Laying the table

"The oldest form of theater is the dinner table. It's got five or six people, new show every night, same players. Good ensemble; the people have worked together a lot." Michael J. Fox

Do you care how the table is laid for dinner - or lunch, or breakfast - any meal really?

I'm not eating today - well only a little bit so it's sometimes difficult to think of food. Though, of course I do. Anyway I pondered on chocolate, or what to cook for the family for dinner tomorrow and then I thought I would have another look at the Robert Carrier book Entertaining that I had recently been given - an op shop find by my collecting friend. And I remembered the first thing that struck me about it were the two wonderfully opulent table settings reproduced in the book. Here they are - apologies for the line down the middle - they are double page spreads.

So wonderfully old-fashioned was my first thought and so beautiful and somehow unworldly that I thought it might be worth ruminating upon it? Maybe it's because of the flowers, maybe it's the candles, the silver, the crystal the fancy plates. Surely we don't do this any more do we?

Well yes we do. Perhaps not quite as elaborately and not every day, but certainly if you are entertaining friends, even family, and certainly for special occasions. Maybe not in quite the same way, although certainly restaurants pay a lot of attention to such things. But that's perhaps a whole other story. Today I'm talking about home.

I guess that, on a daily basis I don't pay a lot of attention to the table setting. But I did buy those particular table mats, and that particular cutlery, that particular crockery and those particular glasses, the salt and pepper shakers and the trivets. So to a point I have taken a lot of care in how the food I prepare is presented to my husband and I. We don't eat take-away out of cardboard with plastic forks or chopsticks and I don't think I would take pleasure in that. No - it is sort of important how the table is laid.

To be honest I have never been that great about setting a table. But I do try, although I think of late my standards have been slipping. We have a very nice 'best' dinner set of Arabia crockery, but it never seems to get used these days. To defend myself aesthetically it's because my current 'best' place mats are black and white and the brown and beige Arabia set doesn't go well with that. Our everyday basic white set looks better. And I don't use our 'best' Sheffield cutlery either, elegant though it is, because it has very pointed handles that sometimes slip through the cutlery basket in the dishwasher and prevent the paddle going round.

I'm also not very good with flowers. Actually flowers on the table are beautiful - when you come in and somehow make everything very special - but they get in the way of good conversation don't they? They either have to be very low or removed as soon as everyone sits down. Candles are tricky for the same reason. Besides they take up space that is probably needed for other things - on our table anyway.

I have friends who do a much better job than I on setting a beautiful table. Which is partly because some of them have expensive crystal and crockery and cutlery acquired over the years. But food served from special plates and eaten with special crockery, accompanied by super wine drunk from elegant glasses is really quite a different experience to the everyday Ikea cutlery, Aldi glasses and Maxwell Williams crockery. Surprisingly elegant though they are.

Robert Carrier obviously thinks it's worth going to the effort:

"If you specialise in small dinner parties, build your table wardrobe around one or two beautiful centre pieces or serving dishes."

'Your table wardrobe'! Honestly.

But he was a party kind of guy. And rich and famous.

So I thought I would compare with how today's rich and famous decorate their tables. I have a few cookbooks that are into this scene. Here are some samples from the 'simple' to the elegant.

Here are two from the 'share table' approach. Both of these are from Yotam Ottolenghi's Simple and also have lines down the middle because of the double spread. But check out the variety of tableware - no homogeneity here and the not quite tablecloths of home spun materials. Plus the haphazard arrangement of the dishes and, actually, now that I notice, the lack of cutlery - and flowers.

And whilst still on the simple and the calico table cloth, take a look at this one from the Women's Weekly Christmas Cooking with the Weekly, which has a whole lot about decorating tables - very good ideas too. But this one - sorry, another double spread and I couldn't fit in the top of the picture either - is even more deliberately casual. Check out the way the tablecloth is arranged - yes arranged.

And here is an ultimate version of 'simple' for a meal at Cate Blanchett's country residence in Guillaume Brahimi's Guillaume Food for Family. Beautiful is it not? and anyone could do it - well if you had enough vases all the same shape and a big enough table. This book - Food For Family - consists of a series of menus (and recipes) of meal hosted at various houses of the society set - the rich. I don't think there is an 'ordinary' home in there.

The Women's Weekly book though is for ordinary people. The food is doable, and the ideas for decorations and gifts are achievable. So I'll finish this modern display with another one of their table settings.

And again, flowers are the stars. That and matching everything.

But perhaps I really should finish with a modern version of Robert Carrier's posh settings. How about this one from Guillaume Brahimi's book? It's not very different is it? Times have not changed that much.

I do think it matters that we should try to make dining a pleasurable experience - not just with the food we eat. Taking care to provide a beautiful environment makes everyone feel special as long as you don't go right over the top and make people feel uncomfortable.

What I have learnt whilst writing this is that flowers are important. But most important, as Michael J. Fox says, is the company. Don't make the environment too 'posh' or people will not relax. Enough 'posh' to feel special but not so much that it's worrying for your guests. As Robert Carrier says:

"the true purpose of getting friends and family together is enjoyment."