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Invitation to Dinner: Abigail Kirsch's Guide to Elegant Entertaining and Delicious Dinners at Home - Hardcover

Kirsch, Abigail; Nussbaum, David

 
9780385488174: Invitation to Dinner: Abigail Kirsch's Guide to Elegant Entertaining and Delicious Dinners at Home
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0385488173 ISBN 13: 9780385488174
Verlag: Doubleday, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

One of the nation's most successful caterers reveals her secrets for preparing impressive dinners for guests with a minimum of time, expense, and anxiety, serving up twenty-five menus for all occasions and ways to deal with culinary disasters.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Abigail Kirsch is a well-known New York-area caterer with a national reputation.  Her sites include Abigail Kirsch at Tappan Hill in Tarrytown, New York, The New York Botanical Garden, and Pier Sixty in Manhattan.  Trained at The Culinary Institute of America and Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, she is the current president of the New York chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier.  She is the coauthor of The Bride and Groom's First Cookbook and lives in Pound Ridge, New York.

David Nussbaum, formerly a restaurant cook, pastry chef, and baker in San Francisco, is a writer specializing in food and lifestyle topics.  His food commentaries can be heard on "The Splendid Table" on National Public Radio.  He lives in western Massachusetts.

Aus dem Klappentext

ch is one of the country's preeminent caterers. In the course of a year she serves delicious, impeccably presented food to more than 125,000 people, but--like the rest of us--her busy schedule leaves her with little time to entertain friends and family. So, for all of us who want to know: "How can I possibly cook a dinner to impress the boss without taking a sick day to do it?" and "How can I give a formal dinner when I don't own china or silver--and wouldn't have time to polish the silver even if I owned it?," Abigail Kirsch has written the book that provides the answers--as well as solutions to such vexing dilemmas as what to do when the soufflé falls or it rains on the day of your cookout.

Invitation to Dinner includes twenty-five complete menus for occasions as various as Casual Dinners, Celebratory Formal Events, Buffets, Grilling Parties, Brunches, Hors d'Oeuvre Parties, and Dessert Parties. Each full menu revolv

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Game Plans for a Winning Party

In 1972, I received a phone call that changed my life.  "Would you like to provide lunch for five hundred guests of PepsiCo at our corporate headquarters?" a woman asked me.  I took the job, and stayed up nights figuring out how I (with some high-school helpers) would prepare, pack, transport, and present five hundred exquisite lunch boxes with salade Niçoise, fruit and cheese, and a home-baked pastry.  I had never catered a party before.

Though I didn't know it at the time (I ran a small cooking school and loved it), that big lunch was the launching of a new career.  And my long nights started an education in big-party planning that continues to this day.  For years, as my business has grown, I've made strategic lists of everything that needs to be done for every event, assigning every task involved in setting up, decorating, cooking, and cleaning up: from turning ovens on (and off), to arranging the garnish on each plate, to having the Dumpsters emptied when the party is over.  It is this organized approach to entertaining--creating a comprehensive game plan--that I want to teach you in this chapter.

Why have a game plan? In business, it's obvious: If we don't figure out everything that needs to be done well ahead of time, and decide who's going to do it and when, we are going to forget something.  That's just not acceptable in our profession.

And I believe the same principle applies to entertaining at home.  When people come to your home, you should be prepared with everything that will make them feel comfortable and special--and you should be ready to have a good time.

How can you really welcome your guests--how can you be genuinely happy to see them--when you are still racing around frantically, doing a dozen different things at the last minute? How can you really enjoy precious time with your guests when you have to disappear from your party every couple of minutes to find the things you forgot, or didn't have time to bring out in the first place?

There is a different way to host a party--even a large, complicated event--and in this chapter I will show you how to do it.  I will teach you to think like a professional.  You will figure out in advance exactly what you have to do, what you need to provide, and you will create a game plan to take care of it all.

