If you think about it, your refrigerator is basically a roommate. It keeps you (and your food) company. It provides soothing sustenance when you’re in need, emotionally or physically. And it’s an important fixture when you’re entertaining.
Some fridges are better entertainment facilitators than others, though. Thanks to special features like a built-in glass panel that lights up when you knock twice to show what’s inside and a next-level dual ice maker that automatically makes cubed, crushed, and batches of large, slow-melting round Craft Ice, LG’s new LG InstaView Door-in-Door refrigerator is particularly helpful in this regard. It’s primed and ready to back up your hosting skills. The only question is… what kind of hosting do you want to do?
That, of course, depends on what you have inside your fridge. But just as you know the contents in your fridge are wont to dictate the nature of your shindig, you also know that oftentimes–especially if you’re planning something last-minute–they don’t always go together in an immediately apparent way.
That’s where I come in. I’m an expert at concocting party plans out of disparate fridge contents. Partly because I don’t cook very often, so my fridge always has super-random assemblage of ingredients in it, and partly because I’m a big fan of impromptu gatherings. To show off this particular skillset and to celebrate the joy of a refrigerator that makes a challenging task a delight, I asked three MR colleagues to tell me exactly what’s inside their own fridges right now, and I prescribed party ideas accordingly.
Scroll down and find yourself some weekend plans.
Fridge Party #1: Luxury Snackstravaganza
This refrigerator belongs to Dasha, Man Repeller’s Director of Product, who lives in Chinatown with her husband and two sons.
Fridge Contents
A few random bottles of white wine and champagne that people have gifted over the years, chicken breast, heavy cream, light soy sauce, coconut yogurt, cheddar cheese, Babybel cheese, hot dogs, hot dog buns, bread, apples, blueberries, avocado, grapes, fig jam, peach salsa, bottles of Stella, and Aperol spritz fixings.
Party Plans
Let me ask you a question that may or may not be rhetorical: Who doesn’t love consuming an entire plate of snacks??? Like I said, it may or may not be rhetorical, because I’m fairly confident the answer is universally “No one. That’s who.” Let me ask you another question: Have you ever purposefully chosen to eat a plate full of snacks instead of a typical “dinner”? I do this all the time and it is one of my life’s greatest pleasures. I can’t believe it hasn’t occurred to me until now, whilst absorbing the snack-heavy contents of Dasha’s refrigerator, that this concept is perfect fodder for an eclectic, snack-centric dinner party.
The key here, is how you set them out. Arrange the various snacks in pleasing arrangements on your fanciest dinnerware–large helpings of fig jams and peach salsa in small dishes beside a plate of artfully sliced cheddar and Babybel cheese and maybe some grapes. Cubes of diced chicken with soy sauce for dipping. Hot dogs in buns cut into fourths. Avocado mashed and spread on toasted bread. Apple slices fanned in a semi-circle. A bowl of blueberries topped with coconut yogurt or, if you’re feeling wild, heavy cream that you’ve whipped with an electric mixer. Endless glasses of white wine, champagne, and Aperol spritzes with slow-melting Craft Ice cubes. Give a toast to whomever it was that gifted the bottles all those years ago (and to the ice–because damn does it melt at a glacial pace).
Fridge Party #2: Black Tie Pasta Potluck
Mallory, Man Repeller’s Executive Editor, who lives in a studio in Greenpoint, is the keeper of this fridge.
Fridge Contents
Chorizo, salsa verde, olives and/or cornichons, boquerones, leftovers from Xi’ian Famous Foods, ingredients for my go-to quick pasta (tomato basil sauce, onion, pancetta–with mezze rigatoni, garlic, and canned tomatoes kept outside of the fridge…), three half-drunk kombucha, Grady’s cold brew, and a lil carton of Oatly.
Party Plans
If you want an instant hack for making people feel immediately festive—even if it’s rainy outside or it’s been a particularly long week or your apartment is in a far flung locale—tell them there’s a dress code. Even better, a fancy dress code. Hell, make it a black-tie affair! But if you don’t have a party’s worth of food in your fridge–inform them it’s a potluck. A pasta potluck! Wherein everyone brings their go-to pasta dish. This is a win-win, because most people have basic pasta ingredients on hand and feel passionately about their favorite recipe.
The guest who arrives most enthusiastically dressed to the nines will be rewarded with the prize of creating cocktails with the remaining halves of your half-drunk kombuchas. (And yes, if you’ve got the InstaView fridge, this is where your crowd-pleasing spherical ice comes in.)
Fridge Party #3: Candlelit Breakfast-for-Dinner Date
Please rise for the fridge of Sabrina, Man Repeller’s Photographer & Photo Editor, who lives in South Williamsburg with two roommates (well, three, if you count her fridge)
Fridge Contents
Raspberry jam, beer, oat milk, onions, peppers, miso paste, mushrooms, clementines, half a loaf of bread, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, extra-hot salsa, and Granny Smith apples.
Party Plans
Your best bet here is an intimate candlelit dinner where breakfast is served, ideally with a friend you don’t get to see that often. Invite them over for toast with raspberry jam accompanied by sweet potato “hash browns” with hot sauce, decaf oat milk lattes and clementine slices. If they aren’t a “sweet” person, swap out the raspberry jam for mushrooms and butternut squash sautéed with miso. Wash down the lattes with a rerun of your favorite Meg Ryan flick.
Your turn! Tell me the contents of your fridge and I’ll fantasize up a party idea for you. No pressure to invite me, but if you do, I promise I’ll make enchanting small talk with your guests, roommates, and/or kitchen appliances.
Graphics by Coco Lashar.
