If the biggest foodies you knew were coming to dinner, you would serve them….

[berri]

….need a starter, main and dessert ideas! Everything I can think of seems a bit, er crap . Help me with your ideas!

How about bouillabaisse? It's a stew, so familiar territory, but is definitely impressive! And yummy.

I'd go anti-pasti/mezzo starter. Can be prepared in advance and delicious.
Main - lime and chilli crusted salmon with rice, mangetout and baby corn
Pudding- individual strawberry cheesecakes with a dollop of ice cream

Thanks all so much for your input. Lamb seems to come up a lot, maybe I'll try to have a practise before they come over! Desserts are a bit scary, will definitely have to try something I can make in advance....

Thanks again, very much appreciated

Pates and terrines are actually really easy and can look impressive. Here's one that I stole from James martin.

2 packets of streaky bacon
2 packets of 'nice' sausages - different types so maybe Cumberland and pork.
1 pack chicken livers (usually in the freezer of the supermarket)
a chicken breast chopped or you can get 'mini fillets.
salt and pepper and any dried herbs you have in the cupboard
1 loaf tin
a couple of weights / heavy tins.

Line the loaf tin with the bacon.

1. Take a sausage, split it, take off the skin, throw the skin away and make the sausage in to a patty and press in to the lined tin.

2. Do the same with a different sausage, then throw in a chicken liver or a bit of chicken, season.

repeat 1 and 2 until the tin is full and then put more bacon on top so the terrine is completely wrapped.

Put in the oven for 30 mins at 200 deg c

When it comes out of the oven there will be quite a lot of fat that has come out - don't worry about it, put some foil or a foil lid or Tupperware and put weights on top, this will press the liquid fat out and make the terrine more solid.

After an hour or two you can remove it from the loaf tin, it will look impressive.

You can do this a day or two before so no hassle on the day, in fact you can do it a week before and freeze it.

Main - I'd do a one pot stew/casserole.

Pudding - er - I'm not a big pud fan but jam roly poly is underestimated and easy.

I haven't done starters for year, I think they are a bit passé

Cocktails or fizz and nibbles whilst standing and chatting

Then a main and pudding.

I did pulled chicken tacos recently. The list of ingredients was insane and it took ages to make but can make ahead and reheat. Lots of weirdy ingreds including tequila, ancho chilli, orange juice, cloves etc. A good one for foodies. Fairly easy to make but took an age.

Pudding I'd do something seasonal with fruit eg gooseberries.