Arty Parties
An Entertaining Cookbook from the Creator of Salad for President
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
In her follow-up cookbook to Salad for President, cook, writer, and artist Julia Sherman shows us how to apply an artist’s touch to our own home gatherings.
Artists throw superior parties, and we can learn from their willingness to draw outside the lines, choose character over perfection, and find boundless joy in feeding family and friends. Cook, live, and host like an artist with inspired, easy recipes and playful hands-on experiments in the kitchen.
Sherman shows you how to be the architect of your own uniquely memorable bash, whether that means a special breakfast for two, or a “choose your own adventure” meal that’s flexible enough to feed a crowd. Forget the codified markers of good taste—Arty Parties instead reveals that modern gatherings are less about “getting it right” and more about getting your hands dirty, building community, and taking risks in the kitchen and beyond. Featuring colorful food that is confident in its simplicity, Sherman shares easy-to-follow, healthy recipes that value imaginative flavor combinations over complexity: dishes like an avocado-lemongrass panna cotta, saffron tomato soup, coconut rice cakes with smashed avocado and soy-marinated eggs, and roasted broccolini and blood oranges with a creamy pepita sauce.
This book also invites readers into the idiosyncratic gatherings of internationally acclaimed artists, from a chic office party in a Parisian art book publisher's atelier to an underground earth oven pizza party on a secluded hillside in Los Angeles. Woven throughout are Sherman’s own homegrown events that are relatable yet wonderfully experimental in tone.
Utterly unique and beautifully designed, Arty Parties is a guide to creating meaningful experiences that nourish both the host and their guests in body, mind, and soul.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"At the most memorable dinner I have ever hosted the food was of no consequence at all," writes chef Sherman (Salad for President) in this collection of quirky recipes and advice for entertaining like an artist. That sentiment rings throughout, with the focus being more on atmosphere than actual flavors. In her "Choose Your Own Adventure" section, she encourages guests to "craft the final result" of an assortment of DIY-style meals, including tacos served with smashed winter squash, roast leg of lamb, and a medley of vegetables. To "address the limitations of the spatially restricted host," Sherman offers finger foods, such as avocado-lemongrass panna cotta and turmeric-poppy kettle corn. She utilizes seasonal produce as much as possible, sautéeing squash blossoms with eggs in the summer and poaching quince in a savory pink peppercorn verjus syrup come fall. Many of her dishes, though, seem to be designed more for photographs than feeding others (such as one "recipe" that's just an avocado speckled with furikake seasoning). More delectable are the stories Sherman sprinkles in of her artist friends—such as witnessing Jordan Casteel use frosting to create a portrait of her doorman on a yellow cake—as well as the pretty photos of their artfully messy homes. While the aesthetic here is aspirational, the recipes are less so.
