e offering is
good of its kind.

It is by no means necessary that your cook should be able to make the
"clear" soup that is one of the tests of the perfect cook (and practically
never produced by any other); nor is it necessary that she be able to
construct comestible mosaics and sculptures. The essential thing is to
prevent her from attempting anything she can't do well. If she can make
certain dishes that are pretty as well as good to taste, so much the
better. But remember, the more pretentious a dish is, the more it
challenges criticism.

If your cook can make neither clear nor cream soup, but can make a
delicious clam chowder, better far to have a clam chowder! On no account
let her attempt clear green turtle, which has about as good a chance to be
perfect as a supreme of boned capon--in other words, none whatsoever! And
the same way throughout dinner. Whichever dishes your own particular Nora
or Selma or Marie can do best, those are the ones you must have for your
dinners. Another thing: it is not important to have variety. Because you
gave the Normans chicken casserole the last time they dined with you is no
reason why you should not give it to them again--if that is the "specialty
of the house" as the French say. A late, and greatly loved, hostess whose
Sunday luncheons at a huge country house just outside of Washington were
for years one of the outstanding features of Washington's smartest
society, had the same lunch exactly, week after week, year after year.
Those who went to her house knew just as well what the dishes would be as
they did where the dining-room was situated. At her few enormous and
formal dinners in town, her cook was allowed to be magnificently
architectural, but if you dined with her alone, the chances were ten to
one that the Sunday chicken and pancakes would appear before you.

=DO NOT EXPERIMENT FOR STRANGERS=

Typical dinner-party dishes are invariably the temptation no less than the
downfall of ambitious ignorance. Never let an inexperienced cook _attempt
a new dish_ for company, no matter how attractive her description of it
may sound. Try it yourself, or when you are having family or most intimate
friends who will understand if it turns out all wrong that it is a "trial"
dish. In fact, it is a very good idea to share the testing of it with some
one who can help you in suggestions, if they are needed for its
improvement. Or supposing you have a cook who is rather poor on all dinne