Have you ever had a culinary disaster when cooking for a dinner party?

Question

What were you making and what went wrong?

(I once had a dinner party that was a disaster from start to finish. Mega spicy soup as I used the wrong chilli peppers, casserole that i over-cooked, transforming it into potted meat and I even managed to burn the cake for dessert. Nobody asked for seconds, needless to say, but fortunately it was only family so the humiliation was contained. And you?)

Answer 1

Yes, I was making individual trifles when the cat leapt up on the side,  landing a foot in each one.

I squirted cream over the footprints and no-one knew any different!!

Answer 2

my chocolate mousse was so hard that one guest put his spoon in and it got stuck! He then held it upside down and waved it around!

Answer 3

yeah i had a few people round, we were having Indian.  The bl00dy delivery driver was 20 minutes late!  We were starving, haha what! you didn't think i was going to cook! haha

Answer 4

Not me personally, but an ex-girlfriend of mine once had all of the family over for Christmas day - and instead of turning on the oven she turned on the grill - woo! Raw Turkey!

Answer 5

never, I am  a great cook by birth

Answer 6

apple pie out of oven.

tripped and pie ended on someone's head.

so embarassing

Answer 7

My siste in law made an apple pie and dropped it (luckily onto the work surface which was clean!) she picked it up and put it in pieces into glass bowls layered with whipped cream and everyone praised it!!!

Answer 8

Yep. I made lasagne but the pasta sheets didnt cook at all. To be fair most people were polite and crunched away at it for a few minutes before I said to forget it and made fish fingers and chips instead.

Answer 9

OMG yes, my early years as a caterer was FULL of them.

Burned roasted potatos for potato salad, charred so black they fell apart when you picked them up.

Forgot flavorings in a huge batch of cupcakes we where making for a kids party, where they wanted strawberry cupcakes with chunks of strawberries

My last big one was Burning a huge pot of 6 pepper texas chili so bad it smelled and tasted like someone had dumped a ashtray in it and turned it up on high. The bottom was so black we couldnt clean the pot so we had to throw it away. Plus the smell lingered for several months it was that bad.

Answer 10

Someone rang me to ask how many runner beans would she need for 4 people, I told her 1lb would be more than enough, 2 days later she rang me, furious, "NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH" - she had shelled them and just cooked the beans

Just remembered another one, I made and decorated a cake for a Christening and they couldn't get the knife all the way through, I'd left the top layers cake tin base on the actual cake

My mother in law used to put FROZEN chickens in the oven and "cook" them with the bag of giblets still inside

I could write a book

Answer 11

LOL, have really enjoyed the answers to this question, makes me feel sooo much better.

I have also done the lasagne thing... i.e. crunchy uncooked pasta... what a nightmare.  

My worst though was when my parents came to my new house for the first time.  My boyfriend said HE would cook because he wanted to impress them.  The only problem was that he didn't read the recipe through before he started to check how long it would make (it was a lamb dish)- and it took 4 hours to prepare and he only started it when my parents arrived at 6 o clock.  In addition, he put the oven temp way too low.  My parents ended up having a lot of wine and no food and we only ate (After my folks had left) at 1 in the morning by which point I was too tipsy to even care.

Answer 12

Yes, I'm ashamed to say.  Years ago I made a whole Indian meal, but I got distracted with too many things and forgot completely about the rice.  When I realised it was too late and I didn't have any in the house either.  Luckily I'd bought too many nans and chapattis :-)

Answer 13

recently baked a fork in a loaf of banana bread. After adding the batter to the loaf pan I decided to mix in some chocolate chips, was distracted by a phone call, then came back and stuck the pan in the oven. Later I went to cut a piece and couldn't understand why the knife wouldn't go all the way through, and that's when I found the fork. It could have been waay more embarrassing if I was bringing the bread somewhere, which fortunately I wasn't, but instead I couldn't help sharing it with everyone! Oh yeah, maybe that wasn't as bad as forgetting the sugar in the pumpkin pie I made for Thanksgiving. Even worse is I have a reputation as an excellent baker and for being a bit snobbish about it (I brought the pie because I like butter crusts and my mom only makes crisco crusts on her pies which I can't stand) I guess I need to have some humbling moments now and then!