Suzanne Von Drachenfels - The Art of the Table

The Art of the Table

A Complete Guide to

Table Settings

Table Manners

And Tableware

By Suzanne von Drachenfels

Drawings by Kelly Luscombe

Originally published by Simon & Schuster

Copyright 2000 by Suzanne von Drachenfels

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Jacket Design: Benjamin Martin, New York,

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 Institutions publication Feeding Desires: Designs and the Tools of the Table 1500-2005. She currently resides in Pebble Beach, California.

Acknowledgments

When the student is ready the master appears. The masters in my life, in order of appearance, are: my son, Dr. James Luscombe, who rescued me many times from mistakes at the computer; Dr. Stuart Miller, literary adviser of Carmel, California, for unerring guidance; Regina Ryan, of Regina Ryan Publishing Enterprises, New York City, agent, teacher, and confidante; Sharon E. Gibbons of Simon & Schuster, editor par excellence; Andrea Au, for invaluable assistance above and beyond; Isolde C. Sauer, copy editing supervisor, for the strength of probing questions; Martha Cameron, copy editor, for brilliant attention to detail; my daughter, Kelly Ann Luscombe, for the pure artistry of her talent; and Dr. Jielu Zhao, Head of the Chinese Department, Defense Language Institute, Monterey, California, for invaluable linguistic help with the pinyin and Wade-Giles spelling of the Chinese language. Without their assistance, diligence, accomplishments, understanding, and encouragement, this book would be a dream awaiting reality.

With deepest appreciation, thank you!

SUZANNE VON DRACHENFELS

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA

To my children, Jim,
Kelly, Liz, and Tricia for
their encouragement and
understanding
during long silent periods
of writing (and for forcing me
to get a word processor).
To my grandchildren,
Tyler, Jennifer, Kimberly,
Jimmy, Katie, and Christina,
for the pure creativity
they bring to any endeavor.
Finally, to the memory of
my late husband Alec,
the real writer in the family,
for his unflagging interest
and positive suggestions.

The joys of the table are superior

to all other pleasures,

notably those of personal adornment,

of drinking and of love, and

those procured by perfumes and by music.

CHAMSEDDINE MOHAMED EL HASSAN EL BAGHDADI
KITABE EL-TIBAH
1226

Why people write:

This book is pure serendipity, something I never intended to do, but once I started I couldnt stop. And like Topsy, it just grew as I considered the millions of people who use tableware daily. When I was a tabletop consultant for a major dinnerware firm, at seminars throughout the country, invariably someone would say, You should write a book. And so I did.

The more I traveled, the more I realized that everyone enjoys entertaining, but few people are confident about how to handle specific tableware, and many are unsure about table manners. The breakdown of formal structured dining following World War I was coupled with the antitraditional attitudes of the 1960s and 1970s and the employment of women full-time outside the home, and the family unit witnessed erosion. A gap developed in our knowledge of the nuances of dining.

Wherever I spoke, whether at a retail store, a private club, a charitable group, or a corporate meeting, the same questions arose, and always I was asked to suggest a particular book that would explain how to set the table in a variety of social situations. Why, they would ask, do some people eat with the fork in the left hand and others in the right hand? What is wrong with placing the elbows on the table? What is the purpose of holding a wine glass by the stem or the base? Although many fine books are written on the subject of table setting, table manners, and tableware, there was no one volume that started at the beginning and brought the history forward that made sense of todays usage and customs.

Rather than let time-honored methods pass away, I determined to write a book that would give a detailed, comprehensive, and authoritative explanation about tableware and how to use each piece in formal and informal dining. A book that defines the vocabulary of the table setting terms like place setting, cover, tableware, stemware, and flatware. A book that reveals the origins of everyday expressions, such as eating humble pie and covers the history of table manners so that people can readily understand the commonsense reasons behind todays customs. A book that covers the selection and care of tableware, the choice of table linens, menu planning, the basics of coffee, tea, and wine, and service techniques for all types of entertainment.

It is my hope that brides, who may never have thought about tableware before getting married and establishing a household, will find this book a valuable guide to the selection, care, and use of tableware for formal and informal dining; that the experienced host will find the book a resource of new ideas and a recap of the basics; that young urban professionals who are now part of the corporate scene will find the book filled with confidence-building information; that the food service industry, namely the restaurateurs, service staff, and caterers, will find it a practical guide to the correct way to set a table and present food; that ethnic minorities will find it useful as they learn the dining customs of mainstream America.

For love of the subject a book was writtenand I tried to make it as definitive and as complete a guide to the art of dining as possible.

__________

______

Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected, by a more or less intangible link, with some memory of the table.

MONSELET, EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY GASTRONOME

Food is more to us than the fuel of life. It is a building block of community, a symbol of hospitality, friendship, and love. Archaeologists believe even early cave dwellers offered food to strangers, hoping to demonstrate the will to peace. After humans learned how to use fire, they moved from survival to social dining, sitting with the clan to eat a kill of cooked meat. Fire brought the invention of clay pots, a discovery that made preparation of assorted foods possible, an array known today as a meal, from the Latin word metiri, meaning to measure out or distribute among, a word that contains in its etymology elaborately social attitudes.

Today, the table setting has its own vocabulary. Terms such as place setting and service plate are familiar and easily understood, but others are not as clear. Here are the basics.

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