Jackie McGregor: Guess who's coming to dinner? Peter Kay tops Jesus in fantasy poll!

For me, the term dinner party evokes visions of maxi dresses and cheese and pineapple chunks on sticks. It also conjures up visions of the 1970s play, Abigail’s Party, a satire about a disastrous soiree.

Dinner parties are thought of as outdated. Even celebrity cook, Nigella Lawson, she of the double entendre and risqué menu innuendo, declared last year that she rarely hosts lavish dinner parties anymore. These days she says she’s happy to have people over in their pyjamas and serve them twiglets!

Though according to a recent report by Waitrose, the dinner party is making a revival, due to the high cost of living and the increasing price of dining out. It’s a more casual affair these days, no more chicken in a basket, Black Forest gateau or Babycham with a cherry. Now people issue casual invites to friends to come around for a bowl of pasta, or something easy to whip up, rather than stand on ceremony.

Frankly I don’t find anything too easy to whip up. I don’t invite people for dinner as I find cooking incredibly stressful. I marvel at those who claim to find it relaxing. I’d love to be one of those people you see in movies, who tastes something and knows instantly what it needs to elevate it to Michelin star heights.

When I was first married, I dabbled in the dinner party. It felt very grown-up, and I was attempting to show my husband what a domestic goddess I was. I’m not a natural cook. I felt a bit sorry for my guests who looked like they were enduring a bush tucker trial. I have five meals that I rotate weekly, which rely heavily on ready-made cooking sauces. I’ve had epic fails simply heating food from frozen. I recently cooked a frozen pizza which came out too firm. After throwing it out for the birds, I watched a magpie give himself concussion trying to peck it!

If I were to indulge in dinner party fantasy, my dining companions would be Lee Mack, for his quick wit, Hugh Grant for his self-deprecating humour and Michael McIntyre, because he’s hilarious! The fantasy food I would serve would be my late mother’s dishes. She was an incredible cook. I’d start with prawn cocktail with her homemade Marie Rose sauce. The main; her silverside roast beef dinner with homemade roast potatoes, followed by 100 percent proof, sherry trifle made by her own fair hand. It’s a very 70s menu, which seems apt considering my 1970s associations with dinner parties. If my celebs were feeling a bit under the weather, I would have my mother’s chicken soup magically materialise. She would whip this up when anyone was ill. It’s healing properties were legendary, chicken soup so nutritious even the chicken recovered!