking, besides very inane chit chat. I am excellent at having 4 different things going on in the kitchen though....never understood the open kitchen phenomenon and like my kitchen closed from the dining space. Guests are entertained by my hubby, hordeuvreses and music until I come out. And the kitchen is just too small for people to help out.

I have a regular routine for dinner parties, the first step of which is to choose a meal that requires very little kitchen time once guests have arrived, usually one that gets finished in the oven.

In fact, the last thing I usually do before guests arrive is to take a shower! If I were fresh out of the kitchen after some marathon cooking, I'm sure I'd be flustered, far too warm, and smelling of onions - not a good impression.

So: bake, shower, take apps out of the fridge, uncork the wine, greet guests. For me, organization saves me the difficulty of trying to multi-task!

No, because I am deaf, and lipread ... which means I have to look at people. Can't look up when you're slicing things. :)

No. ::sigh:: In the recent past, I had to measure flour three times because I kept getting distracted by the (very low key, casual) conversation!

Nope, not me. I usually shoo my husband away from the kitchen because otherwise i would be too distracted.

I can't bake and talk -- too much measuring -- but I get bored if no one talks while I'm cooking. Making sure I've got the mis en place ready makes it easier to chat too.

I know exactly what you mean. I can't hold a conversation at all when I'm cooking. I love the idea of my open kitchen and having friends/family come over, hang out & help out. But it's just all too distracting. I get flustered - feeling like I'm on display and that everyone is just waiting for me to finish so that they can start.

I'm planning my first Thanksgiving Dinner this year, so I'll attempt to factor this all in when planning my menu. This way I can be like jarobinson1, and actually shower & smell pretty before guests arrive.

when I'm measuring it might be a distraction, but during any other tasks, the more the merrier.

I definitely get distracted and will forget to add ingredients or use incorrect measurements, but that often happens even if I am just cooking for myself!

It doesn't bother me at all, and even in the big kitchens, there's a lot of fun banter that I love joining in with and listening to. At home, my friends and Hun seem to love watching me cook, so while they do gather around the "window" (the cutout that looks out into the front room from my kitchen), only part of the conversation is social, and the rest is me fielding questions and explaining what I'm doing. There's no way I can lose track that way. It's kind of like that weird commercial (for a prodcut I can't remember--maybe kitchen appliances) where the wife seems to be hosting her own cooking show while her dinner guests watch, confused, and her husband has to explain that she does it all the time.

Sweet Lord, no one in the South would ever eat if we couldn't talk and cook at the same time. Now, it's always safest to hit the pause button when you're measuring ingredients...just to be one the safe side...but cooking and conversation mesh beautifully in our kitchen.

I work in a lab. You have to be able to talk while doing experiments so I have no problem talking and cooking. Sometimes if the work or cooking is something really fussy, I'll stop talking and listening for a bit.

Yes! I come from a big Italian family. As many as fit in the kitchen cook. The rest backseat drive from the adjacent room. My husband, however, cannot boil water and talk. Thought it was just him...After reading these comments I'll have to cut him some slack!

I actually feel weird cooking without anyone to talk to. I come from a restaurant family and cooking has always been a social activity. Plus now I live in my fraternity house so there are always people in the kitchen when I'm cooking.

Try to make something that you are already very familiar with, so that it is easier to find a break for conversation.

I try my best, but don't always succeed. But I do love it when my guests sit in the kitchen while I cook.

Cooking whilst chatting to whoever is sat at the kitchen table is one of my favourite things to do!

If its something you have problems with I'd say you probably don't get enough practice at cooking!

No! I forget ingredients, can't finish sentences, and most dangerous of all, nod my head yes to questions I'm not really hearing! But I do like listening to the TV while I cook.