How to Host a Cross Cultural Christmas Dinner

When it's cold outside, having friends over for dinner warms up your spirits instantly. My friends in London speak a mix of Italian, Spanish and English. Hosting a festive dinner party with them involves eating new foods, having discussions with big hand gestures and learning new vocabulary.

My main tip for hosting a dinner party is to be flexible. You can’t plan for everything – for guests to be on time when there’s snow outside and for all dishes to be perfect. The unexpected fun and frivolity is the best sort though!

Have a starter with lots of oozing cheese and bread

For starters we enjoyed caramelized red onion, olive, sundried tomato and brie tarts. This was also accompanied by baked camembert cheese stuffed with garlic and fresh thyme and drizzled with olive oil. Ciabatta bread was on hand to mop up the cheese.

Learn to make an impromptu dish – Le Con Tomate

Maria showed me a very easy Spanish tomato and bread dish which I incorrectly called bruschetta. On a piece of ciabatta grab a tomato sliced in half and squeeze it onto the bread. Rub it against the bread so all the juice soaks in. Add a sprinkle of salt and olive oil. You can top this up with more cheese or ham if you like too.

Make your oven work overtime

Before dinner the oven was pumping out Christmas cookies right before it finished off roasting the main course - a whopping 3.3 kg roast pork! The crackle was crisp and crunched nicely in your mouth it was perfectly roasted by Lorraine.

We also devoured Chiara’s Italian ragu – she makes her own special tomato sauce.

Improve your food vocabulary in Spanish and Italian

Did you know that salad is called ensalada in Spanish and insalata in Italian?

Have a hands on dessert like fondue

For the seriously decadent finale we had not one, not two, but three separate desserts. I made a sticky date pudding with Baileys dessert sauce and a cheesecake from Tesco. The cheesecake was surprisingly good!

Fondue is fun - dipping strawberries and grapes into chocolate feels naughty but oh so nice! Since there’s fruit involved you feel somewhat healthy even if there's 300g of melted chocolate to get through. The only thing left to do was to wash it all down with mulled wine and cider.

It’s not a Christmas party without crackers!

Bad jokes and hats are mandatory for a Christmas celebration, no matter where you’re from!