Here's how it went down: Kara asked me to help out (as sous chef and stuff) at another Ted & Amy Supper Club and Amanda Hesser was our very special guest. Amanda recently published a little book of recipes you might have heard of - The Essential New York Times Cookbook. This weighty tome represents more than five years of Amanda's life spent sifting through and testing a century and a half of recipes published in the venerable New York Times to find the best of the best. And then we asked her to sift through all the recipes in the book to put together a menu for us to make for a group of strangers in Kara's home.
I'm going to confess that we were a teeny bit nervous cooking for Amanda. Not just because she's a Very Important Well Known Food Person, but also because these are recipes that she has made herself - that she edited and tested and will darn well know if they're not done right. On the other hand, we weren't nervous, because the point of the Ted & Amy Supper Club is less about showing off mad cooking skillz and more about bringing people together around a table in a casual and comfortable environment; the food would be good (at the very least!) and there would be a lot of wine, so everyone would be in good spirits.
Any concerns we may have had went out the window once she arrived. Amanda is charming and gracious. She wanted to know if we had any feedback on the recipes and was amazed at how calm and organized we were. We had the appetizers (stuffed fried olives, Florentine dip with crudités and Parmesan crackers) arranged in the living area and at the end of the long dining table, set for 14 guests with flowers and tea lights all along. Over by the kitchen, we had a bar area set up for the cocktail of the night - another recipe from Amanda's book, Gin Rickeys. The puntarelle for the salad course was soaking in cold water and the stew - braised beef in a tomato and herb sauce, was bubbling away on the stove. We were ready!
Once all the guests had arrived and had their rickey or glass of wine in hand, Kara introduced Amanda, who gave a brief run-through of the menu. I was pretty impressed that she knew the era and author for each recipe. I imagine that over the course of her research she must have immersed herself not only in the recipes, but also in the changing food culture and the personalities and quirks of the writers who came and went over the years. Later, I learned from her husband that Amanda had done all of the recipe testing for the book in their home kitchen, with just one assistant. Mind-boggling, really - did you see the size of that book?
After the formal introductions were out of the way, we started in on the appetizers and the rest of the evening was standard supper club schedule - lots of food and wine, good company and conversation. I'm afraid I revealed my lack of thorough knowledge of The New Yorker magazine while talking with Tad Friend, Amanda's husband and writer for same. He was very gracious, and listened to me blab on about blogging and watching Californication and other fun nonsense.
As usual, all the guests were fun and interesting and everyone seemed to have a good time. We finished the night with dessert served from the kitchen, so everyone could mingle again and maybe talk with someone who had been at the other end of the table.
In my opinion, the best recipes of the night were the apps and beef stew. Oh, those briny fried olives! And the Florentine dip is a more sophisticated version of your favorite, addictive packet-mixed-with-sour-cream dip. In the stew, the braised beef is fall-apart tender with a wine, tomato and herb sauce that you ladle over oven-broiled bread rubbed with fresh garlic. The bread softens in the sauce, but you get a taste of the garlic here and there - just enough to keep you searching around for more.
To make the recipes from our supper club, look for an upcoming post on The Local. Also, be sure to check out Amanda's cool site: Food52
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