Maddy DeVita’s Guide to Pulling Off the Perfect Dinner Party

It’s a Friday morning rush hour at Paisanos in Boelm Hill. There is a constant ding of doorbells, just as people come and go to the butcher in their neighborhood. Private chef Maddie Devita steps inside. Her eyes drift to the 65-pound Stravecchio Pro Volone Wheel hanging from the ceiling as she heads to the butcher counter. She came to pick up tonight’s dinner party, Spiral Italian sausage centerpiece.

Paisanos It’s the first destination on a complete itinerary for dinner party preparation. In these times, she took Devita to the public eye from the kitchen as she ran around the city and planned her elaborate meals. Her journey began in 2020 Instagram and TiktokDevita recorded an internship at a small agritourism farm in Italy through registration with the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. However, it wasn’t until 2023 that she began posting her “days of life” as a private chef, and her platform has grown exponentially. “It was part of my best performance content on social media, the wild stuff I was making, all the courses and how I was pulling it narrowly,” she says. With nearly 1 million followers on both platforms now and more than 11,000 followers on Substack, Devita is expanding its reach. She continues to cook for her clients, shares weekly recipes through newsletters, and posts daily videos online.

Devita loves putting her touch on every part of the night as a self-proclaimed control freak with a Virgo mentality. This means that her apartment is usually home to the gathering. In March, she hosted her 12 cousins ​​and their partners in honor of her first use of Grandma’s beloved saucepot. “We’re undergoing this switch in family gatherings right now,” she says. “It’s almost turned into a new generation. We can now host ourselves.” Dinner tonight isn’t a big deal. It’s a casual hang between her sister and cousin. So of course, she decides the spread of snackable mix and match – fresh baguettes from L’Appartement 4Fa sausage ring of paisanos dressed in tomato and white bean dip, mustard and giardiniera salsa – S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water.

Whether she’s cooking private dinners for 20 people or cooking at home with her fiancé, Devita’s approach to the menu is the same. She lets the material lift heavy. To find the best quality products, she saves time, but does not buy or order groceries online online. She is a person and the day of adoption of these ingredients is the best part of her job. “Being a private chef is isolated in many ways because there are no other colleagues,” Devita says. “I connected with the butcher behind the counter in the middle of my job, and in a way, they’re my colleagues.”

These interactions are not transactions. She relies on vendor expertise to spark dietary inspiration. “People are always interested in how I use the materials and share how I have used them in the past,” she says. For dinner tonight, the Paisanos butcher recommended par bowling of sausages. I then finished it with a broiler and got a grill-like char without a smoke alarm. Sometimes these relationships can lead to exclusive perks. For example, today, L’Appartement 4th floor set the aforementioned baguette aside for Devita in case they sell out.

As Devita runs her errands and then returns to her home, she returns to her element and moves elegantly around the European country-style kitchen. She arranges simple charcoal grills with Piave Vecchio, Mortadella and Castelvetrano Olives on vintage hand-drawn plates found in Puglia, Italy. Even a private chef, she doesn’t feel pressured to show off her skills, and overwhelms guests with her spread of the top. “The whole point is to connect people and connect with friends, and it doesn’t have to be this complicated thing,” she says.

These dinners are not a long prep list, it is her attention to detail that makes them feel special. “There are certain things that are supposed to be forgotten when you go out for dinner when you’re hosting in your own apartment,” she says. When she sets up the table, Devita uses six bell linen napkins to easily refill paper or S.Pellegrino in a wine cooler. “It’s not crazy [a restaurant] I’ll place a chilled bottle of S. Pellegrino on the table and pour it for you,” she says.

Her cousin Julia is a few minutes behind, but Devita enjoys a 10-15 minute grace period to give the table a finishing touch. As for these event dinners, she is also grateful to those who don’t occasionally drink flowers, bottles of wine, or bouquets of S. Pellegrino (although she does not expect gifts from the frequent visitor tonight’s guests).

As she pulls the sausage out of the oven, her sister and cousin sit around the table, and they dive into the spread. Devita Smears Mustard on the Baguette, add the sausages and sprinkle Giardiniera on top. “It’s simple but very tasty,” she says. “It’s honestly what people want when they come in: a delicious meal.”