‘My best meal of the year was at a friend’s house’: How the TikTok crowd made dinner parties hot again

‘We’re doing eight courses with matching wine pairings, and the tablescape is going to look amazing on social media.’ As the cost of living spirals and bookings at top restaurants are harder to bag than Taylor Swift tickets, dinner parties are back in a big way. Amira Arasteh speaks to the cool set bringing affordable and glamorous dining to a table very near you

Dining in is the new dining out (Getty/iStock)

We haven’t heard the phrase “unprecedented times” for a while. Remember when we were all stuck inside, denied a walk, a trip to the supermarket and dining out? At first, we were struck by cabin fever, clawing at the walls, desperate to get out. Then we slowly warmed up to the idea that staying in is actually cool; that dining in could be just as good, if not better, than dining out.

We got back into cooking. We tried new recipes, made an occasion out of dinnertime to relieve the ennui, and ordered recipe kits from the restaurants we missed the most or had yet to try. Dinners became dinner parties. Please arrive in the dining room by 7pm. The theme: Covid-19 chic. There will be canapes.

Post-pandemic, upon release we were hurled into the Eat Out To Help Out scheme. The prospect of relishing a meal cooked by someone else, and swerving the washing up, seemed new and fun again. But, after the initial euphoria, we soon realised (or rather, remembered) that dining out is quite a pricey affair.