Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Others

Praise for Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Others

Amy Thielen’s steak-night menu of wood-fired rib eyes with fava butter, grilled pickled half-hots, salt potatoes, boiled zucchini with herb oil, and a smoky tomato terrine sounds like a perfect menu to me. Sure, every component can stand on its own—but really, it’s all of them together that has me dreaming of bottles of wine, dim lights, and messy tablecloths. . . . [Thielen] brings her romantic but practical approach to her writing and menus.
— Emma Wartzman - New York

A decade after her debut cookbook, The New Midwestern Table, ex-Food Network host Amy Thielen has produced a sequel. Company’s calling, and the result is menu after menu of plates serving six to 20. . . . Just pick and choose any Thielen recipe you want for dinner; even downscaled, they overdeliver.

— T. Susan Chang - NPR

Though the concept of feeding a group of six, 12, or perhaps even 20 can spark anxiety in the heart of even the most confident home cook, Amy Thielen . . . and her new book will empower you to do just that—casually! . . . . Thielen’s humor and candor, along with the reminiscent-of-a-family-album photography, make the book approachable and fun.

— Vanessa Pamela Friedman - Vogue

Dinner parties should be about love, not stress, and in Amy Thielen’s hands they can be. . . . She offers menus for gatherings casual and formal, small and large, with helpful tips and a welcome eye toward food costs. Whether the host is preparing wood-fired steaks with fava butter from the 'Supper Club Night' menu, spiced meatballs with creamed gravy and mascarpone whipped potatoes for Christmas Eve, a potato tortilla and sausages with mustard-miso sauce for family brunch, or spicy cinnamon flan for an Argentine-style barbecue, the event will be a good time. And that’s what matters most.
— Devra First - Boston Globe

[Company] has a no-nonsense-yet-kind voice that captures the joy one can get from cooking for friends and family, Thielen’s helpful hand ensuring that every dish sings.

— Jackie Varriano - Seattle Times

Your best dinner party menus of 2023 will come from this new cookbook. . . . Reading each of Thielen’s warm descriptions feels like opening the door of her cabin and going inside, finding the buffet table and piling your plate high.
— Maggie Hoffman - Epicurious

Amy Thielen’s relaxed, easy style makes you want to pick up the phone and invite a group of friends over this weekend. The menus are appealing: In the section 'Pent-Up Winter Grilling' you’ll find recipes for Deviled Egg Dip, Bundy Pan Chicken with Bagna-Cauda Butter, Fun-House Baked Potatoes, and more. There’s menus for Saturday night, Holidays, and casual buffets.

— Kathy Gunst - WBUR

Rethink the way you entertain with Amy’s clever recipe and menu ideas.
— Better Homes & Gardens

[Company] emphasizes recipes that are best suited to serving to a crowd, but are also easy to prep ahead of time. Additionally, Thielen makes cooking with fresh produce a large part of the book’s overall objective. What is most exciting about the book’s recipes, however, is that many are presented in the form of a menu to further emphasize the love for food and celebration.

— Cory Fernandez, Patty Catalano, and Kristina Razon - The Kitchn

[Company] is an ode to having people over, not entertaining (or the “E-word” as [Thielen] calls it), but project cooking and long visits, where people spill out into lawns and everyone hangs around fire pits or outdoor grills, even in the middle of winter. The book is organized by occasion (fish frys, holidays, family brunch around the fire pit) with a complete menu for each. Tbh, her lyrical headnotes and the photos of snowscapes, pine-framed lakefronts, and wool coats hung next to wood-burning stoves, are as much of a draw as the food.

— Jenny Rosenstrach - Cup of Jo

This book is written so beautifully. Thielen is equal parts cook and writer, the sort of person whose word choice in a recipe get me really revved up. . . . The book sings because of this recognition, that cooking is a practice unique to each person, and sometimes all a cookbook author can do is offer up some words and say here, maybe this? Or here is how I do it.

— Marian Bull

We’ve long been fans of Amy Thielen’s cooking. Her recipes bring styled-out flourishes to the kitchen repertoire. And then there’s her writing: with Thielen’s first cookbook, The New Midwestern Table, she became our generation’s Laurie Colwin, dramatizing the all-five-senses thrills of cooking with a nurturing voice that made readers feel: I got this. Company broadens the scope, torquing up the ambition to menu-based parties like a Friday-night Fish Fry for eight or an Argentinian-Style Asado for twenty or more. Packed with real-life tips, hacks, and kitchen inspiration, every sentence of this book will make you a better, happier cook!

— Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors of The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen

An exuberant, irreverent love letter to abundance in all its forms: friendship, care, pleasure, and beautiful food that brings them all together.
— Chelsey Johnson, author of Stray City

Amy Thielen’s recipes and writing capture the true rhythms of the kitchen, from the glamour and glee of an overloaded table to the welcome quiet of a dish-stacked sink. This book is a practical and economical guide to cooking for a crowd. It’s also fancy and funny and fun. Reading and cooking with Company feels like being invited to the sort of party I crave—and it makes me want to throw my own blowout feast as soon as humanly possible.

— Kate Lebo, author of The Book of Difficult Fruit

A treasure—after spending time with Amy Thielen’s intimate, spirited, and often funny writing in Company, you’ll want to have her at your party, too.

— Mayukh Sen, author of Taste Makers

The most gorgeous and useful cookbook I’ve seen in a long time. Amy Thielen’s recipes are always foolproof, and company-pleasers for sure. This book inspires what we need more than ever right now, community. I will be cooking from it for a long time.
— Jeni Britton-Bauer, entrepreneur and author of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts

Amy has written a beautiful guide to ease our worries and provides us with 125 well-tested, no fail recipes – arranged in menu form. From small dinner parties to larger holiday feasts that serve up to twenty (and even a section on holiday baking!), everything is laid out for the cook whether said cook be a novice or experienced player in the kitchen. Packed with stunning photography, Company encourages us to return to the joy of cooking for family and friends without all the fuss and muss.

— Jenny Hartin - Eat Your Books

Thielen delivers again with warm, encouraging, and delicious menus that will have readers excited to plan their next crowd-pleasing event.
— Sarah Tansley - Library Journal

Double-dipped fried chicken and the single-origin chocolate cake don’t need to be saved for a big event. Those appreciative of hearty Midwest cooking and entertaining large crowds will find inspiration here.
— Jessica S. Levy - Booklist