The Art Of The Table - Softcover

Von Drachenfels, Suzanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1481297473 ISBN 13: 9781481297479

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

A treasure trove of timeless information, this complete guide is to the table what Joy of Cooking is to the kitchen. Von Drachenfels shows us how to select, lay and use tableware to enhance any dining experience, and how to properly store and care for it -- whether it’s your grandmother’s porcelain or everyday stainless steel. She provides guidance on mixing and matching tableware patterns; the basics of coffee, tea, and wine; menu planning; napkin folding, and the proper service techniques for all types of entertainment. So as not to let the lore of the table fall away, she delves deep into the history of specific tableware and the customs we keep, making today’s practices understandable. For the novice host, this is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to formal dinner etiquette with more than 100 useful illustrations. For the host with more experience, it is a rich and exciting source of new ideas. Like its author, whose passion for the table is contagious, The Art of the Table is an authoritative, elegant, and sophisticated resource for all one’s dining needs.

About this title

Review:

Do you know how to set the table? Worry about your dinner manners? Finally, with The Art of the Table, Suzanne von Drachenfels comes to the rescue with a truly comprehensive guide to the correct use of tableware and confidence-building information about proper dining etiquette. Von Drachenfels, a former Tabletop Consultant for dinnerware makers Fitz & Floyd, defines the vocabulary of tableware and explains the selection, use, and care of dinnerware, flatware, stemware, and table linens. She expertly details the basic service techniques for all types of entertainment, and even includes advice on menu planning. Learn how to read the labels of wine bottles or how to filet a fish at the table; learn where and when to sit down and the proper way to eat finger foods.

Spicing up the how-to text are fascinating tidbits of social and culinary history. Who knew, for instance, that the first napkin was a lump of dough or that ancient Egyptian feasts often concluded with a coffin laid out with an imitation skeleton to remind diners to appreciate the bounteous gifts of life? The author reveals the origins of everyday expressions--such as "eating humble pie"--and covers the history of table manners to shed light on the commonsense reasons behind today's customs. Food service professionals--restaurateurs, service staff, and caterers--will find the book an indispensable guide to the correct way to set a table and present food, but anyone who has a need or yearning to know the nitty-gritty of table setting, table manners, and tableware will be sure to find answers to all of their questions and more in this exhaustive reference book. --Robin Donovan

About the Author:

Suzanne von Drachenfels is a well-known expert on tabletop, etiquette and entertaining. She has been a tabletop and entertaining consultant to Fitz & Floyd, the fine dinnerware manufacturer, as well as a contributing editor and columnist for a tabletop industry publication on table setting, table manners, and tableware. In 1990, she moved to the Monterey Peninsula to research and write the book, The Art of the Table. Since the publication of the book she has been a speaker on tabletop matters for local and national television. In 2005, she contributed a chapter on etiquette and table settings to the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum of the Smithsonian Institution’s publication “Feeding Desires: Designs and the Tools of the Table 1500-2005”. She currently resides in Pebble Beach, California.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1481297473
• ISBN 13: 9781481297479
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 442