For those who love love love etiquette
Hello! I think we need to have a conversation about the “Rules of Etiquette”. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of videos and demonstrations that say things like, “Women in the Victorian Era never showed their ankles.” Or, “Until the 1920’s only prostitutes or actresses wore make-up.” And even, “Middle Class people in the Victorian…
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Now that we discussed the napkin to a torturous degree. Let’s look at the current American rules for using your napkin at dinner: Firstly, the general rule is to place your napkin in your lap as soon as you sit down. There are two exceptions to this rule. When attending a formal dinner, you will wait for…
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Chafing dishes are wonderfully simple bits of kit. Given that it’s one of the oldest forms of cookery, it’s not a surprise that they’re basic. It’s a container to hold a hot flame, a water bath to keep the food from burning and a dish for cooking and/or keeping food hot. If you’re using a…
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“Chafing dish cookery was one of the earliest known branches of the culinary art, having been held in high repute from almost prehistoric times, although it has recently enjoyed a revival at the hands of our enterprising American cousins, who find that in a country where cooks, or needed servants of any sort, are at…
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Those who could afford it at the turn of the century loved having a dish for every purpose. They also loved having a variety of nibbles at the table, (apparently ten courses weren’t enough). They loved love them so much they developed multiple similar dishes to contain the array of wonderful nosh-ables and sometimes decorative…
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“This really is the same as the formal Luncheon except the men are invited with the ladies, and coffee is served throughout the meal. The table may be covered or bare. If bare, use doilies for plates and glasses. The arrangement of the cover is the same as for the formal dinner. Lighter dishes are…
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I want to take a moment to talk about difficult conversations. Grief, death, illness and other life tragedies are some of the toughest subjects to broach with others and because of this, we often don’t. In the past people generally avoided discussing these topics as taboo. There were elaborate social customs which allowed one to acknowledge a…
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The practice of giving symbolic anniversary gifts is a very old one. There are references to symbolic gifts going back to the Middle Ages in France and Italy. It’s likely that these came out of religious or superstitious traditions. I think we all in western society realize this instinctively since we’re raised with the tradition…
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The Wedding Breakfast was common in Western countries well into the twentieth century. Now, let me caveat this by saying that when one is discussing a wedding breakfast, one is speaking of the tradition that is tied historically to a Christian tradition. I hope to cover many religious traditions for weddings, (and holidays) in future…
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“The time has come,” the walrus said, “to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships – and sealing wax – of cabbages and kings” Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, (1886) When I was a kid my dad read Alice in Wonderland out loud to me. At the point that he came to…
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