The best nights don’t always happen when you’re out. At-home dinner parties are back in fashion, but gone are the days of ceremonial white table linen and stuffy seating plans.
Midweek meals have supplanted Saturday night soirées. Kitchen tables or picnic-style set-ups are preferable to formal diningrooms, and tablescaping is rustic rather than fancy.
The cost of eating out is cited by some as a reason for this shift. For others outside Dublin, restaurant closures during Covid left them with fewer options. But they all agree that there’s a cosy feeling of community that comes with feeding people in your own home that’s a catalyst for real connection.
The 2025 World Happiness Report, which surveyed 150,000 people across 142 countries and territories, appears to support this, finding that countries where meal sharing is common had significantly higher levels of wellbeing.
RM Block
So what does a modern-day dinner party look – and taste – like? Here, four enthusiastic hosts-come-cooks reveal how they prepare their own perfect at-home, stress-free feast.
Al Higgins
“Food has become a really cool thing, so it’s nice to be able to say, yes, I can cook,” says photographer Al Higgins. He loves to cook and his wife Amy, who is a DJ, loves to bake, so they have people over at least once a month. They always host at Thanksgiving, as Amy is from the US.
The couple lives in a “tiny” house in Stoneybatter. “So we lay out plates on a small table and everybody takes as and when they want to. It’s always very communal and informal,” he says. For those who don’t have a lot of space, he advises just leaning into it and making the evening really cosy.
Higgins’s go-to dinner party menu begins with fresh burrata, whatever citrus is in season, olive oil and sea salt served with crackers – a recipe “stolen from a wine bar in Paris called La Buvette”.
“Then I usually serve mussels in cider; it’s really easy to make, takes 10 minutes and it tastes delicious.” For the main course, he likes to serve a big sharing steak, which he cooks on a smoker out the back of the house.
My job is very much about following processes, but in the kitchen I get to be really creative
“I’ll have a nice leafy salad with a bit of citrus to cut through the fat of the beef, and potatoes of some kind. Ballymackenny Farm always has weird spuds, like fingerlings – they’re long red potatoes that are fun to serve. Then Meg will have an amazing pie, like lemon and lime or pumpkin – whatever feels seasonal.” Meg also looks after the playlist for the evening.
Higgins likes to pair drinks with each course. “I’ll make a Mai Tai cocktail to start and have a couple of others planned through the evening, which I’ll have prepared in advance. For any sober friends, I’ll make non-alcoholic cocktails so they never feel left out.”
Many of the couple’s friends work in hospitality, so they’re more likely to gather people on a Monday night than at the weekend. Their dinner parties can include anything from two to 16 guests.
“With the cost of beef and groceries so high, it’s expensive whether you eat out or at home, especially if you’re treating people. I spent about €230 on produce for a recent dinner party, and there’s the time involved travelling around buying everything.”
But the 39-year-old enjoys the whole ritual. “For me, it’s a break from work. I like planning the meal, setting a timetable for the day and ticking things off my list. which is quite satisfying. Then I get to have a nice meal at the end of it with people I care about.”
Lorna McMillan
Cooking is definitely a love language for 33-year-old Lorna McMillan. “I’m a firm believer in showing people you care for them. Sometimes, as Irish people, we are really bad at that; we take the piss out of each other all of the time. For me, cooking is a chance to show friends and family how much they mean to me.”
McMillan likes that everyone can just let their guard down at a private dinner party. “You can be as loud as you want to, whereas in a restaurant you have to be very aware of your surroundings. At home or in a friend’s house, you can be who you are 100 per cent. It’s a safer environment.”
The tech worker lives in Drimnagh in Dublin with her partner Nickie; they have people around about once a week. For larger groups, they’ll bring garden furniture into the kitchen so there’s a nice mismatched feel.
“Hosting in the kitchen means I’m still at the party, not away from everybody else cooking. I feel I can still enjoy myself and I think it relaxes our friends when they can see that everything is under control.”
The last dinner party she hosted was for a friend’s 40th. She served bread with seaweed butter, potato roasties with an Asian-inspired crab mix, Korean fried chicken, furikake fries with wasabi mayo, and burrata with chilli crisps and fried wontons. If she’s keeping things simple, she’ll serve arancini balls and spaghetti and meatballs.
