Stylish Winter Entertaining

Planning a chic winter dinner party and wondering what to serve? Vancouver culinary aficionado Nathan Fong provides his hot-off-the-plate tips for winter dinner party menus including his favourite seasonal food choices, from soups and salads to entrees and desserts.

The start of a new year is one of my favourite times to have intimate gatherings and informal, yet smart dinners. Rather than the casualness of the typical warm-weather outdoor dinner, I prefer chic winter dinner parties where superb food and wine in a cozy setting inspire great conversation.

When designing a menu, I like the idea of serving as many regional and seasonal ingredients as possible. Winter is the time for root vegetables, whether pureed, steamed, stir-fried or—my favourite—roasted. In the cold months, I love comfort foods that warm the soul and create aromas that permeate the kitchen. There is nothing more comforting than a perfect roast chicken with pan juices over simple mashed potatoes or a slow braised pot roast in a red wine reduction.

Lemon tarts make a clean citrus
finish to a delicious dinnerUsing herbs, whether fresh, seasonal or dried, will always add nuances to your dishes. Herbs such as rosemary, dill, tarragon, basil and sage are familiar, but experiment with lesser known ones such as summer savoury, chervil and the many varieties of thyme.

When planning a dinner, pick a theme and try to stick with it. Having an Asian-style appetizer, a French-style soup, a Western steak and an eclectic dessert, means that your menu, ingredients and cooking techniques will be all over the map. The simpler the menu the less stressful the evening will be. My ideal casual-chic dinner menu consists of one or two cocktail canapés with drinks, an appetizer, soup or salad for a first course, a main course and a dessert. My favourite cool-weather canapés are gougères, the light cheese puffs from Burgundy—but don’t overdo the hors d’oeuvres, as you don’t want your guests to be too full to finish your beautiful dinner!

Go for one-pot dishes like this seafood paellaFor more formal dinners, I would prepare an appetizer, soup and salad prior to the main entrée, and possibly a cheese course before dessert. For the main course, try “one pot” dishes such as a Spanish paella, a French bouillabaisse or a Thai coconut-styled seafood stew.

Having guests bring wine for your dinner is always a nice gesture but will it match with your menu? If you’re not sure which wines to serve with your meal, bring your menu to the wine store and ask for advice.

Desserts are probably my favourite part of the meal as it’s the showcase piece of my dinners. Although I aim for seasonal fruits, I love anything lemon. I find after a large or rich dinner, the sweet acidity of a citrus dessert has a clean finish. Lemon tarts or lemon dacquoise (dessert cake made with layers of nut meringue and whipped cream or buttercream) are usually my picks, but when in season, berries are always included, especially BC blueberries, raspberries and short-seasoned strawberries.

Bon appétit! —Nathan Fong

Nathan Fong is a trained chef, food journalist and consultant, television and radio culinary host, and one of Canada’s premier food and props stylists for culinary print and film advertising. He is a regular contributor to Global BCTV’s Saturday Morning Chef and Fong on Food segments, contributing editor for EAT magazine, consulting food specialist for CBC Radio One and new food columnist for The Vancouver Sun.