"No matter how good the food or the wine or the music, if the people are dull, the party is a failure. And, when it comes to entertaining, beginning with a real liking for people is the best guarantee of success.
"If there is a single key, that is it.
"Neysa McMein will always be thought of as a great hostess. But I can't remember anything I ever had to eat at her apartment. Food was a matter of tremendous unimportance to her and to us - when we were her guests. What mattered was her gift for filling the house with gay, amusing people... writers, and theater people, and artists. Her special kind of warmth (everything at Neysa's seemed to turn into a game) kindled more life and spirit in all of us than we ever had any place else."
- Dorothy Rodgers, decorator and wife of Dick Rodgers (of Rodgers and Hammerstein, known for Broadway productions South Pacific, Carousel, and Oklahoma among hundreds of other scores and songs), in her musings in My Favorite Things (Antheneum, 1977)
1 comment:
Really? I mean, on some level, I understand this. Good company at a party is key.. but such a nonchalance about the food?!? That, I do not understand. And if anything, isn't food really part and parcel of fabulous entertaining? Granted, achieving that effortless state of food-good company-fabulous time, is the ultimate goal.. but this quote just seems to discount to me, what is so quintessentially important about entertaining. Good food, in a relaxed environment.. that allows people to open up and be themselves.
Please don't miscontrue my comment. I adore your blog. Was just shocked by the quote.
Sadaf
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