“Meatballs and arancini balls don’t have to be perfect; they can be nice and rustic. Arancini is quite straightforward if you’ve made risotto earlier in the week. Just roll it into balls straight from the fridge, coat in panko breadcrumbs and cook in the oven, air fryer or shallow fry.”
McMillan enjoys pairing wine with each dish, and favours natural wine, so guests contribute to the cost of the wine rather than bringing a bottle. She also prepares a welcome cocktail.
“It’s a nice way to kick-start the evening by enjoying a special cocktail together and you can batch make them so it’s easy. I think it’s nice that everyone is drinking the same thing. One of the reasons we started wine pairing was because we wanted everybody to have the same experience and it’s fun to hear people’s opinions.”
Cooking is McMillan’s creative outlet. “My job is very much about following processes, but in the kitchen I get to be really creative and show friends and family how much I love to host them.”
Kela Hodgins
Kela Hodgins is the owner of a luxury holiday rental, Dunowen House, in west Cork. She enjoys having friends around for dinner because “it’s a nice, relaxed alternative to eating out where everyone can get together and actually hear each other talk and just be more intimate”.
She prefers not to have the pressure of a time slot. “I don’t like to eat late so if we get a 7 o’clock sitting in a restaurant, we need to be off that table by 9pm. I hate the pressure of that, of watching the clock.”
Hodgins has a very large kitchen, so that’s where she hosts. “It’s very much ‘take us as you find us’, and if people arrive while I’m still cooking, part of the fun and the experience is giving them jobs to do. I like to use rustic-style serving dishes and the style of food is very relaxed.”
People love to entertain in their own homes now and curate the same experiences you’d get in a restaurant
Hodgins has several vegetarian and vegan friends, so she often serves a selection of curries – vegan, vegetarian, fish and meat.
“Indian and Asian food lend themselves well to lots of flavours and so they appeal to vegetarian and vegan tastes. I’ll often pop down to Union Hall in the morning to buy fish; I love cold fish platters for starters, with prawns, crab claws and oysters.”
Lamb shanks is another crowd pleasing dish for carnivores. “I would put those in the oven at 10am for four or five hours. They’re really handy to do as you can’t really overcook them.” The 56-year-old says she can host a dinner party for the same price she and her husband pay for a meal out.
“I don’t mind spending a lot of money on a really good meal, but we could easily hand over €200 in a restaurant and only have an okay experience. I can probably entertain 10 people on that budget,” she adds.
Most of Hodgins’ friends also work in hospitality or retail so dinner parties are usually held midweek and about twice a month, to a backdrop of 70s, 80s or 90s alternative music. Most guests bring a bottle; some will bring a dessert or cheese.
“I love when somebody arrives with a nice local cheese. We’ve all got so much stuff – I don’t need more scented candles, but bringing something practical that we can all use on the night is great.”
Ngozi Elobuike
Founder of Hi Spirits Wine Club, Ireland’s first black-led wine community, Elobuike often entertains friends in her Grand Canal Dock home. “My friends are at my house during the week at least three to four times, which means I spend a lot of time in community with them, cooking casually, opening up a bottle of wine. It doesn’t have to be an occasion, but I will host something a bit more special at least once a month.”
The 27-year-old works for Google by day, but she has an MBA in wine and spirits from the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon and along with her boyfriend, a data analyst who works in fintech and a self-taught chef, hosts occasional supper clubs.
Elobuike believes we are all craving “the safety and proximity of community in an increasingly digitally distanced world”. For her generation, Covid cut short that period in your 20s of socialising all of the time. “The art of hosting has replaced it, and people love to entertain in their own homes now and curate the same experiences you’d get in a restaurant.”
Her Nigerian-American heritage informs her approach to hosting, from a social and culinary perspective. “Most people don’t know that the Harlem Renaissance started at a supper club. African-American leaders in art and culture – the likes of Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin – met over dinner to talk about the shift in culture, which was happening in that era,” she explains.
“The intimate moments we spend with one another across a table open up all sorts of questions and conversations.”
She loves to draw on African and Caribbean flavours when she cooks. “My boyfriend and I use a lot of oysters but with scotch bonnet, a pepper typically used in African cooking. I make a melon salad and fresh melon cocktails; I love to take one ingredient and use it across an entire meal. So I’ll take the rind from the melon and create a juice, then make an ouzo melon spritz.”
