The Case for (and Against) the Fussy Dinner Party (2024)

You Chose: Effortless!

A Feast That Requires No Thought

By Krysten Chambrot

April 15, 2024

“A good dinner is of great importance to good talk,” Virginia Woolf, a professed fan of the feast, writes in “A Room of One’s Own.”

But it’s taken me nearly two decades to understand that one shouldn’t come at the expense of another.

For years, I was the kind of host who thought dinner had to be an event: There must be concepts, two-day cassoulets, endless pizzas flowing from an oven. I’d work until the very last minute, or sometimes well into the party, then finally sit down, exhausted, short on coherent thoughts and covered in flour, just in time to ask everyone if they were enjoying everything.

They’re enjoying everything, right?

Then one Christmas, after spending six hours on a spread for two people, I finally realized how much fun I wasn’t having. It was too much pressure — on me, on my long-suffering guests who, to my surprise, just wanted to hang out with me, not my handiwork.

With that in mind, I present a breezy menu that’s easy and actually fun to put together, my dream dinner party for six: an effortless large-format salmon, an easy dill rice, a cucumber-avocado salad that sings. Each one feels lush, abundant and, dare I say, impressive. But with just a few ingredients to shop for and minimal prep, they won’t leave you drained.

Scale it up! Scale it down! Do what comes most natural. In short, have fun, have a few drinks and get to the point where, Woolf writes, there’s “no need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”

It’s your party, after all. Remember to invite yourself.

The Ultimate Conversation Starter

Kick off this especially relaxed celebration with this irresistible recipe from Yossy Arefi. A tangy mix of yogurt and feta, brightened with herbs, it comes together lightning-fast in a food processor and is impossible to stop eating. Serve it alongside some pita chips and a verdant mix of vegetables for a starter that’ll move even the most introverted snack-table hoverers to party.

An Easygoing Star

This salmon is arguably the chillest guest at the table, down for pretty much whatever. Ali Slagle roasts it simply and slowly in a pool of fragrant olive oil enhanced with whatever you want to throw in: Mellow bay leaves and garlic, maybe even some olives are especially nice for this menu. Individual fillets make for easy serving and doubling, tripling or quadrupling, but a whole slab of salmon makes for a showstopping centerpiece without much effort.

A Fresh, Delicate Side

This four-ingredient rice from Naz Deravian is full of dill flavor from fresh and dried herbs. It’s perfect for sopping up that salmon-infused olive oil. You can even prepare this ahead of time, letting it sit in the fridge for a few days and reheating it with a spritz of water before serving.

A Crunchy Salad Tinged With Sesame

It can be hard to nail a dish that’s equal parts crisp and creamy, but Hetty Lui McKinnon does so with finesse. This no-cook salad comes together in 10 minutes — hoping your avocados are sufficiently ripe may be the only stressful part — and can be easily prepared as the salmon roasts.

A Jam-Packed Finish

Even the most inexperienced bakers can pull off this practically one-bowl cake from Jerrelle Guy, and guests will clamor for the recipe. To both make it easier and surprisingly more delicious, skip hulling the fruit altogether by using frozen thawed berries. A dusting of Demerara sugar, cinnamon and/or salt before baking amps up the deliciousness. Whipped cream is a gorgeous accompaniment, but nothing beats streams of vanilla ice cream running along this cake while it’s still warm.

A Breezy Mocktail

This simple nonalcoholic tonic from Rebekah Peppler drinks like a grown-up lemonade, with just enough salt and depth to feel sophisticated. And unlike a lot of mocktails, it comes together without any advance prep, thanks to some store-bought preserved lemons. Spike it, if you like, but there’s no need. It’s already an adult beverage.

Keep the party going with even more recipes at NYT Cooking.

The Elaborate Menu

A Little Dinner Theater

By Tanya Sichynsky

April 15, 2024

An act of altruism. An act of service. An act of love. Cooking for others has been called many things, but it is always an act.

“What is a party if not a private performance?” wrote Ruth Reichl in 1985, in the magazine Metropolitan Home. “When you invite people into your home, you are issuing invitations to a special sort of theater.”

Oceans of ink have been devoted to denouncing “entertaining” as fussy, but performances — good ones, at least — demand a bit of fuss. For hosts like myself, so much of the fun lies in the blocking and choreography, the set design, the script.

