When Stephanie Nass was a baby, her art-loving, gregarious parents set her bassinet atop the dining table when they had guests.
“All my life I have been at greatest peace in the middle of a party,” she writes in her new book, “and the instinct to cook for and invite dear friends is ingrained in me.”
That declaration is reinforced on the jacket of “Swing By!: Entertaining Recipes and the New Art of Gathering” (Rizzoli, $45) picturing her barefoot, perched on a table bedecked in chinoiserie, clad in a blue and white ensemble that matches the pattern of the place settings.
Nass, dubbed the “Millennial Martha Stewart” by multiple media outlets, studied cooking in France when she was 16. While an art student at Columbia University, she attended culinary school at night, and interned in the kitchens of top Manhattan restaurants. On weekends, she hosted a roving supper club for young professionals called Victory Club, with events typically staged in galleries to showcase artists’ works. Her catering company, whose clientele includes royalty and celebrities, grew out of that endeavor, as did Chefanie, a culinary lifestyle brand with a website (chefanie.com) that sells festive accessories such as farfalle-shaped earrings to wear for a pasta party, and edible wallpaper for customizing cakes and pastries to fit any decor.
Some of those items turn up in the 16 themed gatherings in her book, which is divided into four chapters: Seated Suppers, Standing Soirees, Outdoor Dining, and Holiday Parties. She prefaces them with a checklist and tips for throwing events “as unique and fabulous as you are.”
Those “touches of extraordinary” can be as simple as inscribing guests’ names on lemons to do double-duty as place cards for a lobster bake, turning roasted Cornish hens into “special occasion birds” by serving them in potato nests, and incorporating edible flowers in spring rolls and a Gardener’s Spritz for a botanical brunch.
Her most important advice? Make sure you’re throwing a party where you can relax and have fun as the host because “enjoyment — like dread — is contagious.”
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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