Duck with plantain and berry compote is another favourite dish. “Plantain is a really popular staple in African, Caribbean, Latin American and Asian diets. Last summer, I brought plantain-infused rum back from the UK and made cocktails with it so guests could taste the plantain on their tongue while they were eating and drinking.”
Elobuike collaborated with a micro-distiller last year to produce Ireland’s first pan-African-inspired gin. Called Zorelle, it’s hibiscus infused. “A lot of drinks in West Africa and the Caribbean have a hibiscus base so I wanted to nod to that. Anytime I prepare a welcome cocktail, I’ll use my own gin.”
Most of the wines she selects are from Africa or the Caribbean. When preparing a dinner party or a supper club, she always considers how she can engage the five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and sound. But the atmosphere evolves from the warmth of the relationships in the room, she believes.
Expert advice
Jess Murphy, chef and owner of Kai Restaurant in Galway
New Zealander Jess Murphy suggests skipping the starter and serving a cocktail instead. “A signature cocktail gives everybody something to talk about. Provide something like a savoury biscuit with it just to get the juices flowing. Blood orange gin and tonic is really easy. You can make it in a jug ahead of time and keep it in the freezer.”
She believes the simpler the food, the more people appreciate it. “A beautiful fish pie can be made in the afternoon. Put mash on top, refrigerate, then whack in the oven for 40 minutes until it’s golden brown and bubbling. The whole house will smell wonderful when people arrive.”
For anyone working 9-5 and under time pressure, she suggests popping into Sheridans in Galway for a few confit ducks. “Strip them and put them on a big salad with clementines and endive or some rocket. Dauphinoise potatoes are the heart of everything. After that, stick with root veg like braised carrots with orange juice and olive oil; kale is abundant too. And nuts are a great garnish. Some really good quality walnuts go a long way if they’re crushed and sprinkled on a salad.”
To keep costs down, she says don’t over-cater. “A little pot of crab will feed eight to 10 people. We tend to buy too much, especially for larger groups for fear someone might go home hungry. But if you’re cooking for friends and family, they’ll tell you if they’re hungry and then there’s always bread and potatoes.”
She says these days dinner parties are about making things as easy as possible so you can spend time with people. “You’re not on Come Dine With Me. Nobody’s going to hold up a paddle at the end of the night and talk about you in the cab on the way home.”
Mindi Keane, founder of Mama Nagi’s Indian chilli pastes and Ireland AM cook
Ugandan-born Keane regularly caters for private dinner parties. The vibe is always very laid-back. “People just want to have fun, have a drink and be entertained. I cook live so sometimes guests will join in and have a laugh trying to roll out chapattis.”
Prepping ahead of time is key to a stress-free evening. She chops the vegetables in advance and cooks starters like samosas and onion bhajis earlier in the day. “Tandoori chicken is another good one. It can be marinated overnight and popped in the oven shortly before people arrive.” She recommends hosts do all of their dirty work ahead of time so all they have to worry about on the night is turning on the oven or heating something up. “Cooking a curry in advance means the flavour will be nicely matured,” she adds.
Don O’Neill, fashion designer and trained chef
“In wintertime, boeuf bourguignon is my go-to dinner party dish,” says Kerry-based Don O’Neill, who with his husband Pascal loves to entertain. “Everyone enjoys it, always, and it’s something you can get on in the morning and leave to simmer.”
O’Neill says it’s always better when you have a lot of guests to cook a one-pot dish. “I pride myself on a light, fluffy, creamy mashed potato and it’s the perfect accompaniment to beef bourguignon with buttery green peas.” He advises having all the prep work done in advance – potatoes peeled and sitting in water ready to be boiled, bourguignon made and in the oven.
“I always let people serve themselves so they don’t end up with a giant plate of food in front of them. People can always go back for seconds.”
The important thing for O’Neill is the people around the table. “It’s about having friends over who we haven’t seen in ages, and the conversation. It’s about making that as easy and cosy as possible so that everyone feels relaxed. We always make dinner feel like an event but without it looking overmanaged or overproduced. It’s warm and inviting.”
