The New York Times On Dinner Parties
The New York Times has a close-to-home article about foodie dinner parties. Modern hosts worry about serving the best food, finding the most local ingredients, using the best china, hand making everything, receiving judgment about their food, and so forth. (I love the line, "his and her subscriptions to The Art of Eating;" I imagine Ed will also laugh to see his quarterly love letter to the traditional food of the world—often the product of rural frugality—cast as a must-have bourgeois accessory, though the demographic is probably accurate.)
Too bad the author could only find hosts who care more about the impression they make than the joy of friendship; these people sound dreary. Our dinner parties sit far to the right on the bell curve, but I don't cook the way I do to impress people: I cook the way I do because I enjoy it, and I want to do something special for our friends. I get to try out dishes I probably wouldn't do for Melissa and me. I buy special ingredients or hand make them because they taste better, not because I want to pass muster with my guests. We like chatting with our friends over good food and wine, and where better to do so than the comfort of our own home?
I stress about dinner parties, but only because I want the food to taste good, not because I'm worried that my friends will think less of me if something isn't perfect. I could probably name a dozen things I wasn't happy about for Clotilde's dinner party—from subtle flavor quibbles to components that never made it out of the kitchen—but I don't imagine that any of the guests went home thinking, "Well, too bad that didn't work out." Of course, as I've said before, the real secret is to not tell your dinner guests what went wrong. If you're not going to fess up, why stress?
Is the article sketching a difference between New Yorkers and Bay Areans? Or just me and other foodies? How do you feel when you host a dinner party? Are you out to impress? I'd love to hear what you think of the article.
One last thing: I agreed with the idea that foodies who throw fancy dinner parties don't get many invitations in return. Our friends are often intimidated to have us over. But, really, you could order Domino's and beer and we'd be happy guests; the point is to hang out and enjoy each other's company.
via Ethicurean, whose digest writer and husband were actually at Clotilde's dinner, where I did in fact serve home-cured olives.
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