Amalfi Coast Dinner

Summer 2024July 2024L'art du dînerLa Soirée

1 Jul

Estate dell'amore! An escape to the Amalfi Coast where the ingredients are beautifully simple, the dinners last well into the night and the wine is ever-pouring.

*Cheers to a dinner that transport you and your favorite people straight to the Amalfi Coast.*

Dinner parties, for me, are all about transporting oneself from the basic and the mundane to something extraordinary and enchanting. From the setting to the cocktails, every detail comes together to create a magical moment to be shared by loved ones around the table. It is a bit of armchair travel but around the dining table. And I live for it.

*Estate dell'amore, an Italian summer dinner party*

For this month's soirée, I opted to transport myself and my guests to an evening on the Amalfi Coast. If I close my eyes and imagine the Italian version of a dream summer holiday, this dinner hits all of the right notes. Bright and airy with plenty of Mediterranean allure and laughter that will ring in my heart for a lifetime. A table laden with beautiful ingredients prepared simply to show off their natural and marvelous flavors and countless bottles of crisp, chilled wine to cut through the warm evening breeze. Nothing too fussy on the menu, just some incredible seasonal ingredients, wonderful conversation and a giant bowl of pasta.

I have been dreaming of this night for quite a while. Envisioning the menu and the painted tablescape. Imagining a pedestal of peaches and tomatoes served with burrata, and wedges of parmesan cheese on display with piles of vibrant fruits and vegetables. It was meant to be a dinner party adventure… An escape to the Amalfi Coast where courses run well into the night and the wine is ever-pouring. And I truly believe that it was a wild success.

The evening started with a lovely cocktail hour, featuring my dear friend, ‘Hostile Tapeover’ doing a fantastic DJ set with his killer, never ending collection of retro cassettes. And thank god for a cocktail hour! Because as usual, I was terribly behind for the evening. As guests arrived, things were still cooking away and the paint, just barley dry at my little bar setup. By now my friends all know that I am often a frazzled host for the first 30 minutes of a dinner party and luckily they almost all adhere to a 15 minutes fashionably late rule (this is polite… trust me!) With the party started, the DJ playing and the limoncello spritzes flowing, we were on en route to Italy and I was finally in hostess-with-the-mostess mode.

*When the guests help you finish the cooking during cocktail hour. Thank god for chef friends! (Amber Sullivan)*

As we transitioned into dinner, toasts were made, photos taken and the ‘oooh’s and ‘mmmm’s around the table as dishes were passed and first bites were taken, solidified that dinner parties are without a doubt, always a good idea. For dessert, I brought out an antique silver butler's tray loaded with frozen lemons filled with limone sorbetto and topped with fresh whipped cream. The presentation was impressive and yet so simple. A no cook dessert providing a bright and refreshing finale to the evening. I was utterly smitten with the night, with the company, with the menu. From the electric cocktail hour to a light and bright dessert, it was such a lovely experience and totally worth the war zone that I woke up to in my microscopic kitchen the following morning. Cheers to dining chair travel and the company we share it with! Xx