Rescue your holiday by hosting a dinner party
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
When Mt. Lebanon native Rico Gagliano visits his hometown, the co-host of “The Dinner Party Download” podcast might pay a visit to Jerry’s Records, followed by beers at the Squirrel Hill Cafe (”The Cage”). Or maybe he’ll hit up an exhibit at The Warhol on the North Shore. And he’ll often make time for a gyros-and-eggs breakfast at Tom’s in Dormont. That’s breakfast, not brunch.
Mr. Gagliano makes this distinction since his new book — out this month, written with co-host Brendan Francis Newnam — is titled “Brunch is Hell: How to Save The World by Throwing a Dinner Party.” (Little, Brown).
He moved from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles more than 20 years ago, back when he was single and he says “it was ranked the worst place to be single in America,” he said. He and Mr. Newnam have been rescuing people from boring dinner party conversations for nearly a decade. But this month marks the final episode of the artsand-leisure podcast from American Public Media — the duo splits to embark on separate business pursuits.
The podcast has emphasized culture more than dinner with guests such as actor Greta Gerwig throwing out an icebreaker, Mel Brooks discussing “Young Frankenstein” on its 40th anniversary and Anthony Bourdain answering dining etiquette questions like how to deal with a loud talker during dinner. But through years of
conversations in a dinner party format, they have come to the realization that the dinner party is in danger of becoming a lost art.
“Far from their frivolous reputation,” they write, “dinner parties, properly thrown, can serve as the very CORNERSTONE OF A HEALTHY MODERN SOCIETY, because they create happy and empathetic humans.” They allow for richer conversations. And in this age of divisiveness, it’s a ritual worth revisiting.
As for that title, “Brunch is a misuse of leisure time,” he says on a phone call — a more polite statement than “brunch is a leisure-timesquandering hellscape” as they’ve said on Twitter. He points out it’s chefs’ least favorite meal; it pokes a hole in the day and it just does not live up to the hype.
The revival of the dinner party has been taken up elsewhere, recently in The New York Times Magazine’s food issue, with chef-author Gabrielle Hamilton writing on how she throws together an old-school dinner party in two hours; American-in- Paris pastry expert Dorie Greenspan taking on her own version of a dinner party; and a how-to for an all-hands-on-deck dumpling party from Samin Nosrat. (I have done a similar version of this party, but it was pierogi-making. And it was brunch.)
Mr. Gagliano is in there, too, offering tips for fascinating talk at your next dinner party, like how to warm up a crowd and a less-talkingmore- listening reminder.
And yes, these words of wisdom are also in the book, along with guides on food and drink — including a rule that at least some of the food at a dinner party has to be homemade.
“Not cooking for your own dinner party is like DJing a dance party with the radio,” they write. And the