There is nothing like roast chicken. It is helpful and agreeable, the perfect dish no matter what the circumstances. Elegant or homey, a dish for a dinner party or a family supper, it will not let you down.

It was a pity she couldn't do justice to the meal, which featured Scottish salmon, steaming roast joints, venison haunch accompanied by sausages and sweetbreads, and elaborate vegetable casseroles dressed with cream and butter and truffles. For dessert there were platters of luxury fruits; raspberries, nectarines, cherries, peaches and pineapples, as well as a surfeit of cakes, tarts, and syllabubs.

I always like to think I'm having a dinner party, and I'm the host, and the audience are my guests.

The formal Washington dinner party has all the spontaneity of a Japanese imperial funeral.

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

I've never been to a dinner party where everyone at the dinner table didn't say something funny.