Preparing for holiday dinners can be both wonderful and hectic.

By Lael Hazan

I must confess, before I met my husband, I would only bring out my “good” plates for company. Giuliano taught me to treat our private table as well as I treat our guests, and to use our good silverware and dishes (in our case hand painted ceramic from Faenza) all the time. That was wonderful until we had children and changed to a less expensive set. But in our house, we serve our guests what we normally cook for ourselves, and we actually do use our dining room table for something other than a place to put the mail.

 The Hazan holiday table.

Yet Thanksgiving and the holidays are held to a higher standard. It’s a time for family and large gatherings. In this age of rush, rush, rush and lack of time, often the planning can get overwhelming. Do we need to polish the silver or can we go to BJ’s http://www.bjs.com/ and purchase square paper plates and plastic silverware? Does washing all the plates use more water and resources than throwing out “green” paper ones? Do we always have to host at home or can we go out to dinner?

 Sometimes creating a dinner can feel overwhelming, or…. as in our case at Thanksgiving, not all of us are turkey lovers. This year, my mother would like a turkey but my father-in-law is known for not liking fowl. In any case, we made reservations at Ophelia’s http://opheliasonthebay.net/ and will plan to have a smaller turkey dinner later on. But the conundrum of how to please all your guests made me decide to turn to the experts. For our local expert, I’ve asked Jaymie Klauber of Fete Catering http://www.caterfete.com/ to discuss everything from catering options to what she and the famous Klauber family might do. For those of you who haven’t met Jaymie, she is the quintessential party queen. She throws them all, big to small, and they are perfect down to the last detail.

I’ve also asked California catering guru Denise Vivaldo http://www.denisevivaldo.com/, whose new book, The Entertaining Encyclopedia, truly covers everything from soup to nuts on how to plan the perfect party. Denise is a veteran in the food industry and has catered over 10,000 parties ranging from celebrity get-togethers featuring personalities such as Bette Midler and former President George H.W. Bush to small weddings. She’s a food stylist who has worked on most of the current food shows as well as the Ellen DeGeneres Show http://ellen.warnerbros.com/. Jaymie and Denise will be my guests on my radio show, Focus on Fabulous Food, on WSLR 96.5FM this coming Wednesday, Nov. 25 from 10-11 a.m. If you have any questions for them, please comment on this blog and I will be happy to ask the experts.