Planning a menu on a spreadsheet: a host's simple system
Hosts who plan on the back of an envelope tend to rediscover the same problems every time: the oven is double-booked, the butter ran out, and nobody wrote down who is vegetarian. A spreadsheet will not cook for you, but a handful of small tabs can take most of the stress out of a dinner for six, eight or twelve.
Any spreadsheet app works. Nothing here needs formulas more advanced than multiplication.
Tab 1: the guest list
Make columns for:
- name
- reply (yes, no, maybe)
- allergies and dietary needs
- dislikes
- what they are bringing, if anything
Ask about allergies once, in the invitation, and record the answers here. If a guest has a serious allergy, review every ingredient label for the dishes on the menu. This is general guidance, not medical advice, and a guest’s own doctor is the right source for specifics. Our guide to cooking for guests with food allergies goes through a calm way to handle it.
Tab 2: the menu
One row per dish. Columns:
| Dish | Course | Serves | Make-ahead? | Oven? | Dietary notes |
|---|
Aim for a balance: one dish that is hot from the oven, one that needs no cooking, and at least one made the day before. A good rule is to keep only one “last-minute” dish. If three items need frying at the end, the host never sits down.
Tab 3: recipes scaled to guests
Put the number of guests in one cell at the top. Beside each ingredient, type the amount per person, and multiply. When the guest count changes, the whole list updates.
Useful starting points per person for a sit-down dinner (adjust to your crowd):
- main protein, bone-out: about 150 to 180 g
- rice or pasta, dry: about 75 to 90 g
- potatoes: about 200 g
- vegetables: about 150 to 200 g across two sides
- bread: two slices or a small roll
These are ordinary planning numbers, not rules. Hungry crowds and long dinners push amounts up, and a menu with many courses brings them down.
Tab 4: the shopping list
Group the combined ingredients by where you shop: produce, butcher, dairy, pantry, drinks. Add a column for “already have” so you do not buy a fourth jar of paprika. Tick items off on your phone at the store.
If cost matters, add a price column and a total. Our piece on budgeting a dinner party walks through cost per head.
Tab 5: oven and stove timing
This is the tab that earns its keep. List every dish that needs heat, with:
- temperature (in Celsius)
- cook time
- resting time
- the time it must come out
Then work backward from dinner. For a 7:00 pm meal, a roast resting 20 minutes comes out at 6:30. If your side needs 220 degrees C and the roast needs 160, you have found a conflict while you still have time to fix it. Move one dish to the stove, or cook it earlier and reheat.
Tab 6: the countdown
Make three blocks:
- Two days before: shop, order anything special, clear fridge space.
- The day before: prep sauces, wash greens, make dessert, set the table.
- Day of: a time-stamped list from morning to the moment guests arrive.
Include small items such as “take butter out to soften” and “chill white wine”. The small things are the ones that vanish from memory.
Food safety as a column
Add a “keep cold / keep hot” column. Cold food belongs at 4 degrees C or below, and hot food above 60 degrees C. Anything left out for more than two hours should be thrown away. A line in the countdown such as “put dessert back in fridge” prevents a lot of trouble. More on this in our food safety for dinner parties guide.
What can go wrong
- Over-planning. If the sheet takes longer to build than the dinner to cook, simplify. Copy last time’s file and edit it.
- Not updating. When a guest cancels, change the count right away.
- Too many new recipes. Try only one unfamiliar dish per dinner.
- No buffer. Add 15 minutes of slack to the countdown.
Keep it for next time
After the dinner, add a short “notes” tab: what ran short, what was left over, what you would change. By the third dinner you have a template and the planning takes twenty minutes. For more on tools and routines that make a home kitchen run smoothly, see our kitchen and home section.