Conference turris::cooks

    I usually serve family style.  However, I like to "dress up" the
    table and the dishes.  It's pretty easy to garnish the serving
    platters - besides parsley, you can use things like radish
    roses, slices of orange (twisted even!), green onions sliced almost
    to the bottom into tassles and put into cold water so they
    curl, and so on.  Joy of Cooking has a section where they tell
    you how to make various garnishes; you might want to check that
    out since pictures are easier to follow than written descriptions.
    
    Often the side dishes will "make" the meal.  Try serving little
    dishes of condiments - get out the crystal servers for them.  
    Even mundane things like gerkins and carrot sticks look elegant
    on a crystal dish!  You can even go out and get those spicy
    crabapples that come in jars/cans, and serve crabapple rings
    with a roast.
    
    While it's hard to get a bunch of main-dish plates table-ready
    all at the same time, you can prepare salad and side dishes
    before the meal.  Anything that's served cold can be arranged
    ahead of time.
    
    Another idea is to bake in individual serving dishes.  This works
    well for pot-pies and various potato dishes (potatos with cheese
    sauce, baked in the oven, I think this is called potatoes Anna?).
    
    --Louise

    I served a dish like that once and people also put the rice on the
    side.  The next time I took a large platter and put the rice on the
    bottom, chicken on top, and served the sauce in a gravy boat.
    
    For garnishes, a pice of lettuce with fruit slices on top are nice,
    like oranges and lemons.  They add a nice color, too.
    
    This way, people can serve themselves, and get the idea of how the dish
    should be set up.
    
    Other nice garnishes are radish flowers and slices of cucumbers or
    other veggies.
    
    Hope this helps.
    
    Susan

    I'm really into folding napkins fancy. I got a book on napkin folds,
    some are fancy, some are simple, they all really dress up the table.
    
    
    Linda

    Here's another suggestion:
    
    Have the main course, say it's chicken and rice, on a platter have
    have either the host or hostess serve the guests.  This can be done
    with all the dishes or just the main dish.
    
    One nice garnish is to take a green zucchini and yellow squash -
    lay the squash on it's side and with your potato peeler slice paper
    this slices......do this also with the yellow one.  Starting with
    one end of strip roll it to make a flower.  Dip in ice wate until
    serving time.
    
    If you have a really sharp paring knife you can peel (all in one
    piece) and peeled white turnip and then make a flower (held in place
    with a tooth pick) dip top of flower in pale pink food coloring,
    rest on bed of ice until ready to serve.
    
    
    I could go on for pages.....but you get the idea.
    
    One of my sons is a gourmet chef and I get a lot of ideas from him.
    
    Anne

    I prefer family style serving, rather than restaurant style (on the
    plate), unless I have no room for the serving dishes.  It's important
    to think about colors.  For example, your chicken and rice, might
    benfit from using saffron rice, or minced carrot (tiny rice sized
    pieces) to add a splash of color.  Then arrange things.  Place the
    chicken so there are alternating chicken and something in a radial
    pattern (use a veggie) on top of the rice.  In the salad, arrange the
    veggies and don't toss or dress until after it's served.  Use a variety
    of colored peppers.  Also, lots of herbs can be used as garnish, sage,
    thyme, rosemary, etc. sprigs are now available year round in many
    produce markets.  Pick an herb that complements your dinner.  Also, if
    you are serving a pureed/mashed  veggie, pipe it with a pastry bag (a
    good investment), so you mashed potatos are decorated with a ring of
    stars around  little puddle of butter.  Also, in the summer, some
    flowers can be used as garnish (the orange day lillies by the side of a
    New England road are edible).
    
    Another thing is to get lots of different colored serving bowls and
    dishes.  If you find yourself in a pottery shed, look for things that
    would dress up a dish of something plain looking.  All the dishes don't
    have to match each other.  Get a black platter for white foods!  Use 
    colored napkins and a basket for bread.  

>	Also, in the summer, some
>    flowers can be used as garnish (the orange day lillies by the side of a
>    New England road are edible).
    
Note:  flowers beside any road on which motorized vehicles operate are NOT
edible.  Although the variety of flower may be quite edible, the pollution
from internal combustion engines gets into the soil and the root systems
of plants, rendering them unhealthy...they won't necessarily kill ya,
but they can make you ill if the road is well travelled....are there any
that aren't well travelled these days?

However, you can find many greenhouses that grow flowers for the table,
to be included in the food, not just to decorate the table.  You can also
grow your own - totally organically, of course.   A library will have
many books telling you which flowers are naturally non-toxic.

    If we're letting guests serve themselves we sometimes can
    suggest how things are to go together by putting them together
    on serving platters.  For example, if we're serving something
    that's supposed to go on rice, but it's not immediately obvious,
    we'll take a large platter, cover it with mounds of rice,
    put the meat on top, and present it that way.  The guests
    seem to take the hint.
    
    By using large platters you can also make things look pretty
    fancy, such as by putting slices of fruit or vegetables
    along the food as a kind of decoration.
    
    Hope this helps
    
    Rich