亚历山大·斯莫斯（Alexander Smalls）在纽约举办了最好的晚宴

要在亚历山大·斯莫尔斯（Alexander Smalls）的家中用餐邀请，厨师厨师author，，，，and longtime Harlemite, is to make whatever schedule adjustments necessary to be in attendance, and not solely because the food is sure to soothe and inspire, nor solely because his panache for anecdotes induces giggles and hollers the neighbors can hear. His guests say yes because, in a way, they must. They need to. "I grew up in a household full of love and attention. I was the only grandson, the only nephew. I was the man of the hour—as a child I was very much indulged," Smalls says. He knows what it is to lavish attention, to make a guest feel enthralled and at ease. In the sprawling domain of his second-floor apartment bedecked with tapestries and art collections rivaling the floor-to-ceiling galleries atDooky Chase's Restaurantin New Orleans, Smalls is ambassador. And everyone knows (don't they?) that it's impossible to say no to a charming diplomat.

Over a career in food surpassing 25 years, Smalls has garnered accolades and a loyal following for his genre-defining (and -defying) restaurants and cookbooks. His presence feels inherently familiar these days—the striking white beard, the observant gaze through wire spectacles, a laugh that explodes up and outward. But when Cafe Beulah opened in New York in 1994, he was new perhaps to the scene but not to the Southern cooking tradition.这New York Times预示着他的庆祝庆祝活动是由他的斯巴达堡，南卡罗来纳州的童年时代和他作为地球仪的男中音歌剧歌手所塑造的，这是“新浪潮”的一系列灵魂食品烹饪的一部分。vwin德赢ac米兰他的最后一家餐厅的赞誉，在哈林的明顿剧院的塞西尔也很健壮。菜单上搭配Kelewele，Feijoada和Oxtail饺子，将包括加纳，中国和加勒比海在内的多元化非洲侨民融合在一起，并与其富裕的印度影响力合并。时尚named it their best new restaurant in 2014.

Smalls' cookbooks, including this year's celebrated用餐，Music, and Muses: Recipes from My African American Kitchen，是欣赏歌曲类型食谱的欢乐冥想。在用餐，Smalls describes the blend of music and food that guides Black Southern vernacular. Many Black American musicians take food as inspiration, and the reverse is true of such chefs, in part because both arenas can tell textured stories of one's people, calling forth a kind of self-recognition and community love song. Hear "Mother Popcorn" by James Brown, and feel the heat of bursting kernels, or "Watermelon Man" by Herbie Hancock, the oft-reinterpreted jazz standard that canonically conveys the lilt and lope of the fruit seller's cart.Mealsmoves from jazz to opera in stories told by an artist eager to find new pockets of inquiry emerging from a life enriched by travel and soundtrack. (Smalls shared his favorite tunes to cook and dine to; check out hisdinner party playlist here。)

Jazz pianist Jason Moran resides in Harlem with his family. He and his wife, vocalist Alicia Hall Moran, are frequent invitees to Smalls' home, and Moran intimately understands that visceral connection. "The food has a big impact on how we find colors," Moran says of the music. "Duke Ellington can find those colors because he's from the Northeast, Louis Armstrong because he's from NOLA. It's impossible to separate our food from our music."

谁不会来吃晚饭？从最早的业务开始，Smalls一直是一位磁性主持人。他在一个或另一个地方与一个人的人物合作，但经常在他的居所中进行社交。他的三个冰箱中有两个具有1990年代纽约好莱坞的Instagram摄影拼贴。左上，有前小子60 Minuteshost, the inimitable journalist Ed Bradley. Scroll down a couple photos, there's Smalls grinning alongside Quincy Jones. Pan to the center, a clean-shaven, boyish Smalls looks positively luminescent next to Lena Horne. Ah! Cicely Tyson, with the devastatingly low-cut, eyelash-kissing bangs. Phylicia Rashad, LeVar Burton, LorraineToussaint, and CCH Pounder—bright faces expressing joy, amusement, bliss. Posted unframed and aged, they sit in conversation with the sepia-hued portraits that line the hallway, an honor roll of Smalls' immediate and extended family, generations of dapperness, swag, and grace enshrined under the glimmer of a tiered basket chandelier. In his first book,Grace the Table: Stories and Recipes from My Southern Revival，，，，小斯写道：“没有人超过斯巴达堡的小家族 - 没有人。”他的墙上的敬意 - 宽阔的翻领，珍珠股，对称的口袋正方形和软呢帽。

如今，来宾名单可能包括Spike和Tonya Lewis Lee或Al Roker和Deborah Roberts等长期朋友（“我已经迎合Al的圣诞晚会了22年”）。较新的人 - lupita nyong'o或音乐家保罗·波布伦（Paul Beaubrun）。客人提到她刚刚学到的一本书。小斯知道作者，他上周坐在同一张椅子上。客人钦佩一幅画。不可避免地，小斯是艺术家的朋友，随后一个故事。

"Alexander creates community when he sets a table," says singer Shola Adisa-Farrar. She connected with Smalls through mutual friends over a decade ago. While living in Paris, she remembers, Smalls would visit and link her with other artists, always encouraging her music. "He also introduced me to black rice," Adisa-Farrar says. "There's a ceremony to it," she says of Smalls' entertaining.

这participants change event to event, and no one knows who's coming in advance except the host himself. The soirées lack pretense or strain, perhaps because of the traditions that follow: No more than eight people. A fully stocked bar opens each evening with top-shelf bourbon and rum. Smalls typically cooks himself, sometimes making one-pot dishes a day ahead, but he'll occasionally lean on talented friends (this writer enjoyed a meal cooked by Charleston chefBJ Dennis，，，，an emerging master of the Gullah Geechee repertoire that Smalls also grew up eating). The food overflows; there are always leftovers.

电影制片人丽莎·科尔特斯（LisaCortés）说：“与亚历山大（Alexander）的任何召集都承诺相等的音乐，可以移动灵魂和食物，从而提高了口感。”vwin德赢ac米兰“许多夜晚结束了，我们聚集在钢琴周围唱歌，在某些波旁威士忌的夜晚，以背诵诗歌。”这只是小人让您吃晚饭的方式。

Just as the award-winning cookbook he penned with chef JJ Johnson,Between Harlem and Heaven，，，，捕获一个街区的历史和精神that's seen eras of Black food culture and history, perhaps the title can be bent to refer to Smalls' small corner of the world. Tucked in Hamilton Heights, a slice of heaven sits, and the man with that grin; the warm, booming voice; and a stovetop bubbling over with goodwill cannot wait to welcome you.