Most dinner parties fail before the guests arrive. The host is still chopping when the doorbell rings, the playlist is decided in a panic, the appetizer is half-set and the wine is too warm. The dinner that follows is fine; the evening that follows is rushed.
A better rule: everything that can be done the morning of, do it. Roast the vegetables, build the sauces, set the table, choose the music. Spend the hour before guests arrive walking around the apartment lighting candles. Pour yourself a glass of wine.
You want to be the person who answers the door and sits down. The dinner is the easy part. The atmosphere is the part you can never get back if you spend it sweating over a stove.
