The Dinner Party Run Sheet
A backwards timeline from when you sit down, what to finish before anyone arrives, and where your oven runs out of room.
Hosting isn't cooking, it's timing.
You can cook all 3 dishes. You've made them before. What goes wrong is that they all need the oven at 7, you're plating while people are on their second drink, and you spend your own dinner party standing up.
Everyone leaves saying it was lovely and you have no memory of it, because you were project managing a kitchen while pretending to be relaxed.
I write the run sheet on a bit of paper and stick it inside a cupboard door. It's the only reason I sit down.
The prompts
1. Start here
Builds the timeline backwards from the moment you sit down.
I'm cooking [menu] for [number] people, sitting down at [time]. Work backwards from that and give me the run sheet, including what I should do the day before.
2. Go deeper
Separates what's done in advance from what can't be.
Tell me what I can finish completely before anyone arrives, and the one thing that genuinely has to happen in the last 10 minutes.
3. Bonus
The clash nobody sees coming.
Now find where my oven, hob or fridge space runs out, and tell me what to swap or reorder so nothing gets stuck waiting.
Bonus: Make it yours
Tell Claude how many hobs and shelves you actually have. That's the constraint every recipe ignores.
Do this today: run it for the next thing you're hosting, even a Sunday lunch for 3. The timing problem is the same at every size.
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