My brother has asked me to collaborate on a fancy dinner for his staff in late January, cooked at his home. He is an enthusiastic griller and smoker of meats, has a terrific outdoor kitchen as well as a spacious indoor kitchen with a fancy Wolf range, and plenty of space and equipment for this endeavor. I’m excited.
His initial idea for main course is grilled bone-in ribeyes. He shared a video of a restaurant preparation of these where the bone ends were Frenched. I visited my butcher to discuss options; we could have these either dry-aged or not, choice or prime. They’ll French to my specs. The price wasn’t outrageous - I expected much worse- but in any case I’m not paying for this 
Obviously, my biggest logistical
concern is the number of people. I have some non-restaurant experience with big dinner parties and the like, but this is a different scale and expectation level than, say, making a big pot of nice ragu.
For next steps: I’ll buy a sample steak and try it out on my regular grill; after that, we will make a decision about dry-aging and place our order.
Rest of the menu is TBD.
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Such a fun event! A challenge, for sure, but given your skill level and attention to detail, I’m sure you’ll slay this. Looking forward to updates!
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Thanks. I’m grateful for the opportunity to think about savory food as well as dessert for once
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Love this, will be following along!!
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Researching side dishes.
For my holiday pasta party, I made Josh McFadden’s whipped ricotta, and everyone loved it. Now I’m thumbing through Samin’s “Good Things” and seeing the idea of roasted veg (like carrots) served on a bed of whipped ricotta. Very appealing.
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Super excited to follow along! I collaborated on a very fun dinner party some years ago with a centerpiece of smoked prime rib.
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Wow that looks LUSCIOUS.
Do you recall any of the sides?
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It was. And, shockingly, I have pics. This was September 2016.
I can identify for sure a Food52 recipe with roasted carrots, avocado and microgreens; sour cream horseradish sauce; various salts; pickled red onions; cauliflower pomegranate salad I think from Ottolenghi; some sort of mixed rice salad I feel sure was not my contribution but very likely was also from Ottolenghi. My aunt and I were cooking for guests who included a wonderful local cooking teacher who kindly lent us her smoker.
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Many good ideas here - thank you!!!
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The cauliflower salad recipe. Incidentally, RecipeTin Eats also has a very interesting green bean on whipped tahini recipe you might consider.
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is a sentence.
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That looks absolutely fantastic 
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That looks amazing!
The rice looks to have minced radishes with wild/long grain rice, and either cilantro ( 
) or parsley on top.
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Curious how this goes and your take aways from the experience.
I’ll put out some of my thoughts and feelings - take them or leave them - from my experiences cooking for this size crowd (and I also just did it for Christmas, for a dinner that was planned for 12 but ended up being 17 at the last minute ho ho ho 
).
1 - getting 18 steaks out at the same time is no small feat. So trust that doing that will take up an enormous amount of your time, energy and focus. People will want (even if they aren’t asked) their steaks cooked to different temps - they will want to watch and talk to you while you’re doing it - and steaks are hard to hold for long periods of time if you have to do them in batches. I know you said he has a large outdoor grill area, which is great - is it covered? What if it rains?
2 - that said, I would ensure that all my side dishes can be done the day ahead and served room temp, or heated slightly . . . or if you just can’t, are sides you can prep the day ahead and hold well in an oven because your timeline will shift. There have been some great ideas for sides posted.
3 - If you have access to a large sous vide circulator this would be the time to pull it out. I don’t think I’d do 18 steaks for a party that I was hosting and attending without one. You can get all the steaks to temp (say 125) and then just sear them off, which will take time and attention for sure. And easier to get some of different temps for those guests that just have to have theirs well done
5 - You’ll probably want a dessert - for sure have this be something that is done and portioned ahead of time. The kitchen will be insane, dirty dishes all over. You’ll have limited counter space left. Maybe some type of chocolate tart that can be pre-cut and just plated.
4 - Personally - I might consider something braised (maybe boneless short ribs) with an amazing sauce instead of individual steaks for this - or even a single large cut of beef (like the smoked prime rib mentioned). Only because of the added aspects of hosting, cooking, knowing the guests, not being able to keep them out of the way while you’re trying to get all this done and served at the same time. It will be a lot of effort either way and from a guest standpoint (unless this is a restaurant cook crowd) the guests won’t understand the difference in effort between individual steaks and a wonderful braised beef dish IMHO.
Regardless, more power to you for doing this! Sounds like an awesome endeavor!
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Your post reminded me of the last time I was at a dinner party where steaks were grilled and served. The hostess cleverly purchased and cooked very large steaks, and cut them in half to serve. Fewer variables that way.
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I agree about the choice of steak as a main. I tried to talk my brother out of this right off the bat for the exact reasons you mention. I do plan to have every other dish be essentially do-ahead and served family-style.
The outdoor kitchen is covered, yes. I’m not worried about interruptions by guests outside in January - one, I’m not interruptible (kind of a bitch in person to be honest) and two, the outdoor kitchen is not easily accessible for guests in nice clothing in January. I’m not hosting at all, just cooking- my SIL will handle the guests.
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Ah - as I read your post, maybe that was the intent all along. Grill larger steaks, slice and serve buffet style. I was thinking of a plated dinner since it said “fancy” in the title, but buffet style can be fancy too!
In that case I’d wonder how many people you think you’re feeding per steak to get a sense of how many steaks you’re planning on cooking. I’m guessing since this is a fancy dinner for his staff you may guess 2 people per steak but could probably get 3 per steak (but who wants to look stingy at a fancy party you’re throwing for your staff). That’s still 9 large steaks, so easier but still a lot of focus.
If they are huge steaks (always fun) and it’s 6 steaks you’d think it more manageable but they will be large thick steaks, which have their own complications to get right and make sure the fat breaks down and softens.
I’d still do them sous vide if I was dead set on steaks, maybe more so if I was doing very large thick steaks.
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Also literal lol at “you’ll probably want a dessert.” I snorted!
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