Julia Khan Anselmo has always been a host. ‘Ever since I was small, I'd open the door and say, "Hello, welcome! Can I get you a glass of water?"' She tells Wallpaper* over FaceTime.
This hospitable nature is at her core and is embedded in both her upbringing in Alberta, the ‘Wild West’ of Canada, and her Trinidadian and Portuguese roots. Eventually, after moving to Vancouver, she started Feisty Feast, which started as a supper club series in her Vancouver apartment. The aim was to bring women together through food. Guest speakers would discuss pressing female-focused topics ranging from money to motherhood to miscarriages, over hearty home-cooked meals.
Since then, Feisty Feast has grown to be a global community. Khan Anselmo now lives in Amsterdam, her home of nearly 10 years, and has worked alongside brands including Serax, Asics and Uniqlo. She's even launched her own clothing line, LAASSO, a collection of easy-to-wear vacation clothes, as she describes ‘a love letter to the Mediterranean’. (There may even be a tableware brand in the near future).
Though she makes beautiful things, Khan Anselmo makes one thing clear: 'I don't want to be grouped with people laying out checkered tablecloths and creating butter towers,' she says. 'As much as there's a place for that, I don’t see myself like that, as I started with a real social mission, and that's still very important to me.'
Discover how she does it below.
How we Host with Julia Khan Anselmo
Wallpaper*: Are you a relaxed host and pull it all together at the last minute, or is there careful planning?
Julia Khan Anselmo: I would say that I'm both, because if you're planned, then you're relaxed. I'm always pre-calculating what I could make or what I could do.
W*: Can you cook?
JKA: I can cook, but I'm always improving. You can never master cooking. I'm really excited about the ingredients — I really love Japanese cooking and Italian food. I am half Portuguese, so I also love this cuisine as well; it's very simple, and the portions are huge. There is a fish stew with rice, Caldeirada de Peixe, which comes in a large pot. It could feed five people even though it's for one!
W*: What was the first dish you perfected to feed a group of friends or family?
JKA: It's pretty impractical to cook this for large groups of people, but I love making gnocchi as it's so much fun to make. It's just potato, flour, egg, and Parmesan cheese. That's it. I serve it with a sage butter sauce. I'm going to make it tonight, actually, but instead I'm going to do it with like a little bit of chicken broth and butter. You can emulsify that, and then get a little bit of cheese in there, and turn it into a nice silky sauce.
W*: Drinks on arrival – what’s on offer?
JKA: I love a martini, and a gin and tonic — and, obviously, champagne.
W*: Go on and tempt us – what’s your go-to menu, from starters to afters, whether homemade or bought in?
JKA: Here is a menu I curated the other day, which I loved. I really love to have battered sage and anchovy frittelles, or tempura as a starter. Tempura is also Portuguese — it was brought over from Portugal to Japan during the war.
I really love roasted chicken with a garlic aioli sauce as a salad dressing, with romaine lettuce and tomatoes roasted in the chicken juice. Then I would serve this with potatoes, butter, and parsley. For dessert, I would do meringue, fruit, whipped cream and ice cream.
My parents were not granola parents. My mum never said, 'An apple is your dessert.' She let us eat whatever we wanted. We did have healthy food, but we would also have the occasional McDonald's if we wanted to. As she was very liberal, I'm pretty balanced, and I have a really good relationship with food.
W*: What’s on your dinner party playlist?
JKA: I listen to a lot of jazz, actually — my dad loved jazz. I really love Matthew Halsall. I also listen to a lot of The Alchemist lately, which is more like hip hop, and I love 70s Ethiopian jazz like Hailu Mergia, and the CD Éthiopiques is very beautiful and quite romantic.
W*: Who’s your dream dinner party guest?
JKA: Definitely Luciano Pavarotti. My mum loves opera, and growing up we often listened to him. He loved to cook, eat, and host, and I once read that he used to rent an extra hotel room when he toured and turn it into a temporary kitchen so he could bring his world with him. He used to host legendary dinners and loved cooking just as much as he did eating, and had a generous spirit.
W*: Dish the dirt: what should a host never do?
JKA: A host should never be doing the dishes while guests are over. And a guest’s glass should never be dry.
W*: What should a guest never do?
JKA: Arrive early!
W*: What’s the secret to a successful evening?
JKA: Have great guests. That's one of the key things, but also be with your guests and enjoy the evening with them.