I’ve pinned poached shrimp to Styrofoam towers, printed out paper menus, made Dutch babies and latkes to order, stretched prep work across days and even designed custom matchbooks to grab on the way out, all in service of making my home feel like a sexy restaurant for the regulars of my life.

I’ve tried to contort myself into the shape of a nonchalant host, and it always feels like a sham. True effortlessness lies in ordering a few pies and tearing up some romaine to serve alongside. So why not lean into whimsy and work, and stretch yourself for an audience deserving of a show?

The following menu, enough for you and five guests, embraces the elaborate, and the many forms it can take. There are dressings and flourishes to make ahead for two sprightly salads; a dish of braised lentils that works as both side and vegetarian centerpiece; a lacquered, glistening bird fit for showy presentation; and even a project dessert that you can set aflame for your guests.

Call it extra, call it Marthaesque. But no one will call it boring.

Finger Food With a Little Fuss

Throughout this menu, there are little opportunities to take things over the top, and this appetizer is one of them. A slippery supermarket shrimp ring this is not. Poaching your own shrimp in a seasoned bath — as Eric Kim does — imparts the seafood with the subtle yet distinct aromas of chile and celery seed, and ensures none of it ends up rubbery. Sure, you could make a straightforward horseradish-y co*cktail sauce, but why not make three dipping sauces? Many might, at first, gravitate toward the garlicky dill butter, but the real spotlight-stealer is the unexpected curried honey mustard.

A Showy Whole Bird

A whole chicken is hardly demanding on the host, but it elicits some of the more passionate oohs and aahs from guests, especially if you present it in all its freshly roasted glory, then saunter off to the kitchen to expertly carve and plate it. For a bird reminiscent of both Cantonese soy sauce chicken and American Chinese orange chicken, Genevieve Ko pairs poultry with whole, peel-on tangerines, yielding a remarkable amount of flavor from just a few ingredients. The citrus slices soften in the chicken’s juices, giving the peels a candied quality that makes them a thrill to eat.

A Dish on Double Duty

A substantial side dish that doubles as a vegetarian main ensures no eaters are left out of the fanfare. This Gabrielle Hamilton recipe is broken up into three delicious parts, providing the cook with a dish to linger over before guests arrive: the base of slowly simmered lentils fragrant with fennel; a middle layer of meaty mixed mushrooms, on which you can splurge, if you like; and a final flourish of buttery croutons flecked with parsley and lemon zest.

A Salad to Make You Blush

Apart from slicing the tomatoes and assembling, every step of this dynamic, restaurant-caliber salad from Hetty Lui McKinnon can be accomplished ahead of time. A day or two before the party, fry the shallots over low heat, paying close attention to them so they don’t venture a shade past light golden brown, and whisk up the tangy dressing.

A Playful Nod to a Party Classic

At an elaborate dinner party, a “simple salad” has the potential to be anything but. So take a big bowl of crisp lettuces — that’s it! — and douse it in Jesse Szewczyk’s sour cream and onion dressing for a luxurious yet playful pop of green, inspired by a hall-of-fame party food. And because we’re in the business of going big, finish it all off with a handful of crushed potato chips.

Dessert and a Show

End the meal on a dramatic note with a project recipe that doubles as table-side entertainment. Zoë François’s birthday baked alaska, adapted by Dorie Greenspan, allows you to make things as complicated or as easy as you’d like (you’ve already worked so hard!). Make ice cream from scratch or buy your favorite pints. Line the base with store-bought lady fingers, as the recipe instructs, or go as far as to use homemade pound cake as your foundation. Nonnegotiable, though, is that the whole affair go up in flames.

A Boozy, Batchable Beverage

Resist the temptation to play bartender all night. Instead, mix up Rebekah Peppler’s batched 50-50 martinis in advance so that everyone can prepare their own tipple as they snack on shrimp. Make two batches — one for the gin loyalists, one for the vodka apologists — and put them out on ice alongside glassware, preskewered stuffed olives, pickled onions and cornichons, bitters and brine, and twisted citrus peels for a communal co*cktail hour.

Keep the party going with even more recipes at NYT Cooking.