“To draw up a table plan, you need a dash of psychology, a measure of intuition, and a pinch of recklessness,” writes Pierre Sauvage, an author and designer based in Paris, in his beautiful new book, How They Entertain: At Home with the Tastemakers. “It is about creating stimulating conversations that may lead to new friendships, projects, plans for life—or maybe even for later that evening.”
Through interviews with designers, artisans, and decorators the world over, Sauvage shares a potpourri of hosting tips from his friends, including one who has a deep Southern family history: the designer Remy Renzullo. Renzullo’s roots trace to Kentucky and South Carolina, but he grew up mostly in New England and now works in actual England.
An antiques collector and designer with a layered sense of beauty, Renzullo’s section of the book features gorgeous photos that reveal the welcoming, textured world he has concocted in his London apartment. He collects tapestries, worn linens, and fraying textiles, arranging antique furniture and weathered objects into a grand home that feels both stately and cozy. A place to create, dream, and host. In the chapter, Renzullo nods to his Southern influences, too, when he shares “Roast Chicken, a Very Old Family Recipe from Kentucky” alongside his go-to mashed potatoes covered in cognac-spiked gravy. We chatted with Renzullo about his design influences, and he graciously shares the recipe from the new book, too.
How do you make friends feel comfortable in your home?
I try to not be stressed about hosting—because what’s the point of doing it if you’re stressed? I cook the same things over and over. Having people over is not the time to be inventive—I’d rather make a well-loved recipe that I feel like I can cook with my eyes closed. Like the family chicken recipe. I cook it low, slow in the Southern style. But it’s not really about the food. Nobody hosting should ever stress about any one thing too much—it’s about the overall atmosphere and people having a nice time.
I always want the table to be beautiful, but not over the top. I like very simple table linens, old damask in white or very pale pink or yellow. And no stacks of things like chargers and silver. Simple and beautiful dishes. Only candles in the dining room. I’m a no-overhead-lights person.
Sometimes I set the table in the morning, go to work, and then come home and start the food. I’ll add fresh flowers and ply people with a nice decent wine. I always have a drink with everyone when they arrive, and then slip off for fifteen minutes to finish cooking.
And I don’t invite people over if I’ve got to have an end time. If you’re going to make the effort, and people want to linger and play cards or smoke, let them.
How has the South influenced your taste?
I think there’s a real consideration for history in the South and perhaps a sort of getting-on-with-what-you-have sensibility. Making the most of what you’ve got, whether that’s a family heirloom or something you just love. There’s a real sense of sentimentality and the stories it evokes. I love patina and beautiful unrestored furniture. Something that’s really grand but that has chips, or the paint is a bit flaked; the whole idea of newness does nothing for me. When I entertain, I’m using old linens, old glass, old china. And it might be damaged or faded, but it all comes together in this layered, intentional, but perhaps a bit haphazard way that tells a story.
I think about Drayton Hall in South Carolina, and how it’s been left to age in its original condition. I think about Charleston in general, which feels a bit like some place between Europe and America, where you might entertain on a second-floor porch while looking at this amazing architecture. I have a family connection to Middleton Place, and that garden is full of old oak trees and Spanish moss, and there’s this sense of vanished splendor everywhere you look.
I think about the photographer Sally Mann and how she did this amazing body of work about these crumbling antebellum homes in the South, the paradox of finding beauty and haunting elements in decay.
How do your Southern roots shape the way you host?
I’m half Italian and half Southern, two cultures that love food and getting together and having a good time. If I’ve taken anything from a Southern way of living, it’s about enjoying oneself and not feeling beholden to too much formality. It’s not about having the nicest house or the best food. It’s about people, about conversation. I’ve got this tiny dining room where six people can hardly fit, but I’ll invite friends to come over and we sit on the floor. Sometimes my generation can be nervous about hosting at home, but it doesn’t have to be stuffy. I don’t mind if someone spills a bit of red wine on a slipcover. Oh well!
In How They Entertain: At Home with the Tastemakers, Renzullo shares his family chicken recipe. He says any way you roast chicken will work, but he advises that as “low and slow” as you’re comfortable with, the better. Reserve the juices and fat from the roasting pan, as you’ll need it for these mashed potatoes with cognac gravy that Renzullo serves alongside:
Ingredients for the mashed potatoes
8 Yukon Gold potatoes
1 stick butter, sliced
½ cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Ingredients for the gravy
Fat from roasted chicken
2 tbsp. Wondra quick-mixing flour
⅓ cup cognac
¼ cup chicken stock
1 tsp. Better Than Bouillon concentrated stock (optional)
Peel the potatoes and cut them in quarters. Put them in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil.
Boil uncovered for around 10 minutes, until the potatoes feel soft when pricked with a fork. Drain the potatoes and put them back in the saucepan. Add half the butter and half the cream and mix using a potato masher. Continue to mash while adding the remaining butter and cream. The consistency should be smooth, but not as smooth as a purée. Season with salt and pepper.
To make the gravy, skim off half or more of the fat in the chicken roasting pan and place the pan over the largest burner on the stovetop. Heat through on a medium-high heat.
When it starts to bubble, mix in the gravy flour and stir for 1 minute.
Slowly add the cognac and stir with a large slotted spoon to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken stock, 1/4 cup or so at a time, stirring constantly.
Once the gravy is the desired thickness and bubbling hot, reduce the heat to a slow simmer.
Carve the chicken quickly and serve immediately with the potatoes and lots of gravy.
Recipe excerpted from How They Entertain: At Home with the Tastemakers. 2024; Flammarion.
Garden & Gun has an affiliate partnership with bookshop.org and may receive a portion of sales when a reader clicks to buy
