How to host the perfect bank holiday feast
By rights, Laura Jackson should be insufferable. Hers is an enviable CV that encompasses both success on the supper club scene in the 2010s and cool-girl appearances at Dior fashion shows. Her homeware website Glassette is a drool-worthy mecca for the interiors obsessed, while her wardrobe is envy-inducing.
Happily, the down-to-earth influencer has a superpower that goes hand in hand with her ability to turn anything she touches into gold: her unstuffy northern humour instantly makes people feel at ease.
'I don't know any other way to be,' the 38-year-old tells me over Zoom from her home in east London. There are no glimpses of the much-coveted kitchen made from wood reclaimed from an Italian church, but that's OK, I can get my fix on her Instagram along with her 390,000 followers.
This is where she hosted Make a Meal of It during lockdown (which encouraged us to put in the effort even when we were isolating at home), mixed a martini with Stanley Tucci, and presented her North vs South series – horrifying Paddy McGuinness with her poshed-up chips, sausage and egg.
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She admits there might be something in the stereotype that northerners like bland food. 'Everything is beige. It's bread and butter, it's pie, it's curry on chips.'
Years in the south have broadened her palette, but she owes her northern childhood a debt. Growing up in Huddersfield, meal times were always an event – unavoidable with eight in the house. As well as Jackson, there was her mum, sister, stepdad, two stepbrothers, stepsister and maternal uncle.
Hosting was by necessity easy-going, warm and welcoming.
'It was just how we were as a family. We had an open door policy. People would drop by. There was always lots of food. It felt very normal.'
It sounds like hell for an introvert, but it was the making of Jackson. She studied events management, found her way to London, and – via stints on the front desk at the private members' club Shoreditch House – has graduated from someone who used to say 'tea', and now describes her evening meal as 'dinner'. Even if she's slightly horrified herself. Fridays, after all, were always chippy tea night: 'We'd argue about who got to carry it home. I only ever wanted to eat the scraps.'
'Supper' would still be a stretch for her to say, despite the successful club she started with DJ Alice Levine in 2013.
Married to the fashion photographer Jonathan Gorrigan since 2017, they have three children aged two to six. Reflecting on what word best describes her life now, she plumps for 'entrepreneurial'.
'I feel I'm forever the optimist. I'm a glass half-full person,' she says. 'I just like to make and create opportunities in every sense of the word, whether it's in a work capacity or host capacity. If I've got two people over, why wouldn't I make it look nice? I'm forever trying to make moments and experiences. No matter whether it's beans on toast for the kids where I like to do little silly faces with cucumber and carrots, or cooking dinner for my mates.'
Bringing people together, feeding them, hosting them, and talking to them, is what makes her world go round.
And her top hosting tip? 'It's about the things that feel important to you. For some people it's more about the food. For others, it's about the table. Lean into what you feel comfortable with and go with that.'
Laura's top hosting tips
Before the guests arrive
Buy flowers from the supermarket
'It's incredible what you can do with a £5 bouquet of flowers,' says Jackson. 'You can just take a very simple table and either put one central bunch in, or use three little ones, or else a stem on everyone's plate. I think flowers give people life.'
She cites a study at Harvard that found that having flowers at home can improve wellbeing, leading to increased compassion, reduced anxiety, and a boost in overall mood. 'Having them on the table is a natural fragrance that adds colour and sparks a bit of joy.'
Don't stress about plates
There's no need to spend a lot of money on dinnerware, although Jackson's online business Glassette has extremely covetable items. 'I would be lying if I didn't say I have quite nice things now to play around with on the table. But that wasn't always the case,' says Jackson. 'I'm so not from that world where you grew up with having everything that matched. That is not my life at all.'
Be prepared
'The only course I will ever cook is the main. Do a simple starter even if it's just the snacks at the beginning, and have dessert already cooked. Make a chocolate mousse the night before. If you prepare as much of the main in advance as possible you actually don't have that much to do.'
Have fun with napkins
An early memory of Jackson's is making concertina folds and putting them in glasses for her mum. 'They were little inexpensive glasses. I don't think anything needs to cost the earth at all.'
