Ricardo Larrivee and his wife Brigitte Coutu have built their lives around the pleasure of sharing a meal surrounded by loved ones. A theme that is at the heart of their new book, Eating together: our best formulas for entertaining.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
When Brigitte Coutu decided they would celebrate the 18the their daughter Béatrice’s birthday outside in the middle of February, no one imagined the breathtaking atmosphere she would manage to create in the Tempo shelter filled with garden furniture covered with warm blankets and illuminated by white Christmas lights.
“We have friends who still say it’s their best party for life,” she rejoices, while remembering how much her daughter dreamed of an outdoor party.
The success was such that the formula, with its “kebab station”, was reproduced for the birthday of their godson, in addition to becoming one of their 10 favorite ways to entertain which are presented in To eat together.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY EDITIONS LA PRESSE
The 18th birthday of the couple’s daughter was celebrated outside.
This book, they’ve been writing it for almost 30 years, in fact. “From the moment we started going out together, we weren’t living together yet that we were already receiving our friends. It has always been a pleasure for us,” says Ricardo.
Then, last year, when the pandemic was still confusing the cards, Brigitte plunged back into the memories of their most beautiful family reunions. “I’ve wanted to do this book for a long time. But she was waiting for the right moment, which finally presented itself.
It’s been two and a half years that we haven’t received; we missed it. But we are rusty. We need to relearn how to organize ourselves when we receive.
Brigitte Coutu
“For many people, it’s stressful to receive,” adds Ricardo, who recently realized that even his mother, who has received all her life, was also stressed about starting to welcome her loved ones again.
We start looking for our bearings again, illustrates Brigitte, like the beautiful crockery that hadn’t come out of the cupboards for a while…
“It should be very relaxing because you get people you’ve chosen, people who like you; you find yourself in friendly territory. It has to be fun. We made this book so that everyone can find their way around,” underlines Ricardo.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Brigitte Coutu and Ricardo Larrivee
Choose the right formula
To eat together is a beautiful book, packed with recipes for entertaining in 10 different ways — cold buffet, pizza meal, dessert table… There’s something for every occasion. But it also includes a host of practical advice: how to get organized, where to start, when to start planning.
“I wanted it to be a very generous book. Generous in photos — there are 200 of them. Generous in content — yes, we have the recipes, but there is a lot of information around it, tips, decoration tips on the art of the table… I wanted it to be generous because when you receive, you have to be generous,” says Brigitte Coutu.
And even when the energy and motivation aren’t there, there’s always a way to create a successful event, according to the couple.
If it’s your mother’s birthday, your child, your boyfriend, you can’t do it in three months, tired or not… So by choosing the right theme, you can find a way that won’t burn you out.
Ricardo Larrivee
Brigitte, she likes to receive around a central dish that is placed on the table, leaving everyone the freedom to serve themselves without having to bring up the plates.
But there is also the “plank” formula, which simplifies the meal when you don’t really want to cook. Or the participatory formula, where all you have to do is prepare the ingredients for everyone to build their own poke bowl or fajitas. “It can be chic if it’s done well,” says Brigitte. Especially since we all have a friend who does not want to be received so as not to complicate our lives, or simply because he is not comfortable with a five-course meal, adds Ricardo.
One and the other, they complete their sentences as they share the tasks when they receive. With the habit of years and the ease that comes with the experience of these gestures repeated a thousand times.
The recipe for the success of their most beautiful receptions? Planning. They build a roadmap and they write down everything, down to the smallest detail — what time we eat, what to take out of the fridge, put back in the fridge, preheat… And it’s that much easier to delegate missions to guests who like to make themselves useful.
Brigitte is already immersed in the planning of their daughter’s wedding. “And that’s just August next year!” “says Ricardo.
But no matter what formula we choose to receive, the most important thing, in his opinion, is to be together.
Eating together: our best formulas for entertaining
Brigitte Coutu and Ricardo Larrivee
Editions La Presse
232 pages