I have for years found Alessandro Filippini very generous with his ideas on food. Today my copy of
The Table: How to Buy Food, How to Cook It, and How to Serve It arrived and I've been learning that at a nice dinner you would want to...
Keep the dining room "neither too hot nor too warm; the temperature should never exceed 60 degrees"! Brr!
You'd want salt at each place. Why? So your guests don't need to ask your servants for it, of course.
You'd have a floral centerpiece, of course, but also, at each place, a "bouquet" for each lady and a boutonniere for each man. I vaguely remember having a fancy meal in Philadelphia in the 1970s where this was still done.
You'll want a menu card at each place as well.
Also on the table:
- a plate of radishes and/or olives
- a plate of celery (without this and the above, it would "look like a boarding house table"!)
- little dishes of black pepper and of red pepper
- 2 fruit stands, 1 on each side of the floral centerpiece, with the best seasonal fruit
- assorted cakes next to the fruit (though the fruit and cakes aren't actually eaten until late in the meal)
- your wines, liqueurs
The glasses at each place include a green one for the sauterne and a red one for the Rhine wine, of course, plus glasses for sherry, Champagne, Latour wine, Chambertin red wine, and water (the last one is placed closest to each person's plate).
You may wonder if there's room for the rest of the food on the table. Well, probably not; M. Filippini suggests your servants hand it around and serve it, and gives detailed instructions.
