Comments on: A gentleman’s dinner

By: What shall we have for dinner? | The Cook and the Curator | Sydney Living Museums

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 04:08:07 +0000

[…] is ‘a la Francaise‘ which we have written about on this blog in the past – here, here, and here for […]

By: The Cook

The Cook — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 08:47:00 +0000

HI Pamela, yes, it was quite a rigmarole! You’d arrive at the table with plates in situ, and all the cutlery you’d need for each component of the first two courses. Soup would be ladled into bowls by the host or lady of the household, to be passed to the diners. Attendants would remove the spent bowl and you could continue to the next item, generally the fish, then proceed from there. Fresh plates could be brought to the table by servants if required. Once the second course was complete, the entire table would be cleared, the cloth removed to expose the polished wooden table top, and dessert course – cheeses etc would be served on d’oyleys, with fresh plates and cutlery.

While it seems onerous to have to dine that way, and a lot of work for the servants, just imagine the washing up at the end of it all!

cheers, Jacqui

By: Pamela

Pamela — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 07:52:00 +0000

The dinner plates look lovely but I’m curious about how you’d set the table – for the first course you’re eating soup but also pie and fish so would you need a bowl and a plate and a soup spoon, fish fork, knife and fork, etc?