Whether you’re looking to change things up for Friendsgiving or are just looking for a delicious menu for date night in or hosting a group, this Steak Frites Dinner Party menu is a must!
For the past two years, I’ve done a Frenchgiving theme to host a dinner party in the month of November to put a fun twist on Friendsgiving and it has been such a hit! The decor is elegant yet accessible to pull together and the recipes are not only delicious, but they’re super easy too!
Steak Frites Dinner Party (Frenchgiving)
To watch this theme come to life in video format, click the below links:
- Part One – The Planning
- Part Two – The Prep
- Part Three – The Menu & Party
- Homemade Butter Party Favors
THE TIMELINE
Dinner parties can seem intimidating or stressful, but I make sure to plan for them in a way that creates the most low stress hosting experience possible so I can actually enjoy the night alongside my guests. Here is a rough outline of how I would recommend preparing for this specific dinner party.
Month Prior:
- Invite your guests (of course!)
- Draft a menu and grocery list, inclusive of dietary needs and taste preferences of your guests. Choose whether you will make the dishes yourself or assign guests to bring certain dishes to help out.
- Take inventory of your plates, linens & serve ware to ensure you’re covered based on the amount of guests and types of dishes/drinks.
- Order any supplies or ingredients that need to be purchased online.
Week Of:
- Main grocery shop of everything that can be purchased in advance (aka non perishables)
- Complete your DIYs (optional, but makes the party feel so special)! Make the menus for each place setting, name cards for each guest to find their seat, a stencil for powdered sugar on top of your chocolate mousse and custom butter with personalized labels!
- Gather, organize and label all serve ware so it’s ready to be set out.
Day Before:
- Prep any recipes and ingredients that can be made in advance, which in this case are the French Onion Soup and Family Style Chocolate Mousse.
- Arrange any florals and organize additional decor, if using any.
Morning Of:
- If needed, secondary grocery shop as soon as the store opens to get any final needs and so you have as much time as possible to cook.
- As soon as you get home, measure and prep all ingredients that can be prepared in advance and set aside into stations based on each dish. In this case, slice your baugette and grate your cheese for the toasted baguette croutons that will go on your french onion soup, peel and slice your potatoes for the french fries and keep them in a large bowl with ice water to pull out the starch and keep them from browning and finally, prep/measure the ingredients for the secret sauce.
- Decorate/set up your space/table and of course, get yourself ready!
1-2 Hours Before:
- Set out the steak to come to room temperature 1 hour before you plan to cook it.
- Prepare the special sauce.
During:
- When everyone arrives, ask what they would like to drink. We had various wine options as well as apple juice for our niece so she didn’t feel left out!
- While the drinks are being poured, reheat the french onion soup and toast the baguette croutons.
- After serving the soup appetizer, prepare the frites (this is a little time consuming, but in our family, we don’t mind chatting in the kitchen!)
- When you’re about finish up with the fries, cook the ribeyes according to everyone’s liking.
- Most importantly, enjoy! A calm, happy, fun host makes for calm, happy and fun guests!
Bonus Tips:
- Have food made in advance that you can eat while prepping because you probably won’t want to be cooking when prepping multiple dishes for your party, plus it saves time!
- Run and empty your dishwasher before the party so you can load everything instead of hand washing and taking up counter space. The easier the cleanup the better!
- Clean your spaces the night before hosting then do last minute touch ups prior to guests arriving.
DECOR/KITCHEN ESSENTIALS LINKS
- French Silverware
- French Steak Knives
- French Inspired Lampshade/Pendant
- Silver Sauce Dish
- Plastic Wine Glasses
- Ruffled Seat Cushion Covers
- Silverplate Tray with Handles
- White Wrinkle-proof Tablecloth
- Vintage-inspired Name Cards
- Burgundy Wax for Wax Seals
- Initial/Letter Wax Seal Stamp
- Cordless Table Lamps
- French Lion Head Soup Bowls
- Printable Sticker Paper
THE MENU
Below is everything that I included on the menu. These recipes are inspired by French dishes that I love and are all super easy to prepare. It is absolutely doable to make them all on your own but definitely feel free to split up the dishes amongst your guests to lighten the load!
Boissons:
Keep it simple with an assortment of French wines and champagne. Not to mention, apple juice for anyone under 21!
Entrée:
Plat Principal:
- Ribeye Steak (click here for all of mine and my husband’s steak tips!)
- Frites (I use this recipe but left out the truffle and parmesan)
- Secret Sauce (for the steak and the fries!)
- Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp butter
- 1 shallot, finely sliced
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 cup tarragon, leaves only
- 1/4 cup parsley, leaves only
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1 tsp capers
- 4 walnuts
- 1 tbsp cream
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce
- 2 tbsp chicken or beef bone broth
- Instructions:
- Melt the butter in a pan on a low heat, then add the shallot, garlic and herbs and sweat down for a 5 minutes.
- Once soft, remove from the heat and add capers and walnuts.
- Blend everything together immediately until the mixture is completely smooth.
- Note: if the sauce splits (separates, simply pour a little cold cream into the blender and re-blend everything until combined).
- Reheating note: be sure to reheat the sauce on the stove over low heat, whisking often to prevent splitting.
- Ingredients:
Dessert:
- Family Style Chocolate Mousse
- Baguette & Fromage – did you know they serve cheese after dinner in France?!
A NOTE ON CALORIE COUNT, NUTRITIONAL INFO AND SERVING SIZES
Due to my past experiences, I do not include most of the above information within my recipes as it is unsafe for me to do so personally. While I try to share a rough estimate when it comes to the serving size, please note that it is very subjective as we all have different hunger levels both from person to person and even from meal to meal.
If any of the above information is important to you, I understand! We are all different and have various goals and needs. If you’d like, you are welcome to calculate the information needed based on the ingredients you use when making one of my recipes.
I hope you understand! This comes from a place of love and protection both for myself and others like me. If you ever have any questions, send me an Instagram message for the quickest response time! Thank you for being here!
Another Frenchgiving Menu
For another French-inspired dinner party menu, click here!
Looking for something more traditional?
FOLLOW ALONG
Be sure to follow me on Instagram and TikTok to see all of the behind the scenes of recipe creation as well as how to videos to watch them come to life! You can also head over to my Pinterest to save all of my recipes in one spot that you plan whip up in the future.
PS – If you make any of my recipes, I would be so grateful if you left a review so I can hear what you think! I also am happy to answer any questions you may have on here, but if you want a quicker response, be sure to shoot me a message on Instagram. Thank you so much and talk soon!
Hi Kayla
Thanks for the beautiful post, could I have the family chocolate mousse dessert recipe?
It’s linked in the blog post! 🙂