Easy Entertaining - Host a Themed Cookoff Party

Admittedly, one of my favorite pastimes is eating. I also enjoy cooking. One of the ways I've enjoyed entertaining friends over the years is to combine my love of food with my love of having fun, which has often resulted in "theme nights" where everyone dresses up and eats foods fitting the theme. Some of my favorites were when I hosted a Mexican night and attended a Hawaiian night at a friend's house.

Throwing this type of party may seem like a lot of work or too expensive, but you can organize easily and spend little money. An added exciting feature would be to make the theme night a cookoff among some of your most culinary-minded (or brave) friends.

Themes can be anything from type of food (e.g., Mexican, Italian) to actual food item (e.g., chili, ribs, chicken wings).

Keep it Simple and Inexpensive

As the host, you'll want to offer side items or snacks to your guests. A trick to keeping the planning and preparation simple, along with keeping the budget down, is to keep the side items simple. They can even match the theme.

If you do something like a Mexican-themed cookoff, you can create easy appetizer/side dish trays with chips, salsa, guacamole, cherry tomatoes, slices of cheese with crackers, etc. Some items may fit with the theme while others may not, but notice, they're all extremely easy to make or buy and inexpensive items can be a tasty and filling success at your cookoff.

Another idea is a Mediterranean-themed cookoff, your side items could be various olives, feta cheese, fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, and yogurt (with some red wine to wash everything down).

You could also do something simple and unexpected by creating a "candy bar" full of different candy and chocolate options. Again, it's easy and not overly expensive, and it's fun to get a group of adults bonding over lemon heads, swizzle sticks, Twinkies, or Lindt truffles.

If you want to make some easy appetizers that are always crowd pleasers, check out an article I wrote called "Festive Appetizers."

Change the Stakes

To increase the degree of difficult in the cookoff, an idea that ups the stakes a little is to throw in some Top Chef elements to your cookoff. For example, if the theme requires each contestant to cook his or her best recipe, make one ingredient from the recipe off limits so the contestant has to rethink the recipe. Another Top Chef idea is to have each contestant pick the protein he or she will cook with from an envelope. This twist throws a kink in the mix because a person may be used to using ground beef in chili, then may get stuck with shrimp. *Tip: Don't make it more difficult if your contestants are overly competitive or nervous. A cookoff should be fun for everyone, not stressful.

Go for the Unexpected

Don't be afraid to be creative with your expectations for the cookoff. Sure, people will often think of a chili or barbecue cookoff, but who says much "cooking" has to be involved? The point of the cookoff is for the guests is to eat the delicious food, so I doubt they'd care if you switched up the expectations.

For example, you could have your friends make their best salads for the cookoff. Or you create a health-conscious theme that limited the use of ingredients with lots of starch or saturated fat. To make these decisions, think about what your guests will enjoy. If you have a bunch of meat and potato guests at your cookoff, the salad option may not be the best! But if you have a group of people who are interested in eating healthier and gaining some preparation tips along the way, they might appreciate a salad or health-focused cookoff.

Ratings and Recipes

For your guests to determine the winner, you'll need to provide rating cards that match your theme or type of food. If your cookoff contestants are willing to share their recipes, you can also create recipe cards for your guests that match your theme. You can search online for ideas and/or for free, printable rate and recipe cards.

To rate the dishes, make sure you include items like taste, creativity, after taste, use of ingredients, color, consistency, etc.

Recently, I read an article in The Nest magazine titled "How to Host a Chili Cookoff." In this article, the writer provided a web link to sample judging sheet for a chili cookoff. If you get stuck and need ideas, this may be a good resource. Here is the link: Thenest.com/chili.

Prizes

You need some kind of prize for the winner of your cookoff. One idea is to make a gift basket of items related to the cookoff itself. For example, if you do a barbecue rib cookoff, the prize basket could be filled with grilling utensils and barbecue spices/sauces.

You could also give the winner a gift card along with a certificate of congratulations. If you have a printer at your house, you can wait to print the certificate until the winner has been crowned so you can print it with his or her name.

This is another area where you don't have to spend big bucks, but some kind of acknowledgment of the winner should be expected.

As you can see, most of the ideas I have are to keep the budget down and to keep preparation time from getting out of hand. You can definitely go all out with prizes, side dishes, or whatever you'd like if you want to add more to your cookoff.

Happy Entertaining!