Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

Exquisite furnishings, exquisite food, well-dressed guests, elegant dining etiquette, and service from butlers and servants are the prerequisites for a noble family banquet.

As Hedron Meckler, author of "The History of Banquets," said, "The grand banquets held by the nobles were a good stage to show and prove their organizational talents and cooking talents."

Generally, formal aristocratic banquets often need to be prepared several days in advance: the sous chef opens a whole secret room of food reserves, the maids change the curtains and make the bed, the male servants carefully wipe the silverware with small brushes, and the butler Carson comes to the wine cellar to carefully Choosing wine for dinner…

Since the Renaissance in Europe, people have been required to behave more elegantly when dining. The utensils required for dining are not only functional and practical, but also exquisite and beautiful in appearance.

Therefore, napkins, tablecloths, tableware and wine vessels are more beautiful in appearance, made of more refined materials, and even have to follow some extremely strict rules in their placement.

When setting the table, everything is measured, and the housekeeper often has a wooden ruler to accurately measure the spacing between items.

Between the chair and the plate, between the plate and the cup, between the chair and the table, all spaces must be measured accurately. At the same time, servants will not touch the cutlery without gloves, because it will leave marks on the silver cutlery.

Each piece of tableware has its own person in charge. Silverware and glasses are generally in charge of the butler, while china, tablecloths and napkins are in charge of the housekeeper. The footmen brought out from the warehouse as many items as were needed for the dinner. Um.

Meanwhile, the table was decorated with colorful flowers, ferns, vines and fruits. Pineapples have been a symbol of hospitality since ancient times. Many families also put grapes, peaches and other fruits grown by their own gardeners in orchards and greenhouses on the dining table for guests to taste.

When it comes to food, aristocratic banquets have even more rules, and there are specific requirements for which wines should be paired with which dishes. The butler works closely with the cook to prepare the dinner by determining what the guests will be eating and which wines in the wine cabinet will go best with it.

The dinner usually consists of 7 to 11 dishes, including soup, fish, side dishes, meat (main course), and bird and animal meat. When the food is served, waiters will quietly enter with trays.

They serve the highest-ranking female guests first, and then present the plates one by one in a clockwise direction. The butler must control the overall situation and serve the guests wine in a timely manner.

Sometimes they also need to stand at the banquet hall's sideboard and cut large pieces of meat into small portions. By the time the cheese and desserts (ice cream and fruit) were served, the table had already been cleared.

Red wine usually goes with red meat (such as beef and mutton), and white wine usually goes with white meat (such as chicken, seafood, etc.). At today's aristocratic family banquets, there will also be sommeliers who recommend wines that match the dishes.

After the host selects the wine, the sommelier will open it and pour a sip for the host to taste. If he is satisfied, he will pour the wine for all the diners.

For Liang En and the others, one thing that makes them relieved now is that due to the small number of people and lack of time, the preparation tonight is not very complicated. It looks like a sumptuous ordinary dinner.

Because if it is a formal dinner, just the wine glasses will usually be placed in front of the diners. Three or four glasses are usually placed in front of the diners. Among them, the largest round glass contains red wine, the medium glass contains water, and the smallest glass contains white wine. Elongated glasses are used for sparkling wine.

As for tableware, it's even more complicated. There will be a variety of spoons on the table for eating different foods. Divided into teaspoons, soup spoons, melon spoons, grapefruit spoons, jam spoons, meat soup spoons, etc.

Some spoons are not very different and need to be distinguished carefully. For example, a meat soup spoon is suitable for smaller plates of soup, and different spoons should be used to eat different fruits.

And this is obviously not something Liang En is good at. At least for him, it is more complicated to distinguish the forks that look similar in his eyes than to distinguish the relics from different eras.

At least after seeing that there was only a knife and a fork on the side of the plate, Liang En felt that he felt relaxed all of a sudden. However, when he sat down, he found that Jeanne's face beside him suddenly turned ugly.

"What's wrong?" Liang En turned around and asked softly while Du Lisi hadn't arrived yet.

"My ring is missing." Jeanne stretched out her left hand and said to Liang En. "It must have been accidentally placed on the edge of the sink just now."

Because that ring is the only relic left by Joan of Arc's parents, she always cherishes it very much. Although she always wears it on her finger, she usually takes off the silver ring and puts it aside when she washes her hands. Avoid damage.

However, it was inevitable that the ring would be forgotten somewhere. In desperation, Liang En could only ask Butler Robuchon for help, but because the banquet had started, it was not delivered until the side dishes were served.

Traditionally, the content of this kind of dinner chat should be relatively simple and relaxed, and the hostess should often control the atmosphere of the entire banquet.

At the same time, there is a set of rules for speaking at banquets, which are formal, restrained, and indirect. If there's ever a place that has its own set of rules for conversation, it's a restaurant.

The dinner table is not a forum for debate, but a place where the art of good communication is valued. Nobles need to be proficient in small talk and gossip, and one thing they must never do is get involved in any kind of argument, let alone an argument with their master's family.

Fortunately, in a normal banquet, the hostess knows how to maintain a relaxed atmosphere, try her best to liven up the conversation of the guests at the table, and elegantly resolve awkward social situations.

Therefore, since there is no hostess in this banquet, the only female Joan of Arc naturally becomes the protagonist. Of course, this is also related to the reason that he is French and also a Catholic.

What is even more worthy of celebration is that unlike traditional aristocratic banquets where discussions are bound by strict relationships, this banquet is obviously much more relaxed and the content of the conversation is also very relaxed.

For example, Jeanne d'Arc's ring was recognized as an antique. After all, for this group of nobles, their vision was fine, at least antiques could be seen.

After learning that the ring was a relic given to her by Joan of Arc's parents, His Excellency the Earl also expressed his apology for provoking this inappropriate topic.

In the following banquet, everyone only discussed some light things about various experiences, and finally the guests and hosts ended the banquet happily.

After the banquet was over, Butler Robuchon personally came to each seat and took two servants to clean the tables, while Liang En and the others went to the next room with Mr. Dulis and chatted for a while before leaving.

"I feel that Mr. Dulis is a very good person." In the car back to the hotel, Joan of Arc commented on today's visit, "He also invited us to visit him again in the future."

"Indeed, at least from Butler Robuchon we can tell what kind of person he is." Liang En nodded and said, "We will indeed have the opportunity to visit him in the future."

For Liang En, he at least now has enough capital to communicate with these people, and at this stage of development, dealing with these people is naturally unavoidable. Therefore, it is natural not to object to Joan's point of view.