Catering

“ The work is peculiarly stimulating to nervous strain: fretful [168] customers, sometimes friendly, sometimes bullying, often merely tiresome—for hour after hour of the day. Even when the catering is excellent, is another experience, the girls “have no appetite for food.” “What they need is fresh air and more outdoor exercise. ”

“ In those cases where solid food is forbidden by the physician, catering is more difficult, but often a convalescent is permitted to eat a greater variety of food than is offered her. Cream soups, clear soups, broiled birds, a bit of tenderloin steak, a lamb chop, a tiny baked omelet, raw, stewed, and roast oysters, broiled and fricasseed chicken, poached and soft-boiled eggs, a bit of venison, dishes of rice, sago, and tapioca, jellies, custards, blanc-manges, fruits, plain ice-cream—there is almost no end to the dainty menus that can be arranged. Every meal should be a surprise ”

“ Good for you, Marjorie! I'm your man if there's any fun on foot," agreed Betty enthusiastically.
"It'll be lovely; but how are we going to manage the catering department?" enquired Sylvia.
"Some of the Juniors will be going on parade to Whitecliffe on Wednesday. I'll ask Dona to ask them to get a few things for us. We must have a cake, and some candles, and some cocoa, and some condensed milk, and anything else they can smuggle. Are you game?" ”

“ Yet it is a serious one for the hostess who gives the latter form of dinner. The cook often requires extra help (dishwashing, etc.) ; and where a chambermaid is available, she has to be drafted as a second waitress or an extra waitress engaged. There must be a helper on duty in the pantry, for there must be no hitch in any detail of the formal dinner service. So the extra pantry-hand must serve soup and pour coffee, see that there is crushed ice always ready, stack up soiled dishes, open wine bottles (yes, this is still done!) ”

“ In a large city one can procure many excellent dishes at the confectioner’s and pastry-cook’s. For a large buffet luncheon, as for a ball supper, the hostess should issue her order to some reliable firm of caterers. For a lunch-party of smaller size, she should endeavor to have the dishes cooked in her own kitchen. Almost every one now prefers home to hotel cooking, if the former is all that it should be. We should advise the young hostess, therefore, if she or her maid has a fair understanding of the culinary art, to have the main staples of her bill of fare prepared at home. ”

“ Boiled beef and carrots have fallen into disuse, except among a few obstinate grey-haired clerks, who would sooner give up clerking than change their habits; tavern lunches are popular enough, among bucolic book-keepers; but the great man, the star luncher in the eye of the up-to-date caterer is the young man with the clean collar.
For him and his kin we have the tea-shop, the dining-rooms, the restaurant, the café, Lyons', the A.B.C., the Mecca, and others. Snacks of fish, vegetarian dinners, quick lunches; smart waitresses to serve him and smile upon him. ”

“ If, however, friends happen in, and are asked informally to stay to a meal at a hotel, they may order themselves what they want from the menu, and, if necessary, the host or hostess of the occasion may pay the bill before leaving the dining-room, but the bill should not be paid until the guests have departed.
In giving one’s order for dinner at the hotel, oysters come first, then soup, fish, a roast or a bird, ices, whatever dessert may be desired, and coffee. Very often a woman is well served, when she is alone, by allowing the waiter to arrange a dinner for her. ”

“ If you can afford it, the easiest way to give a large one is to put the whole business into the hands of the profession, by intrusting your order, not only for supper, but waiters and china, to a competent confectioner. But a social standing supper of oysters, chicken-salad, sandwiches, coffee, ice-cream, jellies, and cake, is not a formidable undertaking when you have had a little practice, especially if your own, or John’s mother, or the nice, neighborly matron over the way will assist you by her advice and presence. ”

“ The waitress should serve and remove everything, except beverages and extra silver from the guest’s left. Fork and spoon should always be easily at hand for the person served, and dishes should never be offered and removed by reaching across a cover. Remove glasses, cups and saucers from the right, and serve all beverages from the right. Plates should be placed and removed, one by one. Two plates of food (especially salads or soup) may be brought into the dining room at the same time, but one should be left on the serving table. ”

