Home cooking and dinner parties have gone up in popularity due to shows like Come Dine With Me

According to new research by Sheilas’ Wheels home insurance, Brits are spending £6 billion a year on home entertaining, with the average food and drink spend costing £920.60.

More importantly, the damage that guests leave behind as the dinner party comes to an end adds to the cost, pushing the yearly total up even further. More than three quarters of the group surveyed have caused dinner party damage.

More than a third of people would go that extra mile by lying to their host rather than facing the humiliation of owning up to a dinner party mishap. 42% of the tested population admitted to covering up a spill or other damage to avoid being found out.

Amongst the most common dinner party disasters, dropping food onto the floor or carpet accounted for 51%, breaking a glass accounted for 44% and spilling red wine came in at third position with 41%. The nation’s top ten dinner party disasters also included dropping or breaking crockery (24%), damaging or staining large pieces of furniture such as a sofa scored 9% and lastly breaking a precious possession or heirloom came in at 4%.

‘Programmes such as Come Dine With Me and MasterChef have reignited Briton’s passion for home cooking and dinner party dining’ said Jacky Brown at Sheilas’ Wheels Home Insurance. ‘It’s crucial to plan ahead by clearing precious possessions out of harm’s way and having accidental damage cover as a second line of defence because some mishaps are unavoidable when a dinner party is in full swing.’ Brown continued.

Avoid serving red wine and stick to foods that are complimented by white whine or rosé. Remember to provide guests with coasters when serving drinks, and furthermore think twice before getting all your guests involved in a game of Pictionary, or worse still, Wii Sports.

Avnee Davé
02.12.2009