Dinner Party Animal

It is impossible to read Dinner Party Animal and not know the identity of the author. That is because Jake Cohen is literally on every page, from his hosting advice to comments about him made by his friends, you cannot escape him. This is both good and bad depending on how much you like Jake Cohen.

The recipes are up to par with Cohen’s other books, and the chocolate cake featured on the cover and in many of the photos does indeed create a showstopper (I actually witnessed a teen bake the whole thing from start to finish). The lay out is unique, with each chapter representing a full themed dinner party meal, rather than a specific group. Most of the recipes are kosher, a few are easily adapted to kosher, and a small minority should just be avoided by the kosher among us (maple bacon…). You might also need to rearrange the preset menus to avoid milk and meat issues. Overall, still recommended for the kosher consumer.

The photos have more of an old timey feel, which transported me back to my mother’s old Betty Crocker books and her collection of tin jello molds. This is not bad thing. Dinner parties have been something of a casualty of our increasing dependence on technology as well as pandemic isolation, and I think it is a good idea to bring them back, albeit with some of Cohen’s tips about not stressing as much as people used to about things being perfect. You shouldn’t need to buy a special jello mold to have friends over. The books proposed solution is to go heavy on the alcohol. I’m more of a lightweight in the drinking department, so I’ll suggest adding a few more appetizers/snacks instead.

Cohen’s menus are fun and easy, however depending on your culture you might need to add more items. I personally will faint if there are less than ten dishes on my table when company is coming over. I realize this goes against his philosophy of not stressing and making things easy, but I use a mix of very easy recipes to hep supplement the more complicated ones and I absolutely cannot survive with just one dessert. Sorry Jake, it’s just not happening.

All of Cohen’s book feature personal anecdotes, but this time instead of being about his family we see a lot of his friends. Particularly his famous friends. There are photos of them shoving food into their mouths, quotes of them roasting Jake, and so on and so forth. I think this is meant to give us a sense of what it is like to attend one of Jake’s parties, but I could have done without it. Luckily, the recipes made up for the name dropping and I just looked at the food photos instead of the famous people photos.

If you’re new to hosting, Dinner Party Animal will make your life easy. Everything is laid out for you right down to the necessary grocery list. For the more experienced, you might choose to mix and match like I do. Most of these recipes pair well with items in Jake Cohen’s other books. Don’t be intimidated by all the famous people. This is pretty straight forward fare, and you will enjoy sitting back and eating it with your friends and family. Even if they are not famous.

Find It: Amazon