“ I have seen a menu composed of turtle soup, salmon, venison and woodcocks, all excellent things in their way, but when brought together only leaving a sense of excessive oiliness and richness.
As an entree the roti should consist of game, and vice-versa. The salad served with poultry and game should be green salad with a simple dressing of oil and vinegar. No set rules can be laid down.
It is true the caterer is an important element in the modern art of dinner-giving—he "saves all the trouble;" but he is a stereotyped quantity. ”

“ Being fortunate enough to find a plate without anybody’s card in it, you wisely seat yourself at once, and have a little leisure to look about you. Waiters, with wine-baskets in their hands, are placing decanters of sherry down the tables, at very respectable distances; melancholy-looking salt-cellars, and decayed vinegar-cruets, which might have belonged to the parents of the indigent orphans in their time, are scattered at distant intervals on the cloth; and the knives and forks look as if they had done duty at every public dinner in London since the accession of George the First. ”

“ There they wait upon the ladies who are without escort. The collation is served from a large central table in the dining-room. Some caterers arrange a buffet at the side, thus taking up less space. For a large reception the bill of fare would comprise bouillon, salads, croquettes, oysters in their season, ices, little cakes, and coffee. Birds and other delicacies are sometimes added. If wine is served it is usually champagne. For a wedding in the country the menu may be much simpler, chicken salad, sandwiches, ice-cream, and coffee, for instance. ”

“ One general principle may be laid down for the following of any woman who thinks of giving a large luncheon—don't undertake too much. If you cannot afford to engage the most difficult dishes from a caterer, be very sure that your cook is equal to preparing them in a satisfactory manner. Better have a few things, and have them well done, than a long menu of indifferently cooked viands. A large luncheon is no light undertaking at the best, except to those who have a practised chef and an expert butler, and a great deal of personal supervision is required to make it a success. ”

“ In connexion with lodgings, there must be of course a cook or restaurateur within a quarter of a mile. The stranger agrees with him for his dinner, to consist of so many dishes, and to be sent to him at a certain hour. He gives notice in the morning if he dines out, buys his own wine of the wine-merchant, and thus saves two heavy items of overcharge in the hotel or boarding-house. His own servant makes his tea or coffee (and for this purpose has access to the fire in the basement,) and does all personal service, such as brushing clothes, waiting at table, going on errands, &c., &c. ”

“ Nearly everything that is to compose the ordinary luncheon for the family may be put upon the table at one time. Of course there must be an exception to this rule when the first course consists of soup or bouillon; but even then all the cold dishes may be in place when the guests are seated. The waiting need be only of the simplest, unless formality is desired. Those about the table may help themselves and one another, while the duties of the waitress may be confined to passing the dishes that are on the sideboard, changing the plates, bringing in hot dishes, etc. ”

“ Amid flowers and softly shaded lights sits the gracious woman who pours the liquid gold into the fragile cups, dispensing meanwhile, smiles and the bright charming small talk that is so necessary to the success of these occasions. A wise hostess selects for this important position the most brilliant, tactful woman within her circle of friends. The menu, although by no means regulated on the English house-party plan, should consist of trifles—sandwiches, wafers, fancy cakes, ices, and possibly a salad. ”

“ Yet for those families who depend upon the caterer for everything in the way of fine soups, entrées, or sauces, because the cook can achieve only the plain part of the dinner, it will be found a great economy as well as convenience to be independent of this outside resource, which is always very costly, and invariably destroys the individuality of a repast. Many new recipes will be given, and others little known in private kitchens, or thought to be quite beyond the attainment of any but an accomplished chef. ”

