David Rosengarten Entertains: Fabulous Parties For Food Lovers - Hardcover

Rosengarten, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471461989 ISBN 13: 9780471461982

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 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

Review

David Rosengarten, creator of the Rosengarten Report, a newsletter reporting on all the latest food goodies to be found online, has combined the need to shop and the need to entertain and called it David Rosengarten Entertains. It's a party cookbook chock-a-block with where to buy it information and how to make it directions for the entertaining with food challenged.

There are 16 theme parties and they encircle the world: Spanish tapas, Italian pizza, Japanese tempura, Tunisian couscous, Texas BBQ, French bouillabaisse, Mexican tacos, American hot dogs, Indian tandoor chicken, Argentinian steak, Italian bollito miisto, Cajun gumbo, French cassoulet, Greek kebabs and lamb, Cuban roast pig, and English cucumber sandwiches. In each and every chapter (they all have clever titles such as "Love Me Tandoor," and "A Totally Frank Party") there's some central must-have item-- whether the Spanish jamon, the Texas barbecued brisket, the fresh Indian spices, the best steak, etc., and Rosengarten tells you where to shop. This section of the chapter is called The Ingredient. It is preceded by an introduction to the chapter concept called The Plan, followed by potables suggestions under the heading Beverage Time, and finally into the nuts and bolts with The Recipes.

Basically, Rosengarten removes any and all strain from entertaining with food (including the strain of reading--the size of the type makes this book readable from across the kitchen). He declares we are in the Third Epoch of entertaining where it's all about What is Good (if in doubt, he'll tell you). In the First Epoch (1950-1975) it was all about What Sounded Good regardless of truth in tasting. In the Second (1975-2000), What Looked Good was based on trendy restaurant presentation. One is left to wonder about a world of food and entertaining prior to 1950. --Schuyler Ingle

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0471461989
• ISBN 13: 9780471461982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 394