December 2004

Features

• Open-House Planner

  It's hard to imagine throwing a holiday party that goes from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., but, with planning, it might be the best party you've ever had. Ripe restaurant group of Portland, Oregon, plotted out a strategy for feeding 20 friends—day to night.

• Shattered Sugar

  Melanie Thernstrom tells how she was tempted to pilfer the best toffee recipe in the universe but found redemption in a different kind of sweet.

• Shelf Help | The Year's Finest Wine Books

  An opinionated selection of the year's finest wine books.

• Gifts from the Cucina | Alisa Barry's Homemade Holiday Gifts

  Sachets of cinnamon and cloves, salt flecked with lavender: Bella Cucina's Alisa Barry shares her trade secrets with friends at a party where everyone prepares gifts to bag, box, bottle and wrap.

• Lessons: Classes with Glasses | Wine Schools

  Thirsty for knowledge? Go to wine school. Here, the top seven across the country.

• Cake and Cookie Decorating Essentials

• Discovering New Zealand's Central Otago: Pinot Noir

  Its dramatic mountains, gorges and lakes—and now, its stunning Pinot Noirs—make New Zealand's Central Otago one of the most dazzling spots on the planet.

• Essential Gift Guide

  Our editor-tasted and expert-tested choices of the most spectacular food, wine, design and tech gifts of the season.

• An Adventurous Drinker's Cocktail Guide

  These drinks all have a shot at becoming the next Cosmo. A special first look at F&W's forthcoming cocktail book.

• Baking: Sweetest Party of the Season | A Kids' Decorating Party

  Six kids get a lesson on decorating cookies and cakes from sugar artist Margaret Braun.

• Bobbi Bares All | beauty guru Bobbi Brown

  An inside look at how beauty guru Bobbi Brown's stripped-down makeup philosophy translates into healthy organic eating at home.

• Vienna: An Uninhibited Tour of the City's Idiosyncratic, Playful Design and Seriously Fun Food

  Our trusted guide, Renée Price, director of Manhattan's Neue Galerie, shows us the very best places to scout for tableware and to stop for delicious meals.

• Interview: Jamie Oliver | Jamie's Kitchen

• Tastemaker: The FedEx Fishmonger | Wayne Samiere

• Tastemakers: Luxury Travel's Road Scholar | Ashley Isaacs Ganz

• Tastemakers: The Exotic-Escape Artists | Sonu & Eva Shivdasani

• The Very Best Cookbooks of 2004

  Every year we review dozens of good cookbooks to find the great ones. Here's a preview of our picks for the next edition of F&W's "Best of the Best."

• Modern Holiday

  After a $425 million renovation, New York's Museum of Modern Art is finally reopening with a thrilling new restaurant, The Modern. Here's an exclusive preview of the menu at a dinner party with the team that made The Modern: restaurateur Danny Meyer, F&W Best New Chef Gabriel Kreuther, and the principal architects at Bentel & Bentel.