What is a good meal? There is plenty of room for discussion. It is on record that the eighth Duke of Devonshire once sat gloomily through a dinner party served in what was then the new way with several "made" dishes. At last a saddle of mutton was brought in at about the ime when modern diners would have had ugh. "Thank God said he too audibly, "something to eat at last." Then there which dish he refused to call apple tart on the ground that tarts were always open and pies closed. once with Count Esterhazy he discovered that an awful omission had been made and the dinner was eaten to a sad little obbligato from his lordship: "God bless my soul! no apple pie! God bless my soul! no apple pie! God bless etc."
As has been already said, a few savage races consider the act of eating a strictly private function to which a certain amount of decent secrecy attaches. But the origin of this secrecy can be traced to the necessity to lay aside the spear or knife while stoking up the war machine, when the protection to the back afforded by the of a nice little cave for one would increase the flavour of a dodo's wing or dinosaur chop very considerably.
Art Of Ordering A Dinner "To order dinner well," says, Thomas Walker in "The Art of Dining" published in 1881, "is a matter of convention and combination, It involves novelty, simplicity and taste, whereas in the generality of dinners there is no character but that of dull routine... Where the materials and cooking are both of the best, and the dinner is served according to the most approved rules of comfort, the plainer, simpler food has attractions which are seldom to be found in the most laboured attempts. Most people mistake the doctrine of variation in their mode of living, They have great variety at the same meals and a great sameness at different meals,"
"If the master of a feast wishes his party to succeed," says the same authority, "he must know how to command, and not let his guests run riot each according to hi own fancy." A master of his craft indeed composes the new economy de lure dinners at Farren's, combining simplicity with effectiveness. Connoisseurs will appreciate the clever, replacement of soup by a choice of cocktails. How many people know that the proper function of soup on a dinner menu is to stimulate the appetite, the which is done far more acceptably to the majority by a cocktail plus salted nuts-and olives.
Dishes Fit For The Gods 997 Avenue Joffre, Tel. 78228
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.