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Entertainment Tonight

Photograph by: Kevin Robinson

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Anne-Elena Buckner describes herself as a fearless entertainer. She invites about twenty-five guests to five parties a year and hosts more than 100 at a special annual bash in November. The secret to her success: Champagne.

“I don’t drink anything else, so I build most of my entertaining around good bottles of Champagne,” Anne-Elena, a French expatriate, says. “We start with Champagne with the appetizers, and go with Champagne all the way through to dessert. People become quite social after a few glasses.”

The mild effects of alcohol can certainly contribute to a conversational buzz, while eliminating the inhibitions of friends as diverse as hedge fund managers and palm readers. “They’ll be walking around the house with a glass of Champagne, finding commonalities,” Anne-Elena, a Norwalk resident, observes, “so people who have something to talk about end up sitting together.”

Ms. Buckner is the consummate hostess, refilling glasses as she circulates among her friends, and bringing together guests who share common interests. A great cook and an experienced party-thrower, she possesses a necessary trait to make every event a memorable one: a willingness to call in the professionals to do the things she can’t.

“I don’t have the training to make a dessert that is up to my standards, that’s why I need Isabelle et Vincent,” Anne-Elena says with a laugh, referring to the bakery-patisserie that opened in Fairfield this past May. From half a dozen types of moist, crusty baguettes to bite-sized pralines to almost every imaginable form of pastry, all the items on sale within the beautiful bakery are made by co-owner Vincent Koenig. Of the shop’s delicious all-butter petits fours, Vincent’s wife suggests four per guest should be sufficient, or half that number of mini macaroons, which are somewhat richer and come in six flavors.

For Peter Kend, a New Canaan investor, the key to throwing parties lies in the old Boy Scout motto, Be prepared. “If you want to spend time with your guests, you really have to be well prepared and organized,” he notes. As one who enjoys relaxing over the stove, Peter believes that great cooking depends upon great prep work. “When things turn out perfectly, it’s probably because they’ve been well taken care of beforehand,” he says.

Most aspects of a party can be arranged ahead of time, including the creation of any number of dishes. “When I’m cooking a dinner for ten to twelve people, I’ll have done a lot of work before anyone walks into the house,” Peter says. “And then it’s really just a matter of bringing certain components together and finishing things. So that if I get caught in a conversation or have to run downstairs to get some wine, I’m not going to destroy dinner.”

Yet no amount of preparation can save a meal that’s been made from mediocre raw materials. “I’ve learned to get the absolutely finest ingredients I can lay my hands on,” Peter comments. He drives to Greenwich to shop for fish, buys his cheeses at Darien Cheese & Fine Foods and purchases produce at area farmers’ markets. And though he is a classically trained French chef, Peter is a devotee of keeping things simple. “Just get the great product and let it stand on its own,” he says. “When things are at their absolute peak, you really don’t have to do a lot of backflips and get crazy with them.” Dishes that are overly complicated, he adds, are full of pitfalls: “If one component of it starts to go awry, that takes your focus off something else that needs to be done, and all of a sudden it turns into a disaster.”

This is especially true when preparing fish, which typically has a slimmer margin for error than most meats. “The beauty of seafood is it’s very quick to cook,” says Peter M. Vorvis, president of New Wave Seafood in Stamford. “And the most common mistake people make is overcooking it.” New Wave carries more than a dozen types of fish, stocked fresh daily, as well as scallops from George’s Bank, off Massachusetts, and lobsters, clams and oysters from local waters. It also sells a wide array of seafood salads and offers a “clambake-to-go.”

Like Peter Kend, New Canaan resident Sally Manesis tries to get most of the prep work done before her guests arrive. She starts by drawing up a menu, which helps both in formulating a shopping list and in identifying which courses can be made the day — or morning — prior to the party. “I get as much done as possible so that I can actually enjoy the dinner myself,” she says.