Serve Potato Chips At Your Dinner Party The Ina Garten Way

If you find yourself ripping open bags of potato chips to serve to guests before dinner, you are not alone. "I like to find delicious little appetizers that need no cooking at all," famed cook and author Ina Garten admitted on Instagram, proving that celebrities are just like us when it comes to entertaining friends at home. "When I have friends for dinner, the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time making fussy hors d'oeuvres. So I choose simple, no-cook things that I can serve with drinks," she added.

Garten, too, looks for store-bought chips to stock in her kitchen for nights when hungry guests raid the kitchen before dinner is served. Regardless of whether the chips you're serving are homemade or not, you can make them look like a fancier snack with just a few simple but effective touches. And it starts with thinking twice about the bowl you set them in. 

Instead of tossing crispy Lay's snacks into a regular glass container or leaving potato chips in a ripped-open bag on your countertop, make the extra effort to set the chips into one of the more attractive bowls you own. Ina Garten reaches for pretty silver bowls to set out the appetizers she offers to her ravenous guests. "I present them in a really pretty silver bowl so they look special," she explained on Instagram. If you feel like your special bowl isn't enough to warrant your title as host or hostess, you can dress up the potato chips you've poured out of a bag. Sprinkle nori powder on top to add a unique umami flavor to the chips you serve to your guests, or look for new varieties of potato chip flavor when browsing the snack aisles at your local supermarket.

Additionally, get creative with snack displays by placing potato chips on a charcuterie board or even using parfait glasses to portion out individual servings for guests. Crack fresh black pepper over the chips or grate fine shreds of parmesan cheese on top to further refine the appetizers you set on the pre-dinner table. Your guests will be taking notes to repeat your presentation skills for the dinner parties they host at home.