Laura Calder - Dinner Chez Moi: The Fine Art of Feeding Friends

T HE IRONY OF THIS BOOKS TITLE, D INNER C HEZ M OI, IS THAT WHILE I WAS WRITING it I didnt have a chez moi to speak of, unless you counted my red suitcase on wheels. It was a turbulent couple of years, post-Paris, during which era I found myself moving several times,traveling incessantly, and ultimately staying at various friends houses for long stretches, trying to figure out where I should end up.

Chez moi as a concept was therefore given a lot of thought. I did consider for a while changing the title (Dinner Chez Everybody Except Moi?), but in the end I kept it. I realized that feeding friends is about food that comes from the heart, not about what kitchen you happen to cook it in. In other words, chez moi is a place within that you give out to the world, and you cant help but take that with you wherever you go any more than a tortoise can his shell. At least thats how Ive come to see it.

Another realization I had while writing this book is that in the run of an average day, dinner is often the likeliest candidate for being the highlight. Thats an opportunity too good to pass up! Its all fine and dandy to rise to occasions in life, but we also have to take the initiative to create occasions to rise to when there dont seem to be any, which is most of the time. This is where dinner comes in with bells on: its a chance every day to pull ourselves out of the mundane and give our lives a little polish and pizzazz.

None of this is to suggest that we have to get unreasonably fancy about the proceedings, a tendency from our more formal past that seems to have given the term dinner party a bad name. Im aware of the stigma. For some people the very thought conjures up images of starched tablecloths and tomato aspics. In my world, dinner party simply means eating with others, so theres no reason not to keep it down to earth if we want to. Even if its as basic as an omelet or a baked potato, if its dinnertime and Im not stuck eating it by myself, thats party enough for me. The menu suggestions in this book are not quite so minimalist, admittedly, but you can always scale them backor elaborateto suit your mood and the moment. Besides, setting the tone is a matter not so much of what you serve, but of how you serve it.

I created these menus from recipes I enjoyed with different friends in different places, which is why the mix is eclectic. Initially, I tried to adhere to a strict menu formula, but I quickly realized that food shares something in common with people: it resists being pigeon-holed. Every time Id add a recipe to a menu, it would make me think of another recipe, sometimes two or three, which of course I couldnt resist including whether they fit or not. So, what you get are menus with occasional intruders (titles set in italics), with which you can do what you like. I like to think the collection has ended up more true to life that way. What we cook is so much a reflection of where we are at any given time and of who we have around us.

You can simply follow the menus as they are or create your own by picking and choosing recipes from throughout the book. I swap them around myself all the time, including dragging in recipes from entirely different cookbooks to keeps things personal and fresh. In any case, the menus take a bit of navigating, because with every recipe I wrote down came a torrent of thoughts and memories and I made no effort to dam the resulting flood. If youre trying to focus on chopping an onion and find that I suddenly veer off onto the subject of a long-ago holiday or the madness of men, now you know why. Perhaps you can think of my ramblings as the kind of chat we might have in the kitchen if we were cooking together, or as a conversation you might have over dinner with friends.

One last note: if you were looking for napkin-folding tricks, theme-party ideas, or dining etiquette and rules, Im afraid you wont find them here. I did, once upon a time, consider discussing topics such as how to draw up a guest list and how to set the table, but when I put pen to paper I found it all seemed silly and distracting. Whats significant when it comes to feeding people is not whether we have impeccable fish-serving skills or the right number of matching silver dessert spoons, perfectly polished. What matters is gathering people we like around a metaphorical fire and sharing good food and a good time. Thats the whole point of a dinner party. Seducing you into throwing them more often is the point of this book.

Happy hosting,

CHERRY CRPE STACK