Come barbie with me! Dinner party's had its day

Despite the rise in popularity of TV programmes such as Come Dine With Me - where contestants have to rate each other on not only their food, but their hosting skills too - a new survey has revealed that just one per cent of Scots say that a formal three-course meal is their favourite form of entertaining friends and family.

Instead, dinner parties have become a much more informal affair - with a casual meal with friends or barbecues now far more popular with diners.

The figure is even lower in Scotland than the UK as a whole, where two per cent claim to prefer the traditional dinner party.

"I think people are still eating well, but in a more informal way," said Ian Pirrie, chief executive of the Edinburgh School of Food and Wine, which recently opened a catering arm to cook dinner parties in clients' own homes.

"People are just too busy to bother with the formality of a proper dinner party. Even when they hire someone to come into their house to cook for them, they are still looking for an informal evening with good food - nothing too stuffy," he said.

The poll, commissioned by dessert maker Carte D'Or, revealed that only 13 per cent of Scottish hosts use traditional napkins for a dinner party - with more than three quarters saying they instead opted to use paper serviettes or even kitchen roll.

The informal supper parties held by the majority of the population today - often sitting around a wooden table in the kitchen rather than in a designated dining room decked out with neatly pressed white linen table cloths - are a far cry from the heyday of the dinner parties 30 years ago. In the 1970s and 1980s, the dinner party - complete with a hostess trolley to keep the food warm - was an essential part of socialising.

Many women - such as Penelope Keith's social climbing character Margot, in 1970s sitcom The Good Life - regularly hosted not just friends and family, but their husband's boss, in an attempt to rise more quickly up the corporate ladder.

• 'People really enjoy sitting down with nice cutlery, a linen napkin and putting the world to rights'

"Everyone knows more about good food now than they did in say, the 1980s, when the parties were very formal, but the food was somewhat retro," added Mr Pirrie. "They may not be using all of the trimmings such as the napkins and the fancy cutlery, but the idea is the same."

Almost a third of Scots surveyed said they would opt for a casual meal when entertaining, while a further 15 per cent admitted they preferred the informality of a barbecue.

Tiffany Wright, 31, a women's magazine writer from Edinburgh, often entertains friends at her Stockbridge home - but has long swapped the formal sit-down dinner for a casual supper.

"I'm more likely to serve a starter as nibbles in the living room and then a plate of pasta for main course at the table in the kitchen," she said.

"It's much more relaxed and everyone has more fun.

"The point is getting your friends together for a chat and a catch-up over a bottle of wine - and also enjoying some nice food. It doesn't have to be formal for it to be a successful dinner party which everyone has enjoyed."

The research also shows that dinner-party hosts resent spending too long slaving over a hot stove. Almost a quarter of people who are entertaining friends spend less than 15 minutes in the kitchen, while one in two cooks admits to passing off a shop bought dessert as one of their own.

However, the popularity of celebrity chefs and cooking programmes on TV have given rise to a nation of confident cooks with over a third of the nation saying they cook for friends at least twice a month.

More than half of Scottish cooks say that they prepare everything from scratch when entertaining.

The survey also revealed that casual dining is not restricted to times when friends are coming round. Fewer than half of families say they sit around a table when eating, while one in ten Scots admits that they never sit down as a family.

Almost a third eat their main meal of the day in front of the television instead.