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If you’re wondering how hosting pros can cook a fabulous impromptu dinner or assemble a stunning grazing board at a moment’s notice, you may be surprised to find their secret isn’t fancy equipment or professional cooking skills. It’s much simpler: a thoughtful selection of pantry staples.
“I recommend keeping a mix of items that can be assembled immediately and a few ingredients that can become a complete dish without another trip to the store,” says Erika Gessin, the founder and creative director of The Fête Edit. An assortment of no-cook pantry items can save you when guests arrive early, while baking basics can easily be turned into delightful baked creations for spontaneous celebrations.
Pantry cooking is really make-ahead cooking, according to David Jubé, the founder of The Gourmet Host. “Make-ahead is what keeps a host out of the kitchen during their own party,” he says. A thoughtfully stocked pantry does the make-ahead work for you.
Take a peek behind the pantry doors of professional hosts, who reveal the staples they swear by for successful, stress-free—and delicious!—hosting.
No-Cook Grazing Board Staples
A grazing board is the ultimate throw-together-at-the-last-minute yet impressive appetizer—as long as you have the right ingredients on hand. Hosting pros say the key is stocking the pantry with no-cook grazing board goodies.
Good olive oil, tinned fish, such as oil-packed tuna and sardines, plus quality olives, and some sturdy crackers or crispbread are among Jubé’s favorites. “Those five things sit in the pantry for months and turn into a real first course in about four minutes with no heat and no recipe,” he says. They’re also easy to scale depending on how many guests you’re hosting. “Ten guests instead of six just means opening more tins, not cooking a second dish,” he notes.
Think of grazing board pantry staples by category, suggests Gessin: Something salty, sweet, briny, and crunchy. Her go-to’s include rosemary crackers, crisp flatbread, candied pecans, Marcona almonds, olive tapenade, fig jam, Castelvetrano olives, cornichons, dried apricots, and a jar of marinated artichokes or roasted peppers. “Add a couple of fresh cheeses and seasonal fruit, and you’re ready to welcome guests with something that feels intentional in minutes,” she says.
These no-cook pantry items solve what Jubé calls the worst moment of any party: the first 20 minutes. “Guests arrive early, or all at once, and the host is still finishing something,” he says. But if you can open a couple of staples and quickly assemble a board, “you have bought yourself half an hour and nobody noticed you were buying it,” says Jubé.
Ingredients to Pull Together an Impromptu Dinner
If you’re wondering how hosting pros can whip up a gourmet meal without days of planning and multiple trips to the grocery store, the secret is an intentionally stocked pantry. “A high-quality dried pasta is one of my essentials, along with ingredients that bring a lot of flavor on their own, such as preserved lemons, marinated artichokes, toasted nuts, and red pepper flakes,” says Gessin.
For an impromptu dinner, toss pasta with olive oil, garlic, chopped marinated artichokes, and a little preserved lemon, then finish off the dish with two other pantry items: toasted pistachios and crisp breadcrumbs, she suggests. “Everything comes from the pantry, but the preserved lemon gives it a bright, unexpected flavor that makes it feel like something you planned rather than a meal you pulled together at the last minute,” says Gessin.
A Jar of Good Honey
The one pantry item Jubé reaches for again and again when hosting is a jar of good honey. “It is the highest return item in the pantry because it does three completely different jobs at the same party: Drizzled over cheese and crackers, it finishes a board in about 10 seconds, whisked with mustard and vinegar, it is the dressing for the one green thing on the table, and warmed for a minute with a pinch of chili flakes, it becomes hot honey, and hot honey turns store-bought fried chicken, roasted carrots, or a wheel of baked brie into something that reads as deliberate,” he says.
Baking Basics
If you enjoy baking, keep the basics on hand—flour, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder—recommends Gessin. “There’s a reason the birthday cake is often the centerpiece of the occasion: It makes the person being honored feel celebrated,” she says.
Baking basics aren’t just for hosting birthdays. The idea carries into any gathering, says Gessin. “Baking something from scratch, even if it’s a simple cake, tart, or batch of cupcakes, is one of the easiest ways to make guests feel celebrated, no matter the occasion,” she says.
Something with Unique Flavor
Unique flavor is what makes an ordinary dish taste deliberate, according to Jubé. His pantry shelves are always stocked with staples that have unique flavor—such as chili crisp, preserved lemon, pomegranate molasses, a good curry paste, or miso. “You are not building a menu around them; you are using them so the simple supporting plates around your main dish do not taste plain,” he explains.
Acid and Salt
Acid and salt may seem like odd things to rely on for hosting success, but they make up an essential category of pantry must-haves, says Jubé. Lemons, a decent vinegar, capers, flaky salt, chili crisp, or harissa are his picks. “None of these are a dish on their own; all of them are what rescues a dish you made ahead and are now serving room temperature,” he says.
Maria Sabella is a lifestyle writer with a passion for home and interiors — from paint colors and holiday decor to the latest design trends. Her work has appeared in outlets including Better Homes & Gardens, The Spruce, BuzzFeed and Bustle.
Susan (she/her) is the Senior Food Editor at Good Housekeeping, where she leads wine, spirits, and drinks coverage and helps shape food content across platforms. In the Kitchen & Cooking Lab, she develops and rigorously tests recipes, drawing on experience that spans Food & Wine, Food Network, three meal kit companies, a Brooklyn wine shop, and Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. A graduate of Brown University, she has also collaborated on over a dozen cookbooks and cocktail books.
