7:30 at Tara

When Tara turned ten last year, the Swedish women's magazine held a big party at Stockholm's Nalen club, with advertisers, partners and freelancers. But for its 11th birthday, the magazine wanted to do something completely different and decided it was the readers' turn to celebrate with Tara.

The idea, based on TV4's popular food program Halv åtta hos mig (7:30 at my place), came from the editorial staff of the magazine. And became a contest for fans of the magazine, primarily subscribers. 

"We publicized it as a real gourmet dinner with the editorial staff's homemade dishes," says Editor-in-Chief Ann Fredlund. "The concept was based on recipes from editorial manager Christina Neiglick and beauty editor Linnea Öst. They're so clever, I would never have dared to invite anyone to a gourmet dinner myself."

Of the 100+ who competed for the honor, the team chose 14 to invite - some came from as far west as Eskilstuna, Falköping and Gothenburg.

"We chose women we thought sounded nice - all who competed wrote about themselves - and who we would like to sit and talk with," says Fredlund.

This past Wednesday, at 7:30 p.m. of course, glasses of bubbly and homemade parmesan chips were served in Tara's kitchen - half of the Bonnier Tidskrifter offices on Kungsgatan in downtown Stockholm were turned into a restaurant.

"We had such fun and exciting conversations, and on top of that really useful feedback about the magazine," says Fredlund. "One woman had been reading the magazine from the very first issue and had a notebook with clips from all her favorites."