Dinner Party Turn Offs

For those who have ever turned up to a dinner party and been unsure of how to behave, research out today reveals the nation’s top ten dinner party faux pas.

It may be a sign of the times that a third of us (32 per cent) regard speaking on a mobile or checking a Blackberry as their biggest dinner party bug bear. The research from Loyd Grossman Sauces also revealed that snooping around your host’s house, instigating an argument and bringing an uninvited guest are all big no no’s.

Loyd Grossman, food critic and taste expert, wants to encourage more entertaining at home and to ensure us that cooking for friends and family is as enjoyable and stress-free as possible.

Top Ten Dinner Party Faux Pas

11.   Talk on your mobile or check emails

12.   Snoop about hosts house

13.   Start an argument

14.   Bring an uninvited guest

15.   Upset the host

16.   Get too drunk

17.   Not bringing a bottle of wine

18.   Turn up late

19.   Not finishing your dinner

20.   Not offering to help with the cleaning up

With more and more of us making meal times at home a bigger occasion thanks to convenient and delicious pre-prepared products, the need to enjoy good conversation at dinner has never been more important.

With our busy working lives and long working hours, it is refreshing to know that when it comes to eating with friends and family, Brits leave talk of work at the office, with just over one in five of us (21 per cent) preferring to talk about our families at dinner parties.

Celebrity gossip (16 per cent) and both our own and other people’s relationships (20 per cent) are also high up on the list of topics for conversation, leaving more controversial subjects like religion, politics and money for less social occasions.

Re-evaluating the nation’s dinner party habits comes at a time when more and more of us are opting to stay in and entertain, with three in five people (60 per cent) happily swapping their nights out in favour of cooking dinner for family and friends. With nearly half of us (45 per cent) admitting to eating out less than this time last year.

Loyd Grossman comments; “Despite the potential pitfalls that we are often apprehensive about before dinner parties, it is a lot easier to host a night in for family and friends than you think. It’s important to keep the food simple however never compromising on quality, such as easy to prepare curry, or Bolognese as people are more impressed by good home-cooking than over-complicated dishes.”

He continues: “With one in four (24 per cent) of us claiming that we are likely to be home without anything to do during the week, what better time to re-introduce the big night in an occasion to enjoy good food with friends and family”

Top Ten Dinner party conversation

11.   Family

12.   Quality of the food

13.   Celebrity gossip

14.   Relationships

15.   Friend’s love lives

16.   Politics

17.   Your kids

18.   Work

19.   Money

20.   Religion