How to Plan a Dinner Party - The Next Iron Chef

You have to first decide on your guest list. You want foodie friends who love cooking. As fun as it sounds to be the Next Iron Chef at the dinner party, it takes a lot of work to prepare an Iron Chef dish from scratch. Even though we did one dish each, every person spent 3-4 hours preparing their dish.

1. Invite 3-4 foodie friends to attend your Next Iron Chef dinner party

2. Invite 2 judges to judge the dishes based on presentation, originality, and taste. Judges bring or prepare the alcoholic beverages or cocktails for the night.

3. Each chef will provide you with a list of 5 'secret' ingredients.

4. Set the NEXT IRON CHEF DATE! All of the chefs will need to be ready for the 'secret ingredient' at 10am with dinner that evening at 6pm.

When your chefs are choosing their secret ingredient, remember that the ingredient will be used in EVERY dish! If you have 4 chefs, each chef will be cooking one of the following dishes:

1. appetizer

2. salad

3. main dish/ entrée

4. dessert

We had mushroom one time as the 'secret' ingredient and boy, that chef was amazing to be able to make ice cream sandwiches with a sweet mushroom topping.

Let your chefs know to consider this when choosing their secret ingredients. Here are some ideas to get you started. Anything goes and your chefs will enjoy participating in the 'secret' ingredient. Alternatively, you can get your judges to choose the ''secret' ingredient.

lemon, ginger, peppermint, chocolate, apple, mango, butternut squash, carrot, cranberry, cinnamon, zucchini, beef, basil, cucumber, lime, pineapple.

At 10am (or time of your choice), you will let your chefs know to be on Facebook messenger, Skype, or email, or any communication of your choice.

1. Randomly draw a 'secret' ingredient and let everyone know what it is.

2. Randomly draw a dish for each chef.

Last time I had an Iron Chef dinner party, the secret ingredient chosen was BUTTERNUT SQUASH. My dish was a SALAD.

(We were all thankful that it wasn't beef ;)

Each chef has until dinner time to find a recipe, get their ingredients, and prepare their dishes.

I think that you will be very surprised at how the dinner party turns out. This is a creative and amazing way to enjoy a fine dining experience at home with friends and try food combinations that you never thought possible.

I never really cooked with butternut squash before but after the Next Iron Chef experience, it made it seem easy.