Dinner for 50—why not?

Press, 1 February 1986, Page 20

Dinner for 50 —why not?

The New Zealand Dinner Party Cookbook. By Jan Billon. Endeavour, 1985. 115 pp. Index. $34.95. (Reviewed by Mhalrl Erber) A dinner party is often an excuse for showing off, although it can be dangerous to do so. “The New Zealand Dinner Party Cookbook” (I notice it appears in Australia as “The Australian Dinner Party Cookbook” — how enterprising!) advances a very sensible philosophy. The more food that can be prepared in advance the better. If you are not up with the latest trends in interior decoration and strawberry soup does not appeal to you, your initial reaction to this book may not be favourable. But it does contain a great many helpful hints for. the novice dinner party giver (and even the more experienced), and the menus are arranged in a very straightforward way. It is always a great help to see what

I i ■■ . the food is supposed to look like: and the numerous full rpage colour photographs are luscious lookipg (if not quite up to “American Gourmet” standard). I have to confess to finding the whole production rather excessively glossy and: trendy, but the book could prove a booh for anyone caught in the awkward predicament of having to entertain six vegetarians to dinner. ■■ There are also Japanese, Middle Eastern, Indonesian, Chinese, and Indian inspired, menus, for groups of varying sizes, that could well be useful to businessmen’s wives. The section on a party for 50 very probably fills a gap in cookery books — I certainly have not come across such a menu — but then there are not too many countries in which there is a tradition of one woman taking on such: a task single handed. Other than this there is little that is particularly New Zealand in the book. If you must be a showoff, you have a fair chance of getting away with it using Jan Bilton.