Best (and Easiest) Party I Ever Hosted

An elegant and intimate milestone birthday party

Hosting dinner parties and gatherings at our home is something we love to do. It’s why we finished our basement as a wine themed, entertaining space (future blog post on that!). As a marketing executive, I have hosted events of all sizes and budgets and know that all events whether for 200 or 10 come with some level of stress and effort.

So when it was time to plan a birthday celebration for a milestone birthday for my husband, I had lots of fun ideas but with it being winter, right after the holidays and an event he wasn’t all that thrilled to acknowledge I decided a small but elegant dinner with good food and great wine and our closest friends was the best choice. At first I investigated restaurants but knew I wanted a private room but not a ton of people as a sit-down dinner was my goal but the vibe I was going for, my budget, and the minimum size requirements coupled with a specific date I was trying to secure proved a big challenge.

The more I looked into options, the more I thought about just doing something at our home but I didn’t want it to be like every other event we have hosted. And then it hit me, what if I found a chef that would cook a restaurant quality dinner in our home. Part interactive dinner party, fabulous, fresh menu, and the comfort of our home (meaning no clock ticking on our room rental or reservation). This was the answer! Now to find a chef and see if this idea could become a reality.

Some Googling and perusing of our local Facebook groups and I found a local (right in our town of Metuchen) personal chef and caterer – John Manzo – whose business is called Be My Guest. I shot off an email to John and within one conversation I knew I found my chef! He was super easy to work with and will work up a menu based on your budget and size of group. For me it was a 10 person, sit-down dinner, Mediterranean style menu, and I paid a small extra fee for a waiter in addition to John.

In one of those “small world moments” a couple of weeks after I secured Be My Guest for the event, I actually attended an event that they were catering and got to taste John’s food and meet him in person. It confirmed for me this was the right choice for my husband’s birthday dinner and I was even more excited for the event.

Typically, at least for me, the days leading up to a party at my home are a bit busy running errands, making plans, prepping, etc. But when I started to make a list of what I needed to do for my husband’s birthday I realized most of the work was being done by the chef. They were covering appetizers, salad, entrée. My husband and I had selected the wines already from some of our favorite Napa wineries. And I had ordered a cake and some other desserts from our favorite bakery in Westfield – Bovella’s. Aside from a few decorations and setting the dinner table my work for this event was done in less than 90 minutes. Never have I ever had party prep so easy!

John and his waitress arrived about an hour before our guests to set up and begin prepping. He even helped me finish a charcuterie board I was going to have out for cocktails before we sat down for his meal. Again, easy-peesy for the hostess.

And as our guests started to arrive I got to focus on them and my husband and wasn’t running around checking on heating food or finishing up cooking anything and got to sit down to eat at our dining table for a beautiful meal instead of having to settle for a buffet.

In the end we have an amazing evening celebrating my husband with some of his oldest friends over a beautifully prepared meal by a very entertaining and talented chef. He and his waitress even did the majority of the clean-up before they left so at the end of the night, other than some wine glasses, there was very little to do.

Moral of this story, for that next special occasion, consider an in-home chef and trust me, you won’t regret it. It will be a memorable experience for you and your guests and likely one of the easiest events you have ever thrown.