Festivities in the garden at Dawnridge are always special. Today, our staff wears gold lamé coats with feathered turbans to set the mood. Parties with themes like “Return to the Raj,” “Tropical Nights,” “Walk like an Egyptian,” and anything “Venetian”—not to mention dozens of black-tie affairs—are de rigueur at Dawnridge. There is always music in the garden, whether it’s piped in or provided by musicians: jazz bands, balalaika players, flamenco guitarists, ten-piece dance orchestras, troupes of African drummers, or Balinese dancers with their accompanists. The entertainment is always diverse and the décor constantly changing.
Our friend Eleanor Phillips, the West Coast editor of Vogue, once described us as “professional party givers.” We are not, although we love to entertain, and on occasion we have been hired to supply themed decorations for private balls and charity events around the country. We also host lunch for visiting friends daily at Dawnridge, which is served by our extraordinary housekeeper and cook, Flory Vargas. Just as she did for Tony and Beegle before us, she continues to make the best Mexican food in Los Angeles and has mastered all of our favorite Western, Indian, and Chinese dishes as well. My father’s side of the family was from Alabama; my mother’s side from South America; and Ruth and I were born in Southern California—I think our sense of Southern hospitality comes naturally. We like to entertain semi-formally, even if it’s just a buffet for forty, but for groups above that we rely on outside caterers. Seated dinners from eight to one hundred and twenty are not unusual here, and often include dancing.
What Ruth and I hate most are people who are brought for the first time as someone else’s guest and announce when introducing themselves, “You know, I’ve never been here before.” To which I invariably answer, “Come to think of it, I’ve never been to your house before either.” Strangers can’t figure out that Dawnridge is a private residence. We rarely have parties here that are not our own. We have lent the house for charity events and have weakened on occasion when friends ask if they can have a wedding or other special occasion here, but it is never open to the public except by invitation.
The façade of Dawnridge was entirely covered with a painted backdrop, turning the house into the Amber Palace at Jaipur for our Return to the Raj Ball, 2015.
Nautch girls entertain during dinner to the delight of international guests Miranda Reise Williams, Manfred Flynn Kuhnert, and Rebecca de Ravenal at the Return to the Raj Ball, 2015.
From the pages of Vogue, April 15, 1957
RECIPES
Dinner in the Kitchen
GUACAMOLE
Served with Fries
CHICKEN LIVERS
ALBÓNDIGA SOUP
BARBECUED CHICKEN
CHILES RELLENOS WITH SAUCE
FRIJOLES
FRIED RICE
GREEN SALAD
BEL PAESE CHEESE
MACÉDOINE OF FRUIT
Buffet in the Supper Room
CREAMED CHICKEN AMANDINE
STUFFED ZUCCHINI
GREEN SALAD WITH CHOPPED
ARTICHOKE HEARTS AND AVOCADO
CHERRY AND KIRSCH ICE
PETITS FOURS
GUACAMOLE
2 ripe avocados
1 ripe tomato
½ onion, minced fine
Jalapeño peppers, chopped
Lemon juice
Chiles
Salt and pepper
Mash the avocados with the ripe, peeled tomato. Add minced onion, a little lemon juice, chopped jalapeño peppers. Season with salt and pepper. Use chiles to taste, for desired spiciness. Serve with Fritos; for six to eight.
ALBÓNDIGA SOUP
4 tablespoons oil
1 onion, minced
¼ cup tomato sauce
3 quarts chicken stock
1 pound fresh peas
½ pound string beans, chopped
3 tablespoons cooked rice
½ pound ground pork
½ pound ground beef
6 mint leaves
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 egg, slightly beaten
Salt and pepper
Fry onion in oil 5 minutes, then add to tomato sauce and stock. When mixture is boiling, add peas and string beans. Prepare meat as follows: mix cooked rice into meat, adding chopped parsley and mint leaves, egg, salt and pepper, and form into balls. Drop into boiling stock, cover tightly, and let simmer half an hour. Serves six to eight.
CHILES RELLENOS
8 Ortega’s green chiles
8 oblongs of cream cheese,
2 x ½ x ½ inches
4 eggs
4 tablespoons flour
Shortening
Stuff each whole, peeled green chile with an oblong of cheese. Separate eggs, beat whites until stiff, then add yolks. Add flour. Dip chiles into batter, one at a time, and fry in hot shortening. Brown on both sides; drain on absorbent paper. Serves eight.
SAUCE (one quart)
2 cups tomatoes, lightly stewed
2 cups chicken or beef stock
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon oregano
Strain stewed tomatoes through a sieve. Fry onions in hot oil, 1½ inches deep, but do not brown. Add onions and chopped garlic to tomatoes. Pour in chicken or beef stock and boil. Once bubbling, add oregano, salt, and pepper. Pour a little sauce on each chile.
CREAMED CHICKEN AMANDINE
1 six-pound chicken
Enough stock to cover chicken
½ cup chopped carrots
½ cup chopped white turnips
½ cup chopped green celery
2 leeks
6 sprigs parsley
Sprig of thyme
2 bay leaves
5 cloves
6 peppercorns
½ pound fresh mushrooms
2 large green peppers
½ cup canned pimiento,
drained
2 tablespoons butter
Salt
8 patty shells or a vol-au-vent
Make a stock of carrots, turnips, celery, leeks, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, cloves, peppercorns, and salt to taste. Put the chicken in the stock mixture and simmer slowly for 2½ to 3 hours. Then let the bird cool in the broth. Discard skin and bones; dice the meat.
Slice the mushrooms, green peppers, and pimientos, all thin. Sauté in butter; drain off the butter. Add the chicken meat. Keep the mixture hot while preparing sauce. Serves eight.
SAUCE
3 cups medium white sauce
3 egg yolks
Salt
White pepper
Nutmeg
¼ cup dry sherry
1 cup almonds
Add beaten egg yolks to white sauce; combine with chicken and vegetables. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Reheat, without boiling, and stir in the sherry, and almonds, blanched, toasted, and shredded. Serve in patty shells or a vol-au-vent.
STUFFED ZUCCHINI
6 zucchini
½ cup chopped raw spinach
2 tablespoons minced onion
Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
Cook zucchini in boiling salt water for 10 minutes. Cut zucchini in boat shapes and scoop out centres. Mix pulp with raw spinach, minced onion, Parmesan cheese, and remaining ingredients. Fill zucchini shells and bake in 350° oven for 15 minutes. Serve with bacon. Serves six.
CHERRY AND KIRSCH ICE
½ cup sugar
½ cup sauterne
1 cup pitted, ripe black cherries
¼ cup light honey
2 tablespoons kirsch
⅛ teaspoon salt
Boil the sugar and sauterne together for 5 minutes, counting from the time the first bubbles appear. Set aside to cool. Press the cherries through a sieve, then strain through a double layer of cheesecloth. Beat together the cherry juice, the sugar syrup, and the honey with a rotary beater and add, during the beating, kirsch and salt. Freeze. Serves six.
