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Recently I went out to dinner with my family. As is our usual custom, we ended up sharing dessert after a delicious meal at a local brasserie. We sat around the table together taking bites of our small indulgence of profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce as we chatted about what our friends and family were up to these days. It was a really nice way to end a very relaxing and enjoyable meal.
As we talked over the empty plate in the center of the table, scraping away at the last bits of chocolate and vanilla, I couldn’t help but think about how something as simple as sharing a bite of food can bring people closer together in a way that each enjoying his own can’t. You see this in all sorts of places, even at the water cooler in the office. Where else do you hear the best gossip or discuss who’s going to get eliminated on the next Amazing Race? Maybe you're the type who will start small talk with the person behind you in line at a buffet. Even passing the basket of bread around a table of strangers invites conversation.
Enjoying food is universal. Everyone has to eat, right? Sharing delicious chow around a table is a fabulous ice breaker if you’re having a party where your guests don’t know each other. It’s a wonderful way of getting them to mingle; even the shyest among us will cop a smile when they take a bite of something that tickles their tastebuds.
Try serving food "Italian family style," on big plates meant to be passed around or sampled. Another fun way to encourage merriment and amiability is to host a fondue party. As a child of the seventies, I remember going to many fondue parties with my parents; the kids and the adults each had their own separate pots. While they waited for their veggies and meats to cook, the adults would chat and the kids would stick their tongues out and taunt one another, but it was all in good fun. Put on your bell bottoms and dig out that Donna Summer forty-five!
The best part for us, though, was the chocolate fondue. There is absolutely no better way to enjoy strawberries and marshmallows when you’re eight, I promise you.
Another way of using food as a conversation piece is to hold a theme party. This can be part of a pot luck, where your guests are assigned either a certain course, or perhaps a dish from a far flung part of the world. You could even have a "Grandma’s Secret Recipe" party, where everyone brings a classic family dish. Whether they want to share their heirloom recipe is up to them!
Even if people don’t know each other, somehow eating from the same dish lends a basic common element to the conversation. Even if your time or budget won’t allow you to throw a killer mixer, invite some friends and some friends of friends over for pizza and watch what happens. Good times for all are guaranteed.
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/rebecca-michaels/102-all-for-one/
All For One
Recently I went out to dinner with my family. As is our usual custom, we ended up sharing dessert after a delicious meal at a local brasserie. We sat around the table together taking bites of our small indulgence of profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce as we chatted about what our friends and family were up to these days. It was a really nice way to end a very relaxing and enjoyable meal.
As we talked over the empty plate in the center of the table, scraping away at the last bits of chocolate and vanilla, I couldn’t help but think about how something as simple as sharing a bite of food can bring people closer together in a way that each enjoying his own can’t. You see this in all sorts of places, even at the water cooler in the office. Where else do you hear the best gossip or discuss who’s going to get eliminated on the next Amazing Race? Maybe you're the type who will start small talk with the person behind you in line at a buffet. Even passing the basket of bread around a table of strangers invites conversation.
Enjoying food is universal. Everyone has to eat, right? Sharing delicious chow around a table is a fabulous ice breaker if you’re having a party where your guests don’t know each other. It’s a wonderful way of getting them to mingle; even the shyest among us will cop a smile when they take a bite of something that tickles their tastebuds.
Try serving food "Italian family style," on big plates meant to be passed around or sampled. Another fun way to encourage merriment and amiability is to host a fondue party. As a child of the seventies, I remember going to many fondue parties with my parents; the kids and the adults each had their own separate pots. While they waited for their veggies and meats to cook, the adults would chat and the kids would stick their tongues out and taunt one another, but it was all in good fun. Put on your bell bottoms and dig out that Donna Summer forty-five!
The best part for us, though, was the chocolate fondue. There is absolutely no better way to enjoy strawberries and marshmallows when you’re eight, I promise you.
Another way of using food as a conversation piece is to hold a theme party. This can be part of a pot luck, where your guests are assigned either a certain course, or perhaps a dish from a far flung part of the world. You could even have a "Grandma’s Secret Recipe" party, where everyone brings a classic family dish. Whether they want to share their heirloom recipe is up to them!
Even if people don’t know each other, somehow eating from the same dish lends a basic common element to the conversation. Even if your time or budget won’t allow you to throw a killer mixer, invite some friends and some friends of friends over for pizza and watch what happens. Good times for all are guaranteed.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/rebecca-michaels/102-all-for-one/