David Rosengarten Entertains: Fabulous Parties for Food Lovers - Hardcover

Rosengarten, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471461989 ISBN 13: 9780471461982

Publisher: Wiley, 2004

Synopsis

As an award-winning Food Network television host, cookbook author, cooking teacher, and food and wine writer, David Rosengarten clearly knows a thing or two about food and drink???not to mention putting on a great show. Now he brings all three together in an imaginative collection of dinner parties that can transform even a casual get-together into a memorable occasion. Each party features a complete menu of delicious-yet-doable recipes that are centered around a specific food or ethnic theme???a Texas BBQ, Cassoulet ("Show up chez-moi for beans and wienies!"), or a Tapas Time night featuring Spanish Ham and Chorizos. Planning and presentation ideas show how to make a gathering truly special, from table-setting tips to music suggestions and more. Top photographer Quentin Bacon captures the food and the celebratory mood with style and dramatic flair. Throughout the book, Rosengarten is the perfect host, with a style that is as bold, lively, and entertaining as the parties themselves.

About this title

About the Author

DAVID ROSENGARTEN, a two-time James Beard Award winner, is a cookbook author, food-and-wine writer, and TV personality. The former host and chef of the Food Network cooking show Taste and coanchor with Donna Hanover of In Food Today, he appears as a regular guest on NBC’s Today show. He has written for the New York Times, Newsday, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, and many other publications, and is currently Editor in Chief of The Rosengarten Report, recipient of the 2003 James Beard Award for best food-and-wine newsletter in America. His recent cookbook, It’s All American Food, earned a 2004 James Beard Award. His web site, www.davidrosengarten.com, features many additional resources, recipes, and tips for food enthusiasts.

From the Back Cover

"In David Rosengarten Entertains you are hand-led through each step of preparation by David’s expertise and flair. Using this book, you just can’t miss creating a fabulous party. A great book. So, let’s party."
–Lidia Bastianich

"Thank you, David, for creating the perfect dinner party book. Now I don’t have to struggle the next time I have a party."
–CHEF Marcus Samuelsson
Aquavit and Riingo (New York)
Washington Square(Philadelphia)

"What an amazing collection of fresh ideas and new inspirations! Like nobody else, David makes me want to get a bunch of friends together for a highwire dinner party–he covers all the bases, including how to find the right sitar player (take it from me, you want to find the right one)."
–Ted Allen, food and wine specialist
Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

"This book gives you all you need to know to throw a stellar party effortlessly. I feel like David is in the kitchen with me directing the show so I don’t have to. From the glassware you’ll need to where to shop and what to make first, this book has it all. All your questions are answered to make you the expert entertainer!"
–Gale Gand, pastry chef/partner, Tru (Chicago)

"If you want your next party to be the event of the year, search no further than David Rosengarten’s new book! Full of tantalizing, mouthwatering recipes organized into exciting and stylish menus, this is a must-have for anyone who entertains at home."
–Stanley Lobel, Lobel’s Meats, cookbook author

From the Inside Flap

David Rosengarten knows a thing or two about putting on a great show with ease and flair. Acclaimed Food Network celebrity, award-winning cookbook author, and food-and-wine writer, he is also the creator of The Rosengarten Report, the coveted insider newsletter revealing the best artisan food and wine in the world available by mail order. Now he shares the exclusive information Rosengarten Report subscribers receive every month in this treasure trove of complete blueprints for 16 show-stopping dinner parties. In David Rosengarten Entertains, the celebrated Renaissance man of food and drink presents fabulous concepts that will transform even a laid-back hot dog party into an unforgettable fête.

These are no ordinary dinner parties, and this is no ordinary book of recipes. In David Rosengarten’s able hands, you’ll design an enchanting thematic evening your guests will rave about for months. Mesmerize them with Tunisia for Twelve, an exotic North African couscous-and-lamb extravaganza. Bewitch them with Love Me Tandoor, a spicy Indian banquet. Reel them in with an authentic, Louisiana-style Zydeco Thanksgiving, featuring mail-order turducken–a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken–as the scandalously succulent centerpiece.

Host a Barcelona-style tapas party at your own casa–pitchers of cool gazpacho, sizzled chorizo sausage, and shrimp with garlic sauce, all served in terra-cotta dishware. Or lay out a red-checkered tablecloth, crank up the volume on a Dean Martin album, and serve chunky antipasto salad along with a selection of classic and contemporary grilled pizzas.

Evocative but easy-to-pull-off presentation ideas–table-setting tips, music suggestions, and decorative flourishes–show how to strike just the right mood without breaking the bank. A few old Havana cigar boxes to hold silverware, a table draped with palm leaves, and a Celia Cruz CD, for instance, will evoke the perfect ambiance for your Cuban roast pig gala. Top photographer Quentin Bacon captures the glorious food and festive mood of David Rosengarten’s bravura presentations with style and dramatic flair.

For the host who wants all the trappings of a picture-perfect celebration, David Rosengarten Entertains offers contacts within each chapter for mail-order suppliers of the best food and wine, decorations, and much more. You’ll have at your fingertips the resources for every last detail–whether it’s a mouthwatering slab of brisket for your Texas BBQ or a miniature Parthenon for your Greek bacchanal.

So what are you waiting for? Choose a date, invite some guests, and conjure up a fabulous dinner party–with David Rosengarten as your sparkling host, you can’t go wrong.

Reviews

As gourmands well know, food and love are inextricably intertwined; and, says Rosengarten, dinner parties enhance that connection. Such events involve a great deal of work for the host, but Rosengarten has gone to great lengths to think of, and address, every detail of 16 themed fêtes representing a variety of cuisines and settings, from "It's Tapas Time" to "Zydeco Thanksgiving." Rosengarten honed his skills during his seven-year stint on Food Network's Taste show, and he has authored several cookbooks, including The Dean and Deluca Cookbook. Here he combines creative yet doable recipes with clever decorating suggestions and tips for entertainment and beverages. For each party, he focuses on "The Ingredient": the one, perfect food that will make the party authentic and, well, fabulous. Rosengarten's knowledge of food esoterica is broad and impressive; a discourse on Spanish ham, for example, is detailed and fascinating. The author's enthusiasm for entertaining is evident in both the specificity and care taken with each party plan, and the exuberant asides that make readers feel like cooking compatriots ("One taste of the old-fashioned antipasto salad... laden with crunchy hearts of iceberg lettuce, and you'll likely say—as I've been known to— 'Exactly what is so great about radicchio?' "). Photos.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471461989
• ISBN 13: 9780471461982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 424