Christopher Lowell, The Hassle-Free Host: Super-Simple Tablescapes and Recipes for Stunning Parties (Hardcover)

by Christopher Lowell (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Lowell is an excellent host. You can tell by the way he invites readers into his book, engaging directly with them, encouraging them to try new things: "See? Now you really can do this!" as if they're watching one of his Discovery Channel shows. Part decorating manual, part cookbook, with etiquette tips for entertaining sprinkled throughout, Lowell's book promotes his philosophy of entertaining: the goal is to create an environment in which everyone's comfortable, including the host. Lowell advocates easy table decorations and recipes that only look hard to create. He includes tips for thematic decorative tablescapes ("[I]t's not about the table, love, it's about what you do on it") and "Ridiculously Easy Recipes" that require more organizing and assembling than cooking, combining prepared foods with fresh ingredients. Recipes often complement tabletop displays, like the terracotta flower pot centerpieces that mesh with the menu for "Lunch on the Sundeck" (Chilled Avocado Soup, Grilled Beef Salad, Frozen Key Lime Pie). Serious cooks might balk at Lowell's suggested shortcuts, but those pressed for time will lap them up. 150 color photos not seen by PW.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Television's ever upbeat designer and decorator Lowell shows in pictures and text how to throw a memorable party. In this volume, he expands his horizons to include food as well as decoration. He wants to make a party fun, freeing the host from exhausting pre-event preparation but still making the scene one that guests are unlikely to forget. For a simple design concept, Lowell places flowers, vegetables, and fruits around a table, noting, "There are no mistakes in nature." Even apples make good place-card holders. Painted dowels glued to candle holders make elegantly tall rose holders for a more formal look. Lowell's recipes call for ready-made foods and mixes that gain individuality and creativity by addition of a few extra ingredients. Frozen macaroni-and-cheese stirred with some roasted red peppers and added cheeses easily fools guests. Frozen peas whipped with dill and cream make a simple starter. But some dishes require fresh ingredients, so Lowell does a veal stew from fresh meat and then simplifies it with frozen pearl onions and some canned white beans. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (September 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400047269
• ISBN-13: 978-1400047260
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #602,570 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Recipes - UGH! Tablescape ideas - Thumbs UP! , December 23, 2004

By	K. Corn "reviewer" (Indianapolis,, IN United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Sorry, had to split the difference on the ratings for this book...my idea of a great recipe is simply NOT frozen macaroni and cheese with some red peppers and extra cheese mixed in ( the preservatives can still be tasted, added ingredients or not). Find a great cookbook instead, master some basic recipes and then turn to Christopher Lowell for ideas on table design and decoration (what he calls "tablescapes"..that is where he really shines.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GREAT recipes, "tablescapes" overdone...., August 20, 2005

By	ReadNReVu - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I liked both the recipes and his "party notes" at the beginning of the book--a lot of useful information. The recipes are a good compromise between cooking gourmet and just bringing something from the Costco Deli Section style of entertaining.

The tablescapes--I can see going to all that effort for something very special, like a wedding (if you're doing that in lieu of a gift), but for normal get-togethers they're too much work. For sit-down dinners, I don't know about you, but I like to see the people I'm talking and eating with, not look through a virtual forest, or glassware, or whatever. For a buffet, they might be nice, if you took what he put on ONE table and spread it out over THREE tables--yes, that is how much stuff is on the table....

Even the table ideas I did like looked like they were all geared towards parties where you were being served by waitstaff. There was no room on his tables to pass anything around "family style", which is a concern if that is how most of your dinners are.

Bottom line: It really depends on the type of people you have at your parties/get togethers. If you have Martha-types, they will ooh and aahh and you might get something out of all that work on the tablescapes. If the people you entertain are more practical and down-to-earth, get this book for the recipes.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual Tablescapes w/ some good-looking "modified for quickness" recipes, January 22, 2006

By	Sonya "readaholic" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

Not sure why I picked this up from the library, we don't really do a lot of entertaining, just family. I DID enjoy looking through this book which had some very interesting and pretty tablescapes. I was surprised about the recipes but some of them actually sound good. I plan on trying them, maybe not for guests, but just because I am always looking for quick recipes. Like another reader said, if you want the real deal, there are great cookbooks out there. Christopher is not a chef!

Like other reviewers, some of the tablescapes were a little over the top, but to me they could easily be toned down. My favorite tablescapes were:
Petal Pushers - clear trough of petals and flowers
Asian Zen - very unusual flowers
Veggie-table chic - but toned down
Tin-talizing Picnic - was very cute.
Grass Roots - very tall, grass-like arrangement

Ummm, I just picked most of his designs. Maybe I like it better than the 3 stars I thought I was going to give it.