Williams-Sonoma Cooking for Friends: Fresh ways to entertain with style

With stylish, delicious recipes and charming, imaginative flourishes, Alison & Jamie share their entertaining know-how with a heady enthusiasm and a healthy dose of humor. As experienced personal chefs and two of New York's most sought-after food stylists, Alison Attenborough and Jamie Kimm have spent years planning and cooking menus for dinner parties and cocktail fêtes for a long list of clients. They've sought out the best purveyors at the greenmarket, finessed ingredients, and created unique touches for every dish they serve, and then stamped it all with a signature panache. What they've learned along the way is that simple and seasonal are always best. They also know a thing or two about how to show their own friends a great time and still keep hosting duties light. When these two professionals invite people over, they distill all they've discovered on the job into their own style: smashingly simple yet invariably special. Their parties are festive events imbued with a strong appreciation for well-made food and an infectious dash of gaiety. One way they inspire fun is by presenting a favorite recipe-a shaved salad, a plate of crostini, a granita, a Bellini-in a brand-new guise, dressing it up for the occasion, the season, or both. Alison and Jamie's prescription for a memorable meal is straightforward: fresh ingredients, minimal fuss, and, most important, good friends, good wine, and good conversation. They know how to make their guests feel welcome (a drink anda nibble on arrival), how to feed them well according to the season and the mood, and how to win them over with a delectable dish presented in a singular way, such as summer cherries on ice or yellowtail crudo layered with avocado and basil. In Cooking for Friends, Alison and Jamie share their clever ideas, their love for food, and their indomitable spirit for fun with the rest of us. After flipping through these pages, it's impossible not to start plotting the menu for your next gathering, giddy with anticipation that it may be the best dinner party you'll have ever served.… (more)