The woman who forever changed the received pronunciation of microwave is heralding another cultural shift: The death of the dinner party.
“I’ve got out of the habit of it,” Nigella admitted, speaking to the Times. “I keep planning to have people round in a proper, grown-up way, but I haven’t yet…I feel a bit guilty”.
Nigella has taken instead to having just a few people round for a buffet-style meal. “I’m happy for a friend to come over in their pyjamas to have supper,” she said.
Clearing plates and cutlery is “so unrelaxing” and she would rather feed her guests some finger-food Twiglets are a favourite, she told the Times.
But Nigella says she has always prioritised "abundance and flavour" over performance. “Greed is an enormous source of inspiration,” she said. “I like abundance and I feel that’s easier to do with one course”.
Nigella's advice to make dinner parties less formal comes after this year's Waitrose Food and Drink report revealed that over a third of UK adults (34 per cent) think that the term ‘dinner party is old-fashioned, and 29 per cent said they wanted entertaining to feel "effortlessly casual."
