VERTE Dinner Party Guide
How to create a spectacle of green and an immersive experience, inviting your guests to rediscover awe, as if seeing green for the first time.
Sarah here. VERTE is something my mind has been cultivating behind my back since moving to the PNW two years ago. Here, green never fades. And after thirty-ish MN winters, a green winter reignited wonder in me.
Moss swallows sidewalks, ferns cascade down hillsides, ivy drips from trees. An enchanted, overgrown, alien world. A relentless green I didn’t know I needed.
A VERTE dinner party is that feeling on a table— a spectacle of green. Everything alive, layered, lush, abundant. An immersive world where beauty is in the excess. Playful, dramatic, wild. A reminder that life doesn’t go dormant.
Chef Britt St. Clair on VERTE —
Spring, darling! VERTE is a nod to artichokes & asparagus, a bow to green herbs & fava beans, a toast to alliums. VERTE is the beginning of a bountiful season of lush produce.
Finally having green produce in season after a long winter makes menu planning a true pleasure. When Jamie and I wrote this menu, we kept listing green on green on green, and it practically wrote itself! I admire Jamie’s whimsical and elegant cooking style — like serving the scallops in their own shell.
"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come"
— Chinese Proverb
Escargot in Garlic & Parsley Butter: Delicious and addicting! And green :)
Whipped Ricotta with Favas & Mint: The perfect dip to have in your fridge for impromptu hosting.
Scallops Served in the Shell with Green Butter: Who needs a restaurant when you can do it at home?
The Cheese Course: Bûcheron: A classic Loire Valley goat cheese that’s bright, creamy, and flaky, with gentle citrus notes and a mild, approachable flavor.
Questions about the recipes? Email Chef Britt at britt@parisdiningclub.com
“What do you mean the theme is Green?”
— Chef Ryan Cook, PDC
Wine Pairings for VERTE
We’re ditching those red wines of winter. Gone are the evenings by the fire and here are the mornings of sunshine and inspiration that lead to lunches with wines filled with exuberance.
Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway fiercely pursued experience. Life at its most brutal and most beautiful. A person deeply invested in living and in the spectacle of it all. This duality belongs at a VERTE dinner party. Life doesn’t just happen— we make it.
“Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”
— Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway
“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises”
— Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Begin with texture
Lay down your floor of moss with a a green tablecloth. We used chartreuse velvet curtains. The right weight, the right feel, and cheaper than a tablecloth.
Centerpiece = Drama
“Go big or go home” got it from us. The centerpiece IS the table. Go to the flower shop and if you think you have too many flowers, get more. Same with the produce section. Make the table spill with whole artichokes, brussels sprouts, pears, avocados, green grapes.
Layer, Layer, Layer
Scour antique stores (or Amazon) for cabbage plates, or any plate shaped like a vegetable. Shoot for whimsy. For everything else, use vintage silver platters and play with height. Used round marble cutting boards for chargers. Offset all the green with white plates. Scallop-shaped or scallop-edged prefered. Green goblets blend in while adding more texture. Colorful teacups add just the right amount of playfulness.
Candles! But don’t set everything on fire.
Blend dark green beeswax tapers into the centerpiece— careful not to catch anything on fire :) Add something unexpected— Greek bust candles, because VERTE is feminine.
“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”
— Martin Luther
Act I: The Entrance
Greet your guests with a showstopper: a playful, refined cocktail jello shot (Solid Wiggles is the move, or make your own). It’s weird, it’s fun, it’s unexpected— your first spectacle of the night. Hand them a shot and send them to admire the table.
Act II: The Prelude
The table is the event— lush, alive, layered in green. Apèro is already set among the decor to be discovered. Guests mingle, sip, snack. Admire outfits and settle into the indulgence of it all.
Act III: The Cue to Sit
Do something unexpected, and make it theatrical. Don’t just bang a gong, silently pass a tray of brussels sprouts, each pinned with a note. Inside? A conversation prompt for the evening.
Act IV: The Feast
Opt for opulence! Serve scallops in their shell. Chef tip: use salt foam. The cheese course follows— Bûcheron, simple and perfect. Dessert is the final showstopper. The Tarte Tropézienne is a bombshell of a dessert, just like Brigitte Bardot. Parade it around the table before tearing into it. No forks, eat with your hands.
Act V: A Chartreuse Curtain Call
There’s only one way to close a dinner party bathed in green — rumor has it the monks distilled it in secret in the catacombs of Paris, it’s Sarah’s favorite sipper — it’s green Chartreuse, neat. A VERTE dinner party is not just about the food. It’s about making life feel larger, greener, more dramatic. Play your part :)
”So why are you alone wasting your time?When you could be with me, wasting your time”
— Green Day, Sassafras Roots