Picture-Perfect Party Food

Food stylist Alison Attenborough and her chef husband, Jamie Kimm, play with scale to transform the unglamorous meatball into the ideal party dish.

Alison Attenborough is one of the world’s great food stylists. If you like the way the food looks in F&W, that’s often because Alison has prepared it for the camera. She can take a brownish mound of ground beef and make it look so juicy and delicious that you want to stab the page with a fork.

Recently, she and her husband, chef Jamie Kimm, threw a party to celebrate two much-anticipated book debuts. The first: F&W’s Cocktails 2009, for which Alison made all the drinks look tempting and distinctive. The second: the duo’s first cookbook, Williams-Sonoma Cooking for Friends, which is full of ideas for dressing up ordinary foods. For example, they suggest playing with scale—baking and serving shepherd’s pie in miniature gratin dishes, say.

Here, Alison and Jamie offer meatballs in three sizes and styles, from small ones skewered with basil and tomatoes to giant ones atop spaghetti.

More Party Recipes:

Affordable Party Foods

F&W’s Ultimate Party Guide

Party Dips

Published March 2009