By now Puck is prancing well into his midsummer REM sleep. To inspire you all to make the best of these few fleeting weeks of glory, I decided to ask a few experts whose taste and talents at entertaining are beyond reproach.
1. Suzanne Goin
I was on hand when Suzanne first caught the national spotlight as one of Food & Wine’s best new chefs. She’s statuesque and quietly beautiful, so of course the magazine put her front and center at its New York and Aspen events. My client In Style chose Suzanne’s first restaurant, Lucques, as its night-before-the-Oscars dinner headquarters, and one of my jobs was to ask the chef to come and greet the hoi polloi. She was always intent on the task at hand, with her hair pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail, but she was gracious and shook hands. Once Lucques had established itself as among the best serious restaurants in Los Angeles, she opened A.O.C. (named for appellation d’origine contrôllé, the geographic determinant of what wine may call itself in France) and the Hungry Cat with her husband, David Lentz.
What would you prepare for guests to see upon arrival and say “wow”?
I think it would be a gigantic and abundant grand aioli—with all kinds of summer vegetables, grilled fish, tomatoes, radishes, etc.—on a huge wooden table for people to feast on. In California, does everyone drive their SUVs onto the beach to set up like in the Hamptons?
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Author: Lauren Matison