How to Throw a Party for Someone Who Avoids Being in the Spotlight

"Here’s to you, Tad - and thanks for letting us throw you a party!”

My husband, Tad, likes a party. He will chat, man a grill, tell jokes, and in general have a great time. What he does not like is a party all about HIM! You might notice as you scroll through the photos below that the star of the evening is noticeably absent, successfully avoiding the camera at all costs; he truly doesn’t want the spotlight! Since I throw plenty of parties (I am a Leo birthday queen), I usually gift him the peace of celebrating his birthday with the dinner of his choice. However, some milestones call for forced festivity, and turning 60 is one of those times.

START WITH WHAT REALLY MATTERS: THE MENU

To ease the pain of being the center of attention and create some excitement, I started with what really mattered… the menu! One of the fun things about being a cookbook author is testing recipes on your family, getting them to fall in love with it, and then inevitably never making that recipe again as you move on to new books. A birthday is the perfect time to request your favorites from books past, and the menu ends up being a list of cookbook all-stars and family favorites:

Patricia's Brisket; Citrus-Marinated Fried Chicken; Black Bean Fritters from the Jurassic World Cookbook; Street-Corner Corn and Megasonic Warheads from Cooking with Deadpool; Coleslaw from Superman: The Official Cookbook; homemade pickles three ways from various condiment collections; and a sundae bar!

PLANNING LIKE A LOCATION SHOOT

After we set the menu, my crew of besties volunteered, and my two best partners in crime, Jac and Patricia, planned it just like a large location shoot: décor acquired and stored, tableware staged, and the grocery list (scaled up to feed forty) locked into the spreadsheet. Next, we established the list of make-ahead items.

THE MAKE-AHEAD MAGIC

Fry 8 lbs. of chicken the day of the party? NO thank you! For that we made a marinade, sous-vide, fried, and then froze the chicken to be re-crisped and heated the day of the party. Works like a charm! Same with the Fried Black Bean Fritters. All this pre-planning and cooking meant that the day before and the day of the party could be used for fresh ingredients, like fruit platter prep and final setup.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

In the end, there is nothing quite like the joy of cooking a menu entirely made of past favorites, especially when it’s for the people we love most. Revisiting those cookbook all-stars and scaling them up for a crowd reminded me why I love cooking in the first place, to bring people together. That sense of togetherness was on full display as our incredible friends traveled from far and wide to join the celebration: catching flights, making long drives, and even pitching camps just to be there for him. Tad may have successfully dodged the spotlight for most of the night, but watching him enjoy his ultimate favorite foods surrounded by such an overwhelming outpouring of love made every single spreadsheet and make-ahead meal worth it. Cheers to 60 years of Tad!