Them Dinners with Nick

There were other ingredients of course, but let’s focus on the cheese for a moment.

Do you have any idea how giddy buying $60 worth of artisanal cheese will make you? I don’t mean just buying a bunch of cheese; I mean buying it and having a plan for it. It’s not an ungodly amount of cheese, but it has enough of a heft in the bag to say, “Psst…this is pretty ridiculous.” Last Sunday I walked home from the Italian Market feeling like I was involved in a happy conspiracy, and grinned at the thought of the wide-eyes and smiles from my coconspirators when they eventually laid eyes on my haul.

Now all told, with black truffle from Claudio, fresh bacon from Di Bruno Bros, and a routine trip to Whole Foods for ingredients not available in the Italian Market, my receipts easily crested $150. Split across the 9 people who attended, that’s about $16.00 a head, with plenty left over for several more pies.

I have been asked a few times why I don’t take cash from my guests to offset the burden. Couple of reasons…

1. It’s just awkward in practice to ask for cash.
2. It changes the tone of the transaction to one of fee-for-service even if we all understand that’s not what’s happening.
3. Everyone brings something. I think this is really important, and some great dishes (stuffed grape leaves what what! I’ll get that dish back to you some day Kimiko) and beverages (big ups for bringing the Spanish wine Jessica!) have been contributions by friends.
4. I get a lot back already. Time with friends, lessons in cooking and hosting, and leftovers (sometimes).

That being said, I can let my menus get a little out of hand. Recently I met with Brad Baer of Zokos (www.zokos.com), a service he likens to the Kickstarter of dinner parties. We had a great talk about the above points, and how to balance that with a financially sustainable weekly dinner. I’m thinking about pursuing a model where I try to cook more modest Them Dinners weekly, and really blow it out with a Zokos-sponsored three course theme dinner once monthly. I’ll let you know how it goes. In the mean time, here are some reasons why I don’t mind footing the bill: