The "half" because I cooked for a bunch of friends than sat down to eat with them, as opposed to me spending the entire evening in the kitchen. That "half" night, was the night I looked at a whole rabbit on my chopping board than attempted to cut it in half, than again and again with a big, shiny cleaver.
Since than, my average crowd is a bakers dozen, plus one. They like to corral near me in the kitchen. Being a beginner and all with this whole charging people to come to my house so I can cook for them, I decided to start with the people I know and than some people they know.
A good mix of characters is essential. A few of these one's and those one's. Maybe that couple since they love a chat. That person has great stories. She just gets in there and makes decisions. He will make you feel special. She will hold eye contact when having a conversation.
Usually, you're going to want dinner guests that are really just happy to get amongst it, eat and open another bottle of wine. Than another. One must be careful of one's dinner guest drinking too much than collapsing or falling asleep on the warm, soft couch.
I've gone from serving my guests their meals on shiny, round, white plates. Plates that have you oohing and aahing at your leafy green salad with soft goats cheese. But really, a little credit is owed to the plate. It wouldn't look as wonderful if your leafy salad was sitting on a plate covered with stripes and other colourful patterns. It just wouldn't.
Than I've gone to serving my guests the good old family style way. I keep on going back to this simple method. I was a little torn at first, but having to cook in a relatively small kitchen at three to five courses for fourteen people with each serving on different shiny, round, white plates, was proving more than a challenge and no more fun for me. In my mind I can do it, but executing it solo was a little more trying. Family style it is, all the way.
The family way is much more sociable to say the least. Your dinner guests are practically forced to communicate to one and other. Not only are they likely to be knocking elbows, but if they know what's good for them they would probably want to be talking about passing this or that dish along, making sure everybody gets a portion of whatever is going around.
One might wonder why you would want to talk to a stranger with a mouth full of food which happens to be no more attractive than watching a camel chew with dull observation? To see what happens next of course.
There will always be ideas rubbing off each other. I like how so many of my fantastic ideas become a realization for doing it a different way next time. That's learning right? I have learnt that photographs of food are usually there for inspiration, not to use the F word really loudly over and over because yours didn't turn out the same. Move on.
I have learnt that I like to serve three to four courses for my dinners, not four to five. I have learnt that if I want to take myself seriously as a person cooking in the kitchen, I should only pour myself a glass of wine once dessert has gone out and my walls are no longer the colour of the roasted tomato's that went out as a my first course. That one I accidentally read as a rule of thumb, nothing exciting happened for me to make that rule for myself. Not in the last three years anyway.
So, my summer in Seattle was spent hosting more than a few backyard dinners. I was lucky to have wonderful friends that didn't feel obliged to come to my home and let me cook for them, at a small fee, but were more than happy, even at short notice, to enjoy my summer of cooking with me. I've learnt and am learning and of course will always be. One step at a time. Two dreams forward, one reality back. I am okay with that.
A side note from me: most of these photos were taken on Granville Island, Vancouver B.C. Very far from where my backyard dinners took place. There was no time to take photos of my food or my hungry guests. There just wasn't.
