Stylish party fare from the catering-cum-take-out emporium on New York's Upper West Side. Impressing your guests is the name...

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THE SILVER PALATE COOKBOOK

Stylish party fare from the catering-cum-take-out emporium on New York's Upper West Side.

Impressing your guests is the name of the Silver Palate game, "elegant" is their favorite word, and they include one section on "Dazzlers" to bowl over the "movers and shakers." (The section consists mainly of ways to serve caviar, with a note on the foie gras you will only find in France.) Still, there are also hearty soups and stews for informal entertaining, with a warning that bouillabaisse is a working-class creation and not to be served pretentiously. The fare is generally light and seasonal, with an abundance of fresh, attractive fish and seafood dishes from cocktail-hour nibbles to a scallop-and-salmon pâte to main-course compositions. Along with such stunners as an elaborate layered vegetable terrine, pasta dishes using garden vegetables and fresh herbs, and such imports-with-aplomb as an aioli platter of vegetables, poached cod, and carpaccio (thinly sliced raw beef tenderloin)--these can compensate for the Silver Palate's tendency to season their meat and chicken entrees with fruit. (This is a practice that can soon cloy, though it may well serve those would-be dazzlers.)

Along with the recipes, party givers are treated to marginal boxes filled with tips on planning, suggestions for wine cocktails and aperitifs to replace those passé knockout bombs, general advice on ingredient shopping, and a garnish of decorative quotations.

Pub Date: June 14, 1982

ISBN: 0761145974

Page Count: -

Publisher: Workman

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1982

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