Departments · Food and hosting
Table
Menus that can be made ahead, wine that suits the food and the budget, and the equipment that earns its place in a small kitchen.
Hosting is a scheduling exercise disguised as a culinary one. The dinner that feels effortless was almost entirely cooked the day before, and the host who is enjoying herself at nine o’clock made that possible at four o’clock the previous afternoon.
We publish menus built around that principle: one thing in the oven, one thing already cold, one thing assembled in front of people because it looks generous. We are specific about timings, because the difference between a calm kitchen and a fraught one is a written order of operations.
Wine gets the same treatment as perfume: structure first, labels second. Acidity, tannin, weight and sweetness explain almost every good pairing, and a twelve euro bottle chosen on those grounds beats a thirty euro one chosen on a name.
In this department
The latest in Table
Table Hosting
Dinner for Six, Cooked Yesterday
The host who is enjoying herself at nine o’clock made that possible at four o’clock the day before. A menu, a timetable and the principle behind both.
Table Wine
Choose Wine by Structure, Not by Label
Four properties explain almost every good pairing and almost every bad one. Learn them and a wine list stops being a memory test.
Table Equipment
Six Things, and a Very Small Kitchen
A professional cook in a domestic kitchen would reach for six items and ignore the rest of the drawer. Here is the list, what to pay and what to skip.
Table The table
Setting a Table Without Being Stiff
The rules exist for a practical reason and can be learned in five minutes. What actually matters, what nobody notices, and how to make it feel generous.
The tool for this
The Table
Guests and season in, make-ahead menu out, with quantities, a countdown timetable, a wine that suits the food and a drawing of how to lay the table.
Reader poll
What makes hosting stressful for you?
Questions we get asked
How much wine should I buy for six people?
Half a bottle per person for dinner and one extra bottle for the evening, so four bottles for six. Serve one white and one red rather than four of anything.
What should I cook for guests I do not know well?
Something braised. It is made ahead, it forgives an hour of delay, it suits most eaters, and vegetables cooked the same way take care of anyone who does not eat meat.
What is the smallest useful set of equipment?
A twenty centimetre chef’s knife, a heavy casserole, a cast iron pan, a digital thermometer, a microplane and scales. Everything else is optional for years.
How do I set a table properly without it being stiff?
Cutlery outside in, glasses above the knife, napkin on the plate, one low arrangement and candles at either non-eye level. The Table tool draws the setting for the menu you choose.
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