r
dishes, but makes delicious bread and cake and waffles and oyster stew and
creamed chicken, or even hash! You can make a specialty of asking people
to "supper." Suppers are necessarily informal, but there is no objection
in that. Formal parties play a very small role anyway compared to informal
ones. There are no end of people, and the smartest ones at that, who
entertain only in the most informal possible way. Mrs. Oldname gives at
most two formal dinners a year; her typical dinners and suppers are for
eight.

=PROPER DISHING=

The "dishing" is quite as important as the cooking; a smear or thumb-mark
on the edge of a dish is like a spot on the front of a dress!

Water must not be allowed to collect at the bottom of a dish (that is why
a folded napkin is always put under boiled fish and sometimes under
asparagus). And dishes must be hot; they cannot be too hot! Meat juice
that has started to crust is nauseating. Far better have food too hot to
eat and let people take their time eating it than that others should
suffer the disgust of cold victuals! Sending in cold food is one of the
worst faults (next to not knowing how to cook) that a cook can have.

=PROFESSIONAL OR HOME DINING ROOM SERVICE=

Just as it is better to hire a professional dinner-party cook than to run
the risk of attempting a formal dinner with your own Nora or Selma unless
you are very sure she is adequate, in the same way it is better to have a
professional waitress as captain over your own, or a professional butler
over your own inexperienced one, than to have your meal served in spasms
and long pauses. But if your waitress, assisted by the chambermaid,
perfectly waits on six, you will find that they can very nicely manage
ten, even with accompanied dishes.

=BLUNDERS IN SERVICE=

If an inexperienced servant blunders, you should pretend, if you can, not
to know it. Never attract anyone's attention to anything by apologizing or
explaining, unless the accident happens to a guest. Under ordinary
circumstances "least said, soonest mended" is the best policy. If a
servant blunders, it makes the situation much worse to take her to task,
the cause being usually that she is nervous or ignorant. Speak, if it is
necessary to direct her, very gently and as kindly as possible; your
object being to restore confidence, not to increase the disorder. Beckon
her to you and tell her as you might tell a child you were teaching: "Give
Mrs. Smith a tablespo