I enjoyed New York Times fashion editor Vanessa Friedman's essay about her dinner party that she modeled on meals described in the recent book about the fashion designer Valentino, At the Emperor's Table.
Upon reading the book, with its photos and descriptions of elaborate banquets, Friedman wondered:
Had I fallen victim to the dinner party equivalent of athleisurewear? Were my dinner parties actually...leggings?
I grew up in a household where dinner parties and holiday feasts were regularly held, and as an adult, I continue to host dinner parties on a regular basis, especially during this time of year. So I don't have phobias about having folks over, and I try to plan meals that are unusual without being forbidding (which is really the great skill required of a host).
Making dining special is really the goal of a dinner party, or a holiday meal. And so I was particularly heartened by the end of Friedman's column, where she mentions a question her daughter asked while they were cleaning up:
"Why don't we use this stuff more?" my daughter asked...."I don't know," I said. "Good question." And I wonder why, I thought, I have never asked it before?