The Pleasure of Your Company: 0

O'Neill, food columnist for The New York Times Sunday Magazine overplays a coy device in her third cookbook (after A Well-Seasoned Appetite). She offers 150 recipes arranged in 25 dinner-party menus; preceding each menu is a two- or three-page tale about any of five selected cosmopolitan hostesses and their caterer fretting about entertaining in a hectic, health-conscious world. Many recipes are of the cook-ahead variety--but with caveats. O'Neill advises that Vanilla Scented Sauteed Fruit, a dessert, can be prepared ""up to one hour before guests arrive,"" and that it's preferable to bake Caramelized Onion Biscuits after friends have walked in the door. Several recipes, among them Stilton-Walnut Rice Balls and White Bean Croquettes Stuffed with Mozzarella and Tomato, call for deep-frying and then serving immediately--a sure challenge for an edgy hostess. The recipes run from the familiar (yogurt cheese as an appetizer dip base and Stewed Lamb Shanks with White Beans and Rosemary) to the more unusual (Indian-Spiced Cucumber-Squid Salad and Japanese Chicken Salad with Nori Rolls). Simplifying suggestions include buffet dinners or stylish casseroles (Southwestern Chicken Pie with Cheddar Spoonbread Crust). When sanity is really threatened, a reader can do what O'Neill's hostesses sometimes do: hire someone to serve and clean or just have the party, either partly or entirely, catered. (Apr.)