It can be said that food makes the party. You can take a drab event that is thrown for a boring reason and make it a resounding success with fantastic food. Whatever the occasion, carefully choosing the correct dishes will ensure your party is the highlight of your local social scene and is talked about for years to come!

When planning your party, carefully devise a theme. This theme can be as simple as a superhero theme for a child's birthday party or a complex theme for an elegant charity soir'e. Whatever the occasion, choosing a theme will help you immensely when planning for and choosing the menu. Additionally, choose the overall feel for the party. Is it to be fun and casual or high culture and elegant?

Next step is to decide on the style and time of day. The food you serve will be according to the time. People have certain expectations associated with certain times. For instance, they would expect a sort of brunch at eleven. You cannot host a dinner party at four o'clock in the afternoon or a tea party at ten o'clock in the morning. If you invite people at five o'clock in the evening they will expect a cocktail party with snacks and mixed drinks.

The food and menu set the real tone of the party. After you're through with the initial planning the next task is to select the menu. Menu entirely depends upon the theme of the party. One possibly cannot serve snails and lobsters in children's party, whereas serving cheese sandwiches and noodles at adult party might not be a good idea. Choosing the best menu is the sure shot recipe for success of your party.

If your party theme is to honor someone, for example birthday, shower, anniversary or even farewell parties, always choose their favorite food. Make sure that the person is made to feel special in every way, as it's their day after all. If possible choose their favorite drink, you can do that either for food or even a dessert.

You should also consider items that can be messy to consume, and avoid them, especially for a cocktail event or one with only snacks. It's best to choose options that can be eaten cleanly with one hand in a single bite. Avoid things like buffalo wings that can be eaten in a single bite, but are simply too messy to consume. Instead choose mini quiche, bite sized baked goods, meat or cheese on crackers, or small sandwiches for your party fare.

Your dessert should be stunning. Many parties now feature a variety of desserts instead of a single, main attraction. Even brides are having miniature wedding cakes for each guest instead of the large traditional cake.

So food and menu counts to be the success after the party is over as nobody remembers the decoration and arrangements but the tastier bite of that yummy cake, that mouth watering lobsters and chilled but wonderful champagne. If you have ensured that the food is good, rest assured that your party has made its mark where its matters the most. They might not remember the details of how striking you looked, or the painstaking detail with which the venue was decorated but they are sure going to remember for long the taste of "Melt-in-your-mouth" cakes, refreshing drinks, and the scrumptious chicken wings.