Book review

Deeda Blair: Food, Flowers & Fantasy 

Edited by Deborah Needleman

Published (bien sur) by Rizzoli

Yet again Rizzoli has outdone itself. I think I have more books from this incredible publisher than any other house except perhaps Penguin. 

A dear American friend from Zug read about this in the New York Times and within twenty-four hours it was being delivered into my eager paws in London.

Deeda Blair was a very beautiful and proficiently elegant hostess who appears to have had a knack for meeting absolutely everyone and more importantly (in my personal opinion), she loved France, French furniture and paintings and managed to create stunning settings with an eighteenth-century inspiration. 

She has written this gorgeous book to raise money for her foundation, the Deeda Blair Research Initiative for Disorders of the Brain (created in memory of her son William). And she describes it as a book about cooking for others. I would describe it as a book which teaches you how to cocoon your guests in beauty and élegance. 

She met her husband quite young which meant that she did not entertain for only  twenty years or so but for her entire life. Therefore it was very professionally done. Furthermore, she was friends with many of the people that I personally would invite to my dream dinner party.

People such as Jayne Wrightsman whose Sévres porcelain collection I nearly died over when I viewed it at the Metropolitan Museum (to then discover that she was helped greatly in collecting it by a dear friend’s step-grandfather Gerald van der Kemp).

She also knew President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Eunice Shriver, Hubert de Givenchy and his partner Phillippe Venet amongst so many others.

She was clever enough to use Billy Baldwin to find and decorate their family house and worked extensively with Mary Lasker in raising funds for medical research.

Quelle vie! 

Here are just a few photographs that I have taken from the book to demonstrate the beauty of her tablescapes. She also includes throughout the book some really fabulous recipes such as Lobster Soufflé and Chocolate Madeleines. Or Sorbet à la Banane. 

I have not tried them yet…. But I will. 

If you decide to buy this book I hope you enjoy it.