Synopses & Reviews
Many people can handle throwing a party for 8 or 10 people, but how many can successfully negotiate the trials of entertaining 25 or 50?
Do It for Less! Parties has all the tools you need to plan efficiently and entertain flawlessly when cooking for a crowd. Packed with quantity recipes for 12, 25, 50, or 75 friends and family, this combination party cookbook, decorating guide, and entertaining primer shows todays savvy hostess how to do it for less time and do it for less money without sacrificing ones sanity or style.
The first half of the book focuses on the logistics of quantity cooking. Its brimming with estimating guides, catering resources, and conversion charts that are useful for the professional caterer and home entertainer alike. The second half provides nine complete menus with 65 twice-tested, quantity recipes. All the menus include complete shopping lists in each quantity, a menu countdown, decoration ideas, and specific tips for shaving costs, time, and stress from your preparation schedule.
Synopsis
Many people can handle the logistics of throwing a party for 8 or 10 people, but how many can successfully negotiate the trials of entertaining 25 or 50? This guide to catering a party of any size comes with nine complete menus with themes such as Down Home Barbecue, Your First Thanksgiving, and On the Beach Luau as well as easy-to-make and inexpensive cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Preparty tips include clever ways to calculate how much food and ice will be necessary, planning an event that will fit any budget, and minimizing stress so that the event planner can also partake in the partying. Each of the more than 65 recipes included is provided in measurements for 12, 25, 50, and 75 guests.
About the Author
With more than 20 years experience and thousands of parties to her credit,
Denise Vivaldo is unparalleled in the field of big-name catering and food styling. She has worked with the likes of Rachael Ray, Michael Chiarello, and Nigella Lawson, among many other heavy-hitters in the food world. She has cooked for all sorts of stars and dignitaries, from Bette Midler and Arnold Schwarzenegger to Prince Charles and President George H.W. Bush. She has catered the Academy Awards Governor's Ball,
Los Angeles Magazine's Taste of LA, the Women in Film Tribute, and numerous post-premiere and wrap parties. Denise is the founder of Food Fanatics and the author of the bestselling
How to Start a Home-Based Business, now in its 4th edition. She lives in Los Angeles.