How to Host a Dinner Party
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3.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A fun, informative guide to hosting the perfect party every time.
"Every dinner party experience I’ve had in the last ten years at Corey’s has been incredible. But practice really does make perfect and I can now honestly say there is nowhere I’d rather be in the world than at his table … I can’t begin to express the relief I felt in reading this book and realizing there was a method to his success."
- Sarah Polley, from the introduction
We’ve all been there: twenty minutes before guests arrive, and you’re unsure if you’ve got enough wine, or enough chairs, or whether your friend is a vegetarian or a vegan. Hosting a dinner party is hard, but Corey Mintz can help. For his popular Toronto Star column, "Fed," he has presided over 115 dinner parties, every week opening his home to strangers and friends alike in an effort to perfect the craft of hosting. And in How to Host a Dinner Party, he shares everything he’s learned in a hilarious handbook that will appeal to everyone — from those throwing their first dinner party to seasoned entertainers looking to enhance their skills.
This book guides readers through everything they need to know about hosting, starting with the golden rule — that the goal of a dinner party is to have fun with our friends, not to show off our cooking skills. It will explain why we like to gather for dinner, when we should host, who we should invite, what we should cook, and how we should cook it. Featuring recipes, anecdotes, expert analysis, and an endless bounty of how-to tips, it is the essential guide to perfecting the art of welcoming people into your home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mintz, who makes his living hosting dinner parties and writing about them for the Toronto Star newspaper, presents 180 pages of detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to do that essential hosting function, which you might not have realized you were not doing well enough. The book's 10 chapters follow the process through from the initial idea to host (or, in fact, to buy the table at which to host) on through setting the menu, shopping, cooking, serving, drinking a lot (or not), and cleaning up before you go to bed (unless you are a laggard). Mintz always makes it clear that the social function is paramount, and he gives many good tips, learned during his time as a professional cook, on how to avoid spending your whole party in the kitchen. He also includes some very useful recipes. Mintz's writing is witty, occasionally stinging ("If your friends are vegan, get new friends"), sometimes jaw-dropping ("if it weren't for , I would not have lost my virginity"). He gives the reader much to live up to, but he does show how to do so. Canadian distribution: HarperCollins Canada. U.S. distribution: PGW
Customer Reviews
Quick read, useful
Not quite what I was expecting, but full of practical advice and common sense. I wish there had been more cooking tips.