The Royal Chef At Home: Easy Seasonal Entertaining

MENU Well now to the heart of the matter: What’s to eat? I hope the menus I’ve assembled in this book entice you into the kitchen to recreate or to give your own special twist. But a few quick pointers before we start. Keep it simple. Now is not the time to pull out the recipe torn from last Wednesday’s food section to prepare for the boss coming to dinner—just because it looks good in the photo. Test drive that dish for when it’s just the family. If it’s a mess, who cares… where’s the bread, peanut butter and jelly? I want this book to be the one you pull out of the draw each time you say “let’s have a party” because you know that each and every recipe works and wows, and because they are easy and familiar. Keep the food on the recognizable side and be sensitive to guest preferences. You want your guests to have tried Thai squid salad a few times at their favorite Thai restaurant before you spring on them as a main course. Tweak an old favorite instead. How about some shrimp sates with peanut sauce and a regular green salad. Most people can handle that easily. A word of host liberation though; you are by no means required to kowtow to guests who have endless dietary, health, or emotional issues with food. Invite those friends to a movie or a trip the museum, not to dinner. If you can, and I realize that isn’t always possible, try to invite people who can eat without bouts of excessive anxiety. Enjoyment and relaxation, yours included, are the keys to a great evening. Match the menu to the event. A barbeque should have a nice casual feel to it from the menu choices to the setting. You may decide to favor lamb over hot dogs and that’s great. Just keep the menu easy, low key and in the

spirit of outdoor cooking. Along with that lamb, you can have grilled flatbreads, chunks of grilled peppers and onions, yogurt tzatziki and a classic greek salad. Perfect hot weather food. Or maybe some large shrimp tossed in olive oil, garlic and chili to sear on the grill. Toss a drained can of cannellini beans into the food processor with some fresh garlic, lemon zest and juice, olive oil and salt and pepper. Spoon into the center of a large bowl, place the shrimp on top and serve with some crisp pita chips. Easy, craft menus which have some dishes you can do ahead of time combined with those that require your attention at the last minute, is simply a more practical approach and it also yields some nice contrasts between food served at room temperature and hot dishes ready to go. Don’t forget to taste. Even after I have made the same recipe for years and years, I still taste as I go along. I find this is one of the fundamental differences between a chef and a home cook. Take mashed potatoes for example. How many people go to the trouble of peeling potatoes, waiting for them to cook and then mashing the lumps out of themonly to sprinkle in a bit of salt, stir and serve them. The chef will season, taste, season again—more cream, a little butter, two grates of nutmeg, sprinkle of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Sometimes I’ve forgotten an ingredient or I’ve made an ill-advised substitution or I know that my guests like things more mildly or strongly spiced. By tasting as I go along, I give myself a chance to make mid-course corrections. That saves me a lot of time and money. I wish I had listened to my own advice the night I cooked dinner for Prince Andrew when he was dating

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