The 'Food Hike' Dinner Party Idea - Large Group Parties

So your thinking of planning a dinner party but fancy something different to the tradional style. Maybe you have a group of friends and can't decide who is going to host the next party? Maybe your part of a university society or large social group and need ideas for your next fun event? Well the 'Food Hike' dinner party may be just what you need and I promise it isn't as strenous as it sounds!

The concept of this dinner party is pretty simple. Instead of having all the courses in one persons house you will have a different course in a different home. I think this may also be called a 'progressive dinner party'? But here in the UK the 'Food Hike' is something student societies often partake in. It is great for just a few people/couples or a really large party of people. We often did it with over 30 people! Plus it's fun if you put a regional or specific food theme on the party. Our last one was British themed so each course had to be traditional of one of the 4 countries in the UK, we have also had italian themed and themes around a specific letter, colour or ingredient just to add an extra twist to it.

I can't really say there are proper rules to follow but here are the general guidelines.

• A different person must be nominated or volunteer to cook each course.
• Houses must not be next to each other, the idea is that you should have to walk to get to the next course - Hense 'Food Hike'. This works well with students as they usually live in a specific area but not in the same place. But still within walking distance.
• All dishes should be based around a specific theme
• It is often easier if paper plates/bowls are used if there are large amounts of guests. We often carried our own plastic picnic sets from one venue to the next.
• Stopping at pubs on route is perfectly acceptable! Even encouraged!
• People are in charge of their own washing up! (or a person other than the host can be nominated at each venue!)
• Each course is given marks out of 10, just for fun!
• If this is done for a large group or society we found it fairer for everyone to pay a small amount to each host to cover the cost of the food (or a set amount and the hosts do a large food shop together)

I was part of the group of officers for our Scout and Guide Society at my university and as officers we were the ones in charge of hosting the Food Hike each year. Each commity member would take control of a course. There were 5 of us on the commity so this usually worked well. It's a great event to hold to introduce Freshers to the rest of the society.

I hope you have fun!