Any celebration meal to which guests are invited, be they family or friends, should be an occasion for generous hospitality.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I think fine dining should be part of the community where it is, more than just for the people who are going to make a special occasion.
Back in the really olden days, dinner was seldom a ceremonial event for U.S. families. Only the very wealthy had a separate dining room. For most, meals were informal, a kind of rolling refueling; often only the men sat down.
To my great surprise and pleasure, I have had dinner with most of the people living with whom I would like to have dinner.
Funny you mention my dinner parties when I have just suggested that inviting close friends over to share a meal with candlelight and wine at your table could be a form of religious experience for some people. To me it's a form of sacrament.
After all, what is your host's purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself; if that were their sole purpose, they'd have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.
For many of us, Christmas lunch is the most special meal of the year - and I certainly want nothing but the very best for this celebration.
I always like to think I'm having a dinner party, and I'm the host, and the audience are my guests.
Somewhere in the back of their minds, hosts and guests alike know that the dinner party is a source of untold irritation, and that even the dullest evening spent watching television is preferable.
I consider a good dinner party at our house to be where people drink and eat more than they're meant to. My husband is a really fantastic cook. His mother is Italian and if you walk into our house, we assume you're starving.
The most important thing for having a party is that the hostess is having fun. I'm very organized. I make a plan for absolutely everything. I never have anything that has to be cooked while the guests are there. The only thing I might have to do is take something out of the oven and carve it.