About this item
Annette Joseph, Today Show entertaining expert, knows how to throw a party. Her motto: Make it simple and make it gorgeous! She is able to combine down-to-earth gusto with do-it-yourself brilliance to create an entertaining cookbook for people who want to entertain more and with panache. PICTURE PERFECT PARTIES provides an arsenal of tricks for a year’s worth of get-togethers, holidays, and special occasions—including Easter brunch, Cinco de Mayo, summer grill-outs, picnics and barbecues, holiday cocktails, and the Super Bowl— guaranteed to make at-home entertaining easy. Annette Joseph’s tasty recipes and fool-proof advice will ensure that you can throw parties with a sense of ease and flair.Joseph is able to show readers how to ingeniously transform the ordinary into the extraordinary without spending a lot of money, and without sacrificing style.
About the Author
Annette Joseph, a food stylist and interior design prop stylist for numerous interior design magazines, can sum up her passion very simply: "I love to shop! I am a collector of beautiful decorative objects and I love sourcing unique finds at flea markets and 'secret' warehouses, editing items in the cabinets and closets, and arranging a home to look beautiful and inviting."Being a gifted stylist and effortless-yet-elegant entertainer certainly runs through her veins. Annette parents hailed from Hungary, and like many immigrant kids, Annette hid her bag lunch everyday so not to be teased about the strange authentic lunches she ate. But being the child of immigrants gave Annette great insight into the European way of living, from eating to decorating. Her father was a master trained oil painter and gourmand cook who reveled in hosting home parties. With this, Annette learned to appreciate the beauty behind friend and family gatherings at an early age. "I grew up surrounded by the arts," she remembers. "My family loved entertaining and had such zeal for life. My father, who had elegant taste and was a larger-than-life character, taught me how to use my 'eye' when it came to things like lighting and composition. My dad taught me how to cook and where to shop to find wonderful objects, and we shopped almost every weekend together--it was our special bond and became our shared passion." It is a passion Annette carries with her until this day.And then there was her maternal grandmother, who regularly hosted elaborate dinner parties for 20-40 friends at a time at her small European cottage. "My grandmother was a lover of life who was known for her meals and entertaining in her 5-by-5 kitchen," she says. "Through the years, these experiences shaped my interests more and more. I think I strive to recreate these good times, these simple times, these fun times from my childhood memories every time I put on an event." Following her passion, Annette majored in Fine Arts during college (while her father told her, "Please don't--you won't make any money!") and worked at The Limited in Milwaukee as a window dresser while attending classes. Annette was so successful that she became the Regional Manager of Visual Merchandising for The Limited covering five states while still in her early 20's. A few years later, Annette got married and moved with her husband to New York City to work as a window dresser for Gimbles. Annette then moved to Atlanta with her husband and opened a store planning and visual merchandising firm that helped design and merchandise specialty stores. That's when she eventually met a photographer who hired her through her consulting firm to be a photo stylist for his professional shoots. "We worked with so many clients: fashion, food, furniture, interiors and even portraits. I had to learn with a completely different 'eye' from the on
