I turn again to the inimitable Elizabeth David for inspiration.
Here she has written about ‘buffet’ tables. She seems to have quite a lot to
say about what such a spread should look like. Buffets are, of course,
reminiscent of the ‘harvest table’ that is now on offer for lunch at the
restaurant, during the week. The wonderful thing about David is that, while everyone
else was decorating platters in the most unfortunate and embarrassing ways, or
trying to get everything onto, or into, silver and glass, she knew better. Her
culinary and visual taste transcended her time. She should be forever deemed an
Ultimate Judge; a final arbiter of good taste. Hume was wrong about only this
one thing; what is aesthetically correct is not subjective. Elizabeth David’s
advice on the vessels for salads and stews and soups rises above the fashions
of the 50s, 60s and 70s in England; the decades over which she produced her
incredible books.
Here she is in ‘South Wind
Through The Kitchen’ in a chapter called, ‘Buffet food’. She speaks about
catering for a party; and what is the harvest table at The Glenwood Restaurant
if not a party? I have edited her words slightly, to fit our physical page.
“The presentation of party dishes, and of course of all food, is
an important point. Cold food should certainly have a lavish and colourful
appearance, but to varnish it with gelatine or to smother it with whirls of
mayonnaise seems to me a misconception of what makes for an appetizing
appearance. The effect needed is not of food tormented into irrelevant shapes
but of fresh ingredients freshly cooked and not overhandled. The most
elementary hors-d’œuver such as a plate of radishes with a few of their green
leaves, a dish of green and black olives and another of halved hard-boiled eggs
(not overcooked) with butter and bread on the table, is ten times more tempting
than the same ingredients got up in a pattern all in one dish and garnished
with strips of this and dabs of that. You are, after all, preparing a meal, not
decorating the village hall.
As for hot food, if it has not acquired an appetizing look
during the cooking, a few blobs of cream or a border of mashed potatoes will do
little to improve matters. There are, of course, way of making good food look
especially beautiful. The colour, size and shape of the serving dish is obviously
important; food should never be crammed into too small a dish; serve rice and
pilaffs on large shallow platters, not pressed into deep glass casseroles; for
the serving of fish and of grilled chicken, which could be spread out rather
than piled up, a long narrow dish is best.
Paesant and country stews of beans or lentils, deep brown daubes of meat or game, onion and oil-flavoured
ragoûts of pimentos or purple-skinned
aubergines lose some of their particular charm (and also get cold) when
transferred from earthen pots to a smart silver entrée dish, and all the
delicious brown bits on the bottom and sides of the dish are lost. Dark glowing
blue china, the dark brown glaze of slip ware pottery and plain white always make
good backgrounds for food.”
