The lost art of the dinner party

I have fond memories of all the dinner parties my parents used to host. Preparing food days in advance, the whole family pulling together to get the already spotless house clean and tidy. The best crockery was brought out and cleaned. The silver was shinned up until you could see your face in it. Tables were placed together in order to squeeze 12 or more people in. The nicest table clothes were pulled out along with their matching napkins (no paper napkins in sight). My job was to set the table with the best of everything. Now was the time to test my knowledge on which piece of cutlery goes were and in which order. Crystal wine glasses were pulled out of the display cabinet, I tell you it was a magical time. Once the guests had arrived and kids had been shown off we were all shuffled off to a separate room with our chippies and TV.

These dinner parties weren’t just a slapped together meal, it was often a four course meal. With soup for a starter, always rich and creamy. My favourite was the cauliflower and broccoli soup that were both poured into the bowl at the same time creating a fantastic bowl of soup with green broccoli on one side and white cauliflower on the other side. Then there were the entrees, white bait fritters, fish mornay in pastry cases or crapes wrapped around chicken and mushroom in white sauce. The main course was usually a selection of roasts, crispy potatoes and thousands of vegetables. Then my favourite course....... Ah dessert, the work that went into desert was just spectacular and what was better was that there was always left over for us kids to eat the next morning. There were homemade cream puffs, chocolate éclairs, custard squares, cheese cakes, Pavlova’s (triple layer with banana and caramel lathered over it). Oh the memories of those tastes, it was pure heaven.

I have always been inspired by the effort involved in these parties and also the wonderful food that was created. But it seems that they don’t really exists anymore. Restaurants are so much easier, less preparation and no dishes to do. If I do have people around for dinner, it is usually just a roast and the deal is that the visitors bring a dessert). So I am determined to do one proper dinner party before I get to retirement age (that gives me approximately 30 years). Why you ask don’t I just do it now, wellllllllll although I can cook, I cannot really COOK. So practice I must. I have started.... I made pumpkin soup (easy I know) but this time I went by the recipe and it was actually nice. Over this winter I plan to make other more intricate soups. I am kind of excited about practicing desserts but the only problem with that is that we will be left to eat them and get fat, oh well sacrifices must be made for the greater good.

Oh and I just realised another complication, we don’t own nice crockery, or silver wear (or even the extra knives and forks involved in entrees and desserts) so the deadline of retirement may be a smart idea as it seems I have to save up for equipment as well.