“ As a rule these articles are highly ornamental, and are meant to be used on the table or sideboard; they are usually brought into requisition at breakfast, luncheon and supper, and are undoubtedly most serviceable in households where only a few servants are kept, as by their aid dainty little dishes such as fried or scrambled eggs, omelettes, stewed kidneys, broiled tomatoes, welch rarebit or cheese fondu, and similar preparations can be speedily prepared at the early morning meal, or at a late supper "after the theatre." For dwellers in flats the chafing dish is almost indispensable. ”

“ People will still entertain, only the dinner of the next century will be a more economical and less tedious function, and, instead of having to go through a trying interview with her cook, the coming hostess will merely look in at the nearest food chemist's, when some such conversation as the following will settle the whole business.
Hostess. We've some people coming in to take a few tablets with us this evening; what do you think I'd better have?
The Food Chemist. You will require soup, of course, madam. ”

“ A sumptuous feast is represented: the handsome dining-room is filled with voracious guests; footmen are waiting on the diners, or attending to side tables; butlers are drawing corks, course is following course, the cook and his assistant train are hurrying in with fresh dishes. Among the waiters, undetected, is our friend the grisly skeleton, who is busying himself with a dish he is conveying to the table. ”

“ The higher you reach up that glorious scale of responsibility which runs from manager to marmiton, the more intelligent help you will get in ordering your dinner, the more certain you are to have an artistic meal, and not to be spending money unworthily.
That you must pay on the higher scale for a really artistic dinner is, I regret to say, a necessity. No doubt the luxurious surroundings, the quick, quiet service appear indirectly in the bill; but the material for the dinner is costly. ”

“ With the duff bubbling fiercely, and the beef on the other side of the stove keeping in tune with it, the men's dinner needs no more thought on his part except to keep the fire going; so that he will be able to do a bit of cleaning up, if he has a weakness in that direction, or he may sit and smoke and meditate. The steward is preparing the cabin dinner [Pg 216] aft in his pantry: a fruit pie, some tasty combination of tinned meat and potatoes, or even a fowl, if they are carried. In any case, as a rule the cook has only to see the food for the cabin through the actual cooking. ”

“ The most "social" and enjoyable suppers—with the doctor's permission—are those that are served an home after the hostess and her guests have returned from the theatre or opera, lecture or concert. Tiny biscuit, sandwiches, fried oysters, chicken salad, and golden coffee, with ice-cream and some superior cake, served like a luncheon, make a supper easily arranged, and one which winds up a pleasant evening in a very satisfactory way. ”

“ One of them, the Cafe du Commerce, which, translated into English, means Commercial Coffee-house, is quite famous for its choice gastronomy. A better dinner can be procured here than in an American house, because the French are better cooks, cleaner in their culinary arrangements and preparations, more polite and attentive to their guests, and less accustomed to adulterating their provisions. Dinner, without wine, costs two dollars for each person; but with it, from three to five dollars, according to quality and quantity consumed. ”

“ Others ran in and out of the kitchen, bearing to the waiters, to be dispensed among the guests, interminable relays of the waffles of those times, golden brown, delicately rich, soft, yet crisp, of a peculiar lightness,—a kind that will be seen no more, despite the food inventions and dietetic improvements, for the artists of that choice cookery are all dead and their receipts only serve to mark the decadence of proficiency. ”

“ The growth here of the French restaurant and the taste for rich and elaborate cookery has doubtless been a good thing in its way, if only that it is now possible to obtain a tolerably well-cooked meal at most of the hotels in our large cities and principal watering-places; but why should people of moderate means and social instincts feel constrained to offer a banquet on every occasion when they entertain? I for one consider it a bore to have so much provided when I go out to dinner. ”

“ Amongst the middle classes the custom of giving dinner parties at hotels has for some time past been spreading, partly to save trouble, and partly to save the brain of the domestic cook; so that instead of sitting down to a plain dinner, with, maybe, an entrée or two sent in by the local confectioner—around the family mahogany tree, all may be fanciful decoration, and not half enough to eat, electric light, and à la with attendance charged in the bill. ”