How To Host a Dinner Party

Mintz, who makes his living hosting dinner parties and writing about them for the Toronto Star newspaper, presents 180 pages of detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to do that essential hosting function, which you might not have realized you were not doing well enough. The book's 10 chapters follow the process through from the initial idea to host (or, in fact, to buy the table at which to host) on through setting the menu, shopping, cooking, serving, drinking a lot (or not), and cleaning up before you go to bed (unless you are a laggard). Mintz always makes it clear that the social function is paramount, and he gives many good tips, learned during his time as a professional cook, on how to avoid spending your whole party in the kitchen. He also includes some very useful recipes. Mintz's writing is witty, occasionally stinging ("If your friends are vegan, get new friends"), sometimes jaw-dropping ("if it weren't for [his friend actress Sarah Polley], I would not have lost my virginity"). He gives the reader much to live up to, but he does show how to do so. (May) Canadian distribution: HarperCollins Canada. U.S. distribution: PGW