Intimate Gatherings: Great Food for Good Friends [Hardcover]

Ellen Rose (Author), Jessica Strand (Author), Maura McEvoy (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

When it comes to dinner parties, real people are tired of dizzying preparations and unobtainable standards. They want to sit down with a few good friends and take the time to enjoy their company as much as the food. And they want a cookbook that will show them how. That's the cry culinary booksellers Ellen Rose and Jessica Strand kept hearing from their customers at Cook's Library -- so they wrote the book themselves. Here are easy, elegant menus for entertaining just two, four, or six. Arranged by season, they take advantage of fresh, flavorful ingredients and include helpful make-ahead tips, so even beginners and the chronically busy can host delightful occasions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The first effort by bookseller Rose (founder of Cook's Library in L.A.) and journalist Strand partially succeeds as it offers a dozen menus (three per season, one each for parties of two, four and six people). Although the authors promise that the cook "won't be a slave" to the kitchen and provide a "menu manager" to organize each meal's prep time, some menus give the chef little chance to relax with guests. If one starts preparing Antonia's Cioppino an hour before serving, as is recommended in the instructions, that time will be spent in the kitchen. A few touches may be considered precious: Barbecued Mussels in the Shell, an appetizer on the summer menu for two, calls for squirting white wine on each grilling mollusk with a turkey baster. Plating some of the meals can be quirky, as in two butterflied chickens in Our Favorite Tuscan Grilled Chicken for six. But many of the dishes are elegantly simple and relatively easy to prepare, notably Grilled Shrimp with Garlic Aioli, offering fare that would fully honor the friends of an attentive cook. Among the best: Oven-Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan; Lamb Marinated in Lemon and Garlic with Mint Pesto; and a toothsomely crunchy Autumn Mixed Nut Tart.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Many of the dishes are elegantly simple and relatively easy to prepare, notably Grill Shrimp with Garlic Aioli, offering fare that would fully honor the friends of an attentive cook Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 132 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; First Edition edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811815757
• ISBN-13: 978-0811815758
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,974,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great menu ideas, easy recipes, delicious!, November 3, 1998

By 

keiyam1 "keiyam1" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intimate Gatherings: Great Food for Good Friends (Hardcover)

The recipes in this book are very easy to follow and very delicious (slightly heavy on the garlic, though). Most of the recipes can be made without scouring your city for exotic ingredients. The recipes that I have made have worked well (unlike in some other entertaining based cookbooks). The best thing about the book is the menu ideas for dinner parties of different sizes. While I have yet to make a dinner as suggested by this book, I have composed a dinner party based on many of the recipes represented in this book. Excellent choice for people who want ideas for menu construction.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars deliciously different, October 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Intimate Gatherings: Great Food for Good Friends (Hardcover)

I recieved this book as a gift two summers ago, and it's long since been a favorite. The mixed berry cobbler is to die for, and most of the other recipes are just as simple and wonderful to prepare and devour. A few suggestions, though. The authors never inform us when to remove the shells for the barbequed shrimp, and we are asked to baste the grilled chicken with bricks sitting on top of them! Nothing a more meticulous editor couldn't have caught. I really do like books that mention a little something about the recipes before simply listing the ingredients and method. I don't know about anyone else, but you really get a feel for the authors's passion for good food. Yummy.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Inaccurate and incomplete recipes, December 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Intimate Gatherings: Great Food for Good Friends (Hardcover)

I was initially very excited about this cookbook until I began to acually put it to use. On two different occasions I have found receipes where there have been incomplete or confusing directions. The Parmesean Crips for example list a 1/2 tsp of butter in the ingredient listing but do not tell you when or where to add in the receipe! I have also found that in the Pork Tenderloin with Fruit and Port Sauce they instruct you to preheat an oven but do not tell you when and for how long to bake the dish. Friends that own the cookbook were equally confused. This is disasterous particually when entertaining-which is what this book is all about.