For hosts who need some inspiration on what type of party to give, a good place to start is the cookbook shelf of their bookstore.
While our grandmothers and mothers might have made do with thick, pictureless tomes arranged by subject matter-eggs, poultry, fish, etc.-we have our pick today of more specialized volumes. For example, there are books on just one part of the meal-hors d’oeuvres or desserts-or even one food item-lemons, mushrooms, onions, broccoli.
There are also books on every ethnic group imaginable. Books on how to garnish any food and serving platter. Even books on whom to invite, how to fold napkins, how to set the table. And if there’s any category that stands out as a leitmotif, it’s that we love to throw parties with a theme, the grownup version of a child’s birthday party. The most popular right now seems to be a Mexican fiesta, according to several books.
But, when it comes to putting together a well-stocked cookbook larder, it’s best to choose books that offer different strengths. Some are best for mastering such essential culinary techniques as chopping, making pastry or cooking with a wok. Some are best for their collection of infallible recipes, and still others for showing how to present food artistically. Here are some suggestions:
Gourmet magazine columnist Barbara Kafka’s latest book, “Party Food” (William Morrow, $25), focuses on nibbles to serve at the beginning of a party or to offer at a cocktail gathering. Anybody old enough to remember how dinner parties in the 1950s routinely began with onion dip and cut-up vegetables or potato chips will welcome Kafka’s dip chapter, which expands the repertoire tremendously with eggplant Moroccan, salsas, olive-based spreads and more. Other useful recipes are for the breads to put the nibbles on, edible wraps to enclose other edibles and non-alcoholic punches.
For years, Martha Rose Shulman hosted gatherings for 25 guinea pigs, er, friends, who sampled her homemade breads, pastas, pie crusts, etc. She has gathered the recipes together in “Feasts & Fetes” (Chapters, $17.95) and organized the ambitious recipes (who needs to make one’s own own tortillas, however?) according to themes. A “November Salute to Beaujolais Nouveau” features a mushroom tart, pumpkin-sweet potato-and-apple puree and poached pears in, yes, Beaujolais. A “December Italian Christmas Colors” party is heavier on the green than the red with pesto bread, green lasagna, fennel and red-pepper salad, plus tangerine sorbet.
In his latest (1993) cookbook “Celebrations” (Barron’s, $29.95), Joe Famularo brings together all the essential ingredients for successful cooking and entertaining, whether it’s for business, purely social or a combination. There are full-page color photographs with room arrangements and elaborate table settings, recipes and a variety of party themes.
Many of the parties might not normally include business colleagues, but the delightful recipes and menus can be used without having the theme parties associated with them. There are three different Christmas meals-New England, Southern and Southwestern-that could be be used almost any time of year, for example. There are also menus for a homecoming, birthday, rehearsal dinner, wedding and Cinco de Mayo (the day in 1862 when Mexicans fought off a French invasion).
Among the most clever ideas are a Halloween party with wild pecan rice, shrimp and crab gumbo, witch’s greens and spooky pumpkin dessert, and a high school graduation party complete with an Italian hero sandwich, baked beans with maple syrup and apricot-pecan crunch cake.
Raymond Waites’ “Festive Table” (Little Brown, $24.95) is most useful as inspiration for its table and place settings, food platters and themes. His range is extensive, from a casual Stars and Stripes Fourth of July gathering to a drop-dead Christmas dinner with red-damask napkins ringed with gilded wreaths and menu of golden carrot soup with honey-oatmeal crackers and roasted game with fruit dressing.
While it’s easy to get overanxious about entertaining, it’s critical to remember that pulling off a successful party needn’t be as difficult as brain surgery. What helps, most veterans know, is to retain a sense of humor. K Callan does so in her book, “The Life of the Party” (Addison, $19.95). “Plan for good weather and your worst nightmare,” she writes. She also suggests not to entertain too frequently to avoid burnout: “Lie fallow after a creative experience” so you can rejuvenate yourself.
Among her ideas for lively parties is having a theme, though hers are rather offbeat. For an Oscar Night buffet, she suggests a Lee J. Cobb salad and Sissy Spacek Spinach. For a Political Party, she advises creamed chicken.
Any dedicated host should also have several classic cookbooks that are still in print or available at most libraries with a good cookbook collection. Entertaining has never been the same, in fact, since Julia Child, with the publication in 1970 of her first cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” spurred us to view cooking as something more than an unpleasant task. Exuding a high-pitched, roll-up-your-sleeves effervescence, she helped transform lunches and dinners into four-star culinary successes, even if it sometimes meant the chef was exhausted after slicing apples wafer-thin for a tart or braising beef and vegetables all day for a hearty bourguignon.
Though many cooks may not want to base an entire meal around Child’s recipes because of the time involved, one or two of her recipes can add the dazzle that every good party demands, along with a gorgeous centerpiece and scintillating guest list.
Other subsequent cookbook authors helped to vary the recipe for successful entertaining. Dessert maven Maida Heatter’s first offering, “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts,” still helps provide the perfect finale for every meal, with its precisely written recipes for such delicious treats as a flourless chocolate Queen Mother’s cake with deep glossy glaze, black-and-white pound cake and raspberry-strawberry Bavarian, a frothy pink confection topped with whipped cream.
Despite recent criticism over the origins of some of her recipes and her marathon cooking and publishing activities, Martha Stewart’s “Entertaining” remains a bible for its ideas on offering food that tastes good and is beautifully arranged and garnished. She was among the first-if not the very first-to methodically stuff tiny cherry tomatoes and slender peapods with fancy-sounding cheeses and other fillings and to suggest such novel beginnings as miniature blini with caviar or phyllo triangles filled with curried walnut chicken.
These proponents of formal and time-consuming menus had large followings. Then came Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, two former takeout food partners who offered the concept of more-casual fare that also took less time to prepare. Their first book, “The Silver Palate Cookbook,” still is considered by many as the partners’ best collaboration. In addition to such good recipes as chicken Monterey, shortbread hearts (great for Valentine’s Day or as edible placecards) and blackberry mousse, the book included wonderful quotes, menus and casual suggestions in its margins. One of them expresses what every good hostess knows-that “Cooking is like love-it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”
