All in good taste
A top caterer's guide to entertaining: Elizabeth Stone reveals her top tips andsecrets
Photo by Shelby Hodge
Photo by Shelby Hodge
Photo by Shelby Hodge
Photo by Michael Hart/Bright Sky Press
What better time for launching a book on entertaining than just before the holidays? Thus, the timing was no accident when respected caterer Elizabeth Stone recently took over Asia Society Texas Center for a luncheon introducing An Invitation to Entertain: Recipes for Gracious Parties, her entry into the cookbook arena.
But it's so much more than a cookbook, as several hundred women and a sprinkling of men discovered when they picked up their books before the luncheon and began thumbing through. Stone, who has been preparing some of the city's finest meals and overseeing some of its most lavish parties for two decades, shares the stories of entertaining in page after page of beautifully-photographed parties and feasts. It all comes from experiences at her company, The Stone Kitchen.
There are menus, decorative tips, basic cooking instruction and even a piece on building a great fire in the hearth.
It's a personal and endearing approach to entertaining chronicles in which Stone shares culinary wisdom, humor and party planning in the most congenial manner. There are menus, decorative tips, basic cooking instruction and even a piece on building a great fire in the hearth.
Stone was approached by the managing partners of Houston-based Bright Sky Press, Lucy Herring Chambers and Ellen Peeples, to produce the book. Both were familiar with Stone's talents and felt that a book with her special touch would be a top seller. At the rate books were selling at the luncheon, they were right on in their estimation. The books are available through the publisher and at Amazon.com.
Stone's team prepared the ladylike luncheon, did the tables and served to the appreciative crowd that included Lolly Becker, Christine Hollinden, Susan Josey, Sally Ramsey, Helene Zadok, Jo Ann Tramuto, Martha Adger and Suzanne Hatcher, who chaired the gathering.
