Festive glamour - ‘Legendary Dinners – From Grace Kelly to Jackson Pollock’ by Anne Petersen

When it comes to Thanksgiving, it literally makes me happier for some reason, even I am not an American myself, being surrounded by the warmth and harmonious mood of Thanksgiving, getting together with family and your love one in such a cozy and delicately prepared dinner, smelling the warm and intoxicating mulled wine - its winter festive scent of orange, cinnamon and dry plum, I started to understand why did Thanksgiving has been such an important festive day of the year. Apart from the family style gathering and dinner, another thing that I am fond of the festive season is have a perfect reason to dress up, and attend some marvelous dinner parties, in particular the elite, private-invitation-only kind of tight-knot circle events, rubbing shoulders with elite and famous from intellectual, artistic to aristocrats and royalties; of course, getting into these private dinner parties requires special invitation depending on your connections and social status, yet, you can always create your very own private elite dinner party with a little help from the new book titled ‘Legendary Dinners – From Grace Kelly to Jackson Pollock’ which published recently, and get a few tips from there.

Written by Ms. Anne Petersen, this book instantly drew my attention with the beautiful cover of the wedding luncheon of Prince Rainier III & Grace Kelly as well as the dessert setting of the table; the more I realized the content, the more irresistible it is that I cannot say ‘no’ to get a copy. This delicious book gathers some of the most glamourous and impeccable dinner events from some of the iconic elite, royalty, tastemaker and Hollywood stars, with detailed recipe of the respective dinner in their specific occasion, along with the sumptuous picture of reproducing the dishes with an elegant table set up, which makes this book a delicious and elegant reference on what these esteemed and stylish guests being served for their dinner, and the festive and glamorous moment they have spent back in their time.

I am fascinated by a couple of dinner parties, that included the Black and White Ball at the iconic Plaza Hotel in New York by Truman Capote, the dinner of late US President John F. Kennedy in Berlin during his visit in 1963 in honor of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, the grand wedding dinner of French Emperor Napoleon I and Marie Louise of Austria, and, the fairytale wedding of Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly of their elegant lunch took place at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco; by reading through each beautifully and detailed chapter, it makes me feel like I was one of the guest that was there to witness these significant and stylish moments, and how amazing it is that the picture is so vivid thanks to the detailed description of the story, adding the reproduction of the table setting which I find this book literally inspiring, especially towards the end of the year that filled with the festive mood.

If you are about to prepare your very own strictly-invitation-only dinner party for this year’s Christmas, perhaps this book could give you some good ideas, or probably, you’ll be the next and modern Truman Capote’s Black and White dinner party!

Happy Thanksgiving Day.

https://prestelpublishing.penguinrandomhouse.de/book/Legendary-Dinners-engl-/Anne-Petersen/Prestel-com/e580682.rhd