She has found herself at her most creative when she's been constrained by money. 'At the first supper club there was a fabric place near where I lived in Dalston and you could get the most amazing bright coloured fabric for £3 a metre. I used it for table cloths and napkins. I didn't have a sewing machine so I'd just iron on Wonderweb. You do have to give yourself a bit of time to think creatively.'
Make a menu
At Easter, Jackson's six-year-old daughter Sidney wrote the menu on an A4 sheet of paper. 'It's the third year she's done it, and she managed to even write some words this time,' laughs Jackson.
When they arrive
The playlist
'If I'm really stuck and someone's knocking at the door, I've got ready-made playlists that I can easily turn on,' says Jackson. Northern soul is always a good choice. If you don't have any playlists, she says go to your favourite radio station on Spotify and they will have a playlist. But a film playlist is her absolute favourite. 'I remember when Call Me By Your Name came out and every time anyone came round, I'd have that on.'
Your house, your rules
When people come through the door Jackson will greet them, give them a cuddle, ask how they are and take their coat. And then she'll ask them to take their shoes off. 'I don't like shoes in my house,' she admits. 'I'm terrible.'
Have snacks out
Jackson will always make sure there's a drink and some snacks ready to go. Crisps, hummus, olives, crudités – stuff to nibble: 'When people arrive around 7.30pm, they've probably been running around all day, so it's nice to have something to eat with that first drink.'
When they sit down
Have a seating plan if you like, but be prepared to move
Jackson isn't into anything formal and at home people sit where they want. At her supper club, they would always try to break people up so that they could meet new people. 'That was kind of the point of it.'
At home, she wants to create an atmosphere where you can move seats if you want. 'There's not enough time in the world for us to be put in situations where we don't feel comfortable. It's always about creating a really great atmosphere for the guest and the host.'
The host can sit down too!
'If you're not present and having a conversation when you've had people over, you feel like you've not chatted to anyone. So it's a fine balance of being involved and sitting at the table – but also being able to nip to the fridge to get whatever is needed.'
Prepare your meal
The biggest no-no for Jackson is cooking something elaborate that you've never done before and spending all night in the kitchen getting really stressed. 'It creates this atmosphere where your guests don't feel like they want to be in your house. This is not the time to practise the crazy recipe that you once read in a book.'
Her go-to dish is a roast chicken that can be cooked an hour beforehand and covered in foil. If it's winter she will serve it with dauphinoise potatoes and greens.
In the summer, she likes to do the Zuni Café's chicken salad. 'That's just chicken and big lumps of sourdough bread soaked in all of the juices, plus a salad on the side.'
She adds: 'I don't really know that many people who don't like chicken. Unless they're vegetarian or vegan, and then they don't like it,' she laughs. 'They can just have a veggie sausage. Or bring their own dinner.'
It's OK if the food goes wrong
Last summer Jackson had friends over for a barbecue, including one who is 'a really incredible chef'. Keen to use her new pizza oven, she made anchovy pizzas and decided to risk putting a Basque cheesecake in the oven too.
'It was awful, my chef friend said it was 'disgusting'. It was a very Bridget Jones moment for me, but everyone laughed. It really was very curdled and not very nice.'
Food can be from somewhere else...
Jackson has been known to order a takeaway, put it on nice plates and not even tell anyone. 'I'll lay the table nicely. It's about creating an amazing experience and that doesn't always have to be the food.'
... just make sure there's plenty of it
The small plate era was one of the reasons Jackson started her supper club in 2013. 'We always thought that it was rubbish that you were expected to pay £10 for something that was just a few peanuts.'
At her own supper clubs there would always be plenty of food on plates all down the tables. 'And you didn't have to leave after 90 minutes because they turned the tables.'
Don't let the meal go dry
Jackson doesn't have many hosting faux pas, but there is one: not topping up guests' drinks. 'That feeling when you're at someone's house and you're so parched and you just want water or wine and nothing comes for hours… I always like to make sure everyone is hydrated.'
How to end the night
This has taken some figuring out. 'I used to turn on all the lights and say you've got to go now. Then I realised that was quite rude,' laughs Jackson. 'So now I stop pouring drinks. And I think people kind of get it.'
She doesn't think there's anything wrong with telling people that you need to go to bed now. 'People always say that is such a Laura thing to say. But I can't do 10 hours of generosity on a Sunday when I've got to get the kids to school the next day.'
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