Gather ‘Round
Supper Club Maven Cooks Up Camaraderie
By Warren Rojas
"Friends at the Table: The Ultimate Supper Club Cookbook" by Debi Shawcross. Franklin Green Publishing, 256 pgs., $24.95
Social media and smart phones are supposed to keep us interconnected with the world around us. Yet each new app/platform/gadget merely adds to the ranks of zombified texters who can’t seem to see past their fast-flying thumbs.
Debi Shawcross believes there’s a better tool for bringing folks together: the dinner table.
The hospitality pro shares tips on getting reacquainted with home entertaining in “Friends at the Table,” a distillation of the cooking and hostessing courses Shawcross has taught in Richmond throughout the past decade.
“A supper club really forces you to get together … it’s a committed relationship,” Shawcross says of the once-popular get-togethers she’s hoping to resurrect.
The book is part supper club primer and part cookbook, beginning with step-by-step instructions—setting budgets, deciding on dress codes, devising clean-up strategies—on establishing your own supper club and graduating to multi-point check lists (see “Countdown to Dinner”) designed to preempt any night-of glitches.
Shawcross also shares a treasure trove of recipes, all categorized by season and loosely arranged by complementary culinary threads (farmers market, Southwestern, gourmet classics). Noteworthy selections include: brandied wild mushroom pate, won tons with smoked salmon and wasabi cream, citrus-scented orzo salad with fresh fennel, creamy green chile rice, crispy halibut with lemon-y basil sauce (see full recipe at: www.northernvirginiamag.com/fattfeatures), lemon biscotti cheesecake bars and Italian rum cake with custard filling.
Shawcross recommends keeping fresh bread, cheese, nuts and fruit on hand as a fail-safe snack.
Countdown to Dinner
T-minus: 24 hours
Set your table. Finalize your beer/wine/cocktail pairings.
T-minus: 6 hours
Run/empty your dishwasher. Finalize your play list/music selections.
T-minus: 2 hours
Lay out the bowl/pans/ingredients for meal assembly.
T-minus: 1 hour
Take a shower. Enjoy a glass of wine. Relax/clear your head.
Hungry for more? Preview a few recipes at www.northernvirginiamag.com/fattfeatures
(April 2011)