15 Recipes for an Oscars Viewing Party

By Bridget Hallinan
Updated January 30, 2020
Caitlin Bensel
An event as glamorous as the Academy Awards deserves equally elegant food—and in this roundup, you’ll find all the recipes you need to throw an epic Oscars viewing party. We’d recommend starting with a salad, and then moving on to a healthy selection of pick food, like caviar-topped deviled eggs and bruschetta. Add a few desserts and Champagne to toast the big wins, and you’re all set. Read on for the full spread. 
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Torn Escarole Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

Caitlin Bensel
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Lightly spicy croutons tossed in chile-sesame oil before toasting,smoky bacon, and crumbled blue cheese add rich, savory dimension to this quick, dinner-worthy salad. A dollop of apple butter adds a natural sweetness to the dressing, but honey can be used in its place.

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Mini Wedge Salads with Anchovy Dressing

Greg DuPree
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These mini wedges are coated in a creamy, anchovy-packed dressing and dredged in crunchy panko, making them easy to eat with your hands. Alternatively, you can serve the dressing and breadcrumbs alongside the lettuce wedges, for easy dipping.

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Iced Oysters with Bitter Lemon Vinaigrette

Greg DuPree
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This simple recipe only has four ingredients—oysters, bitter lemon vinegar, a shallot, and dried spicebush berries. If you can’t find the spicebush berries, black peppercorns will also work.

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Caviar-Topped Deviled Eggs

Caitlin Bensel
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Farm-raised sturgeon caviar from the University of Georgia takes traditional deviled eggs from traditional to top-notch. For his Southern Sampler, chef Evan Babb channels his mother’s and grandmother’s classic recipes for the filling, which gets a briny kick from a splash of olive juice.

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Sausage-Stuffed Fried Olives

Victor Protasio
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Buttery, mild Castelvetrano olives add just enough salt and tang to these fried sausage snacks that pair beautifully with a crisp martini or chilled glass of wine. Use a high quality Italian sausage for the best texture and flavor.

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Crudités and Fermented Soybean Dip

Greg DuPree
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This dip is the perfect way to show off whatever fresh vegetables you can get your hands on.

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Stilton-Stuffed Pickled Peppers

Greg DuPree
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Two high-impact ingredients—funky Stilton cheese and pickled sweet or spicy peppers—come together to form the ultimate one-bite snack. Pickled peppers, like spicy peperoncini and mild Peppadew, are packed with enough flavor to stand up against strong cheeses. You can use most blue cheeses here, including Gorgonzola and Roquefort.

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Crab and Smoked Salmon Pintxos with Vanilla Oil

Christopher Testani
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These delightful pintxos combine a lemony fresh crab salad with smoked salmon and salty pops of salmon roe. A drizzle of fragrant vanilla oil is a surprise complement to the seafood, but it can be optional.

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Peppered Beef and Hen-of-the-Woods Bundles

Greg DuPree
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Garlic oil–basted hen-of-the-woods mushrooms—aka maitake—are the secret to making this simple riff on bistro-style steak with mushrooms complex and richly flavored. Rather than arranging the thin slices of rare roast beef on a platter, skewer them with roasted mushrooms to form an elegant one-bite appetizer.

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Mini Brie Sandwiches with Quick Balsamic-Leek Jam

Charissa Fay
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These crisp, buttery, and supremely gooey grilled cheese sandwiches get fantastic tang from sourdough bread and a bright mustardy bite from leeks.

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Garlic Toasts with Lemon Aioli and Marinated Beans

Victor Protasio
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Tuck this recipe for “cheater’s aioli” away for safekeeping—the spicy raw garlic and floral lemon transform store-bought mayonnaise into a brightly delicious (and fast-fix) condiment. Adjust the acid and spice levels to taste, or swap the lemon for lime.

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Pomegranate-Ginger Spritz

Victor Protasio
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Pomegranates are winter’s most stunning fruit; here they provide both a sweet, wine-colored base and a jewel-like garnish. The baking-spice notes of Angostura bitters soften the juice’s tartness with cozy flavor.

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Seriously Dirty Martinis

Charissa Fay
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Dirty vodka martinis are a staple at television personality Alex Guarnaschelli’s parties, but she also likes to mix it up from time to time. A floral gin martini made seriously dirty with olives is a great palate opener, she says, but the real secret is adding the brine from the jar of capers in the door in her fridge.

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Champagne Jellies

Sarah Crowder
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These jellies are festive enough for any time of the year. After all, when is a bad time for a little Champagne?

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Ultimate Chocolate Mousse

Greg DuPree
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The key to this recipe is to use the very best semisweet dark chocolate you can find—we like Valrhona. The better the chocolate, the better the mousse.

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By Bridget Hallinan