“Dinner is never just dinner. It is so much about the people, and the food is just the excuse to get those people around the table.”
I’m 60 seconds into my conversation with Gina Bruno and find myself nodding in agreement, something I’ll continue to do for the next 20 minutes. The self-proclaimed “chef, mom, and host” wears a lot of hats. Private chef, event producer, event space owner, and food show host are just a few of the titles Bruno claims, but central to all of her work is a palpable love of people, and of creating a space for gathering, both of which make her a natural-born host.
Bruno cites her Italian roots and the Sunday dinners she had as a child as the sources of her hosting instinct and ethos. “I am a family style cooker when I'm hosting, and I just want to fill people up. I want to fill their glasses up; I want to fill their plates up. And the best compliment that I could ever get is having to tell someone, ‘Hey man, it's really time to go home because I am exhausted and I need to go to bed.’”
Not everyone has a natural inclination toward hosting, though, so to help them out I asked Bruno to run me through her tips for throwing a gathering, be it an intimate dinner or a rowdy holiday party.
Plan the menu around one main dish
“On a table, I will always have one kind of grand slam big, big dish, and then there's all the supporting actors on the table,” says Bruno. While she uses saved folders on Instagram and Pinterest and likes to browse the Bon Appétit app, Bruno primarily looks to the market for inspiration, describing herself as a “very, very in-season cooker.” “I have so many recipes saved, and sometimes some of those get used, but there is something that just happens when you're walking, and you see all of these fresh ingredients, and you just get to create a dish right in front of you.”
Prep as much as possible in advance
Bruno’s main tip for anxious hosts is to prep as much in advance as possible. “Sauces and dressings you can absolutely do the day before, and that alleviates so much time the day of. You could go as far as literally setting your entire table the way you want it to be set with napkins, plates, silverware,” says Bruno.
Set the mood
“Lighting is a huge thing,” says Bruno. For evening soirées, she kisses the big overhead light goodbye, opting instead for lower light from lamps and candles tucked into corners to make the space feel moody. “The mood needs to be right, and you want to feel sexy when you walk into somebody's home,” she says.
Clean as you go
Bruno worked in restaurants and went to culinary school in Paris, where she learned the importance of maintaining a clean workspace. “If something spills right then and there, you are wiping it right then and there. If you use the spoon and you're done, it's going in the dishwasher. Cleaning as you go is a big step,” she says.
Encourage conversation
When hosting a more intimate event, one of Burno’s favorite moves takes the form of an interactive game meant to encourage a bit of deep conversation. “Right before I serve dessert, I have everyone lift up their plate, and there is a little note underneath,” she says. The note has a question on it, either handwritten or printed depending on how much time Bruno has, and every question is different. “It adds a layer of, ‘Oh, our conversation maybe wouldn't have gone here… I just love getting to more juicy parts of the person, whether it's a close friend or an absolute stranger, and it keeps people on their toes,” she says.
Be a guest at your own party or dinner
“It's so easy to stay in host mode and think that you have to do all of these things to please people. But as soon as people arrive, it's almost like, your job is done—or at least as soon as you drop the food, your job is done. And now you get to sit back and enjoy what you've done and be a part of it, because the worst feeling ever is you had all these people over, whether it's four people or 10 people, and you were stuck in the kitchen and no one got to see you. So be a guest,” says Bruno.
Never say sorry for your food
Bruno recounts a recent conversation with a friend who was afraid, on the one hand, to try making and serving something new, but felt the dishes that were in her repertoire were too simple for company. “You should never apologize for something that you're cooking. If you are putting yourself out there and you want to cook something out of your realm and say it absolutely fucking fails, that's fine. I feel like your guests are going to be like, ‘Awesome. We will take a bite and not tell you our honest answer, and then we're going to order a pizza, and it's going to be amazing.’ The triumph of just trying is so much bigger than the actual meal,” says Bruno. “Food is the second tier. It's more about the people around your table. You could serve potato chips and dip, and people will actually be pretty happy,” she adds.
When in doubt, there’s always pasta
“Nine out of 10 times, if I am cooking for people, there is going to be a pasta dish on the table,” says Bruno. She’s a big fan of the protein pasta brand Brami, and not just because she just partnered with them on a YouTube show—she says the brand has organically become the only pasta she keeps at home.
As for sauce, Bruno’s go-to is a spicy vodka. “If I'm making it at home, I'm actually leaving out the vodka, and I'm swapping in mezcal, and it gives such a sneaky, smoky flavor that everyone will ask [about it]. And I will then go even further and usually pair it with a mezcal cocktail,” she says.
Bruno’s hosting essentials
Now that you know all of Bruno’s tips, these are the products she uses to make gatherings more special and less stressful.
Bruno always keeps three types of olive oil on hand: “One that is not so fancy and you could fry or make dressing with it—just one that's kind of the back burner; a topping oil; and then an amazing peppery oil that you would maybe more so dip bread in or drizzle on top.”
“Flaky salt is always in my house,” says Bruno. She typically opts for either Maldon or a fleur de sel.
“We could consider Brami a staple. I mean, [my husband and I] cook it at least two times a week, whether there's meat thrown in it or it's just a sauce or a pesto or it's anything in between,” says Bruno.
For hosting, I love big platters. Whether they're vintage or new, I kind of love mixing those two together on the table,” says Bruno. She likes having a collection of larger serveware specifically for hosting: “It’s kind of like your special stuff that you take out for friends.”
“I love silver, so I have a lot of silver trays, a lot of silver bowls. I think it makes a table,” says Bruno. “I have quite the collection. I almost always buy vintage or second-hand when it comes to silver. There's simply something about the life the piece had,” she adds.
“I recently splurged and got a really lovely cream and red dishware set from Porta. That was a big purchase for me, and it is a purchase that I am excited to bring out sparingly because I don't want anything to break,” says Bruno.
When it comes to flatware, Bruno is a Sabre person. “I have three different colors in my house. It's the only cutlery that I have at this point,” she says.
“We are a big wine-drinking family, so I have a wine fridge. There are on average at least 15 bottles of wine in that fridge always, and it is a variety because you never know what somebody likes,” says Bruno.
When hosting, Bruno keeps a candle burning in her bathroom and on the kitchen counter at all times. She’s partial to Keap’s Wood Cabin scent, which she orders in bulk for both her own home and her event space, Frank’s House.
