The Hospital

This was the first dinner party I hosted that had a bit of a bizarre theme to it, so close friends were all invited to test how far they'd go. I apologise for the difference in quality and saturation of the photos, have misplaced Photoshop so this will have to do for now! Also, apologies for the rubbish formatting! Still getting used to all this!


The inspiration...for some strange reason I wanted to serve food in a bed pan, and then it all went down hill!


Guests were asked to turn up as if they'd just been at A+E. Needless to say most did a pretty good job. 

They were invited into the living room where there was a faint smell of dettol and surgical gloves were placed in a vase for decoration. I then brought in canapes of three different soups served in a pan of boiling water.

Truffled mushroom velouté, roasted red pepper and chilli soup and butternut squash soup with Gruyere. 

To drink them, guests had to pour them onto medicine spoons.

My friend George had a 'rugby accident', I was unfortunately stood on by a pig [hence overalls] and Paul 'broke his leg'.






Drinks were served out of glass bottles too, as well as water jugs. 


The dining room was decorated in medical bits and bobs that I could find! An old hospital bed sheet for the table cloth, blue paper towels as the place mats, aprons for napkins, fluid charts as place settings where people had to fill in their intake and output! 

The starter was then served. Pan fried squid with a salad of chilli, preserved lemon and rocket, served in a sick bowl...only one friend couldn't actually eat it! 

Main course was a lamb tagine with apricot and parsley couscous, toasted almonds and minted yoghurt, served in a tray from my local primary school [borrowed, not stolen!] 

I asked my friend Beth to serve this for us all, give myself a break and also to get others involved.

Dessert was raspberry cake, lemon cheesecake mousse, raspberries with piped lemon curd cream and raspberry coulis, served on a clip board. 

And to finish we had medicine that Helen came up with, and for some reason called them 34V!

With this dinner party the idea was to keep the food really simple so I could spend most of my time with the guests, considering it was the first time I'd done a themed one like it. Now just looking forward to the many more to come!

With thanks to:
Grundisburgh Primary School!
Susannah Roberts 
Helen McKenzie for the photos

Paul Avery for the random decor!

And all the guests!