The Townhouse Kitchen Supper Club

Siblings Patricia and Emanuel de Sousa created their supper club in the Portuguese city of Porto to blur the boundaries between restaurants and home cooking through artfully composed communal meals. This dramatically photographed book reveals the creativity they bring to that effort.

Divided into halves called "Mountain" and "Sea," more than a hundred recipes follow the seasonal rhythms and ingredients of Portugal and its Atlantic surroundings. Beyond those broad gestures, the organization is somewhat opaque: stewed octopus with smoked paprika is followed by a martini made with vinho verde and medronho brandy, and then by venison tartare. A corn gazpacho served with a paper-thin polenta precedes pork belly rolled in barbecue sauce and served with cucumber salad. 

The imagination is more obvious than the system, but their notes on pantry essentials and the practicalities of cooking for groups run throughout, with genuine attention to adaptability: working with common ingredients, reworking leftovers, adjusting to what's available. Photographs and design reflect the same attention to place and atmosphere that runs through the recipes. 

Note that the book’s two halves work in opposite directions: if you open from the cover marked “Mountain,” you’ll need to flip it over to read “Sea.”

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.