First, Billy Joel's wife Katie Lee Joel failed at hosting Top Chef. Then, she failed at attending P. "Sean" Diddy Combs' annual "White Party" by showing up wearing cream. And now, in a post that teases her forthcoming cookbook Katie's Comfort Table, she has failed at writing for the Huffington Post. Which, you wouldn't even think could be possible!

Someone asked me the other day if I thought dinner parties were a lost art. My first instinct was to say yes. After all, we live in a fast-paced society. Everything is now, now, now, gimme, gimme, gimme. We drink our coffee on our way to work, while talking on our cell phone, and simultaneously writing an email on our Blackberry. Do people really take the time, or more importantly have the time, to plan and coordinate a dinner party? I think the answer is in fact yes.

Katie goes on to describe the first dinner party she ever threw in the big brand new house she and her new husband had moved into. "I started cooking the day before, excited to get started in my brand new state-of-the-art kitchen with four ovens and a six-burner stove." But disaster was just around the corner: "My poor rolls that I had painstakingly made from scratch, were now black on the top and raw on the bottom. Turned out that the oven in my fancy new kitchen had not been properly calibrated. Nice."

Thank heavens, though, Katie has now learned how to use all four of her ovens and she has also devised some other tips she'd like to share with you, to ensure that the art of throwing dinner parties is not lost to you, you little BlackBerrying commuter, drinking your coffee there, with no outlandishly rich songwriter to support you! Tips such as: "Designate time for yourself to get ready. I always allot for one hour to primp before my guests arrive. It's essential to present yourself in a stylish manner when entertaining so that you feel confident."