Plan backward from the time you want to serve the meal. Move tasks that need time to rest, or improve while resting, to one day ahead: syrup-soaked desserts, olive-oil dishes, sauces, and marinades. On the day of the meal, wash salad ingredients, prepare fillings, and set the table in the morning. Leave frying, rice, dressing the salad, and grilling until the last minute. How to store food prepared in advance is a separate matter.
The challenge of hosting a meal is not cooking each dish one by one; it is having everything ready at the same time. If all the work piles up on the same day, or even the same hour, there may not be enough burners, oven space, or counter space, and one dish may burn while another waits. A schedule spreads out the work. Plan it by counting backward from serving time: first write down when each dish on the menu needs to be ready, then work out how far ahead each one can be prepared, and spread the tasks across days and hours.
Move tasks that need time to rest, or improve while resting, one day ahead. Syrup-soaked desserts need time to absorb the syrup, so make them one day ahead and let them rest. Olive-oil dishes are served cold and their flavors settle as they rest; dolma and sarma (stuffed vegetables and grape-leaf rolls) belong in this group. Sauces and cold appetizers can be made one day ahead, and meat can be marinated for the appropriate length of time for its type. Do the shopping, prepare the tablecloth, and count the plates and forks and knives one day ahead, too; searching for a missing plate on the day of the meal is the most expensive use of time.
The morning of the meal is the time to prepare the main components. Wash and dry salad greens, then refrigerate them without dressing; keep the dressing in a separate container. Mix the meatball mixture, prepare the pastry filling, and chop the soup vegetables. Start long-cooking dishes—such as oven-roasted meat, casseroles, and meat-and-vegetable dishes—early enough that they have time to rest before serving. Set the table and take out the serving dishes while they cook. Every task done in the morning frees up a burner in the evening and makes the final hours easier.
The tasks left until the last minute are the ones that cannot be done ahead. Fry food as close to serving time as possible, because it loses its crispness if it sits. Cook rice close to serving time, allowing for its resting time. Dress the salad just before it comes to the table. Grill and pan-fry dishes after the guests sit down. Do not schedule all these tasks for the same moment: put them in sequence on the schedule, with the ingredients for the next dish ready and waiting while one dish cooks. The shorter the last-minute list, the less rushing there will be at the table.
Writing the schedule on paper makes the tasks visible. Give each dish a line showing when to start, when it will be finished, and where it will wait afterward. This also shows how many tasks the refrigerator, oven, and stove can handle at once; if there is no room in the refrigerator, reduce the number of dishes prepared one day ahead. How and how long to store food prepared in advance is a separate matter, and every dish has its own rule. Build the schedule around those rules; it is meant to follow them, not stretch them.