I think it’s a genius idea to hire a chef for a party. There’s always the potluck option for a get together, but it’s not my style. Too many weird Jello salads show up. I like my food to make sense (i.e. to compliment my theme) and I shy away from assigning guests to bring specific entrees complete with a recipe and picture. Although I’ve thought about it. My husband also likes to have awesome food at our parties, but awesome food usually has some part of it that has to be prepared at the last minute to make it good. This means that you are cooking or chopping or busy when your guests arrive. So, to avoid this I hired a chef for The Trophy Husband party. She gave me the ingredients list. I bought the hard to find stuff (like agave, nama shoyu, young coconuts, etc.) and I assigned everyone else one food item. A head of purple cabbage. One bunch of cilantro. 12 limes. You know, sort of potluck style. Our beautiful and talented chef Melissa Chappell made up a task list and once the party started we divided into groups, each group preparing part of the meal, like opening the coconuts, chopping the veggies, or making the dressing for the salad.

Rule #2: Don’t tell your husband about your plan, he’ll just say that his friends hate to cook. P.S. His friends loved the food. And they all helped make it. You can find our chef here at Raw Melissa.