In the following pages, I have distilled the hundreds of questions we ask our clients, and the dozens of factors we consider in large-scale event-planning, into ten basic steps.  These address all the issues and practical necessities a host has to face sooner or later--and surely, sooner is much better!

This is not just a matter of listing tasks, but a guide to the choices you will have to make.  As you carefully consider each facet of your event, decide on the things that you absolutely have to do--such as renting equipment or shopping for groceries--and set a realistic time frame in which to do them.

At the same time, evaluate the elements that can vary, such as the menu and the decor: If you have extra time, you can choose to indulge in an extravagant meal, or you can streamline your plans to save time, money, and effort.  There are no "wrong" answers to the questions you will ask yourself: Your choices will help you shape a party that expresses your entertaining style and fits into your lifestyle.  And your game plan will guarantee that you will have a good time preparing, and attending, your own party.


Should I Call My Guests  to Help Set a Date?

The only time I call someone about an event before I have chosen a date is when there is some key player--an individual or a couple around whom I really want to build a party. Their availability is crucial to my event, and I don't like to leave that to chance. Otherwise, if I have selected a date and time that considers the calendar and people's normal activities--with sufficient advance notice--my chosen date almost always works for the people I want to have the most.

Ready to Start a Game Plan?

The time to start rigorously planning your event is after you have decided on the format.  You know the purpose of your event, you know the feeling you want, and you probably have a guest list nearly complete.  You should definitely know the capacity of your home to accommodate the planned number of guests (using the formulas in Chapter 4).  If not, confirm that you have the table, seating, or standing room you will need.  Now you are ready to consider the first practical question in your game plan.


Step 1: Picking a Date and Time for Your Event

It's not just the calendar you must consult; you must also take into consideration your life and the lifestyles of the people you want to invite.

What is a time and date for your event that gives you sufficient time to comfortably plan and graciously execute the party?

Don't rush to the first available opening in your date book.  Be realistic about your life, your other obligations, and your schedule.  The larger and more formal the occasion, the more planning and preparation time you will need.  Don't start to plan a formal dinner for next weekend--unless you have a butler and a chef.

Will seasonal--or, more likely, unseasonable--weather have any effect on the type of party you have planned?

Don't plan a grilling party in late spring--without rainy-day options.  Think twice about winter parties for which out-of-town guests may encounter travel difficulties.

Will your event date conflict with family holidays or school vacations that will occupy your guests?

Will your party compete with many other events at Christmas holiday time, or June graduation and wedding time?

Is the time for your party a natural one for the meal you have planned?

A multicourse dinner will be wasted on guests at a luncheon.  Don't schedule a dessert party to start at 6:00 p.m.!

Is the time for your party going to interfere with people's normal activities?

If many of your friends are weekend golfers, don't start the party at 4:00 p.m.  on a Saturday in late May.  But late afternoon might be a perfect time to gather for an early supper on a Sunday in January.


Step 2: Issuing Invitations

However you deliver them--by mail, phone, or (I am sure it is happening somewhere) E-mail or fax--your invitations have to communicate much more than the time and date of your party.  Remember that people always want to know what to expect, and almost always worry about what to wear.  Your invitation will tempt and reassure them by letting them know what kind of event you will be having; indicating whether you will be serving a meal; and, in the cleverest way you can, telling them how to dress for the occasion.

How are you going to make your invitations?

For a party of twelve or more, it is usually easier to send invitations by mail.  A blank note card with an appropriate design (in which you handwrite the party information) is a simple alternative to printing.  For a smaller party, extending an invitation over the phone is efficient and perfectly acceptable.

How can you announce a formal dinner?

Even if it is a small affair, you can highlight the specialness--and the fun--of a formal dinner with a classy, mailed invitation.  A handsome, handwritten invitation is, in my opinion, especially thoughtful, and demonstrates from this first moment the personal care you are putting into...

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Verlag
Doubleday
Erscheinungsdatum
1998
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0385488173
ISBN 13 
9780385488174
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
400
Kontakt zum Hersteller
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Verantwortliche Person
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