Dinner parties demystified (From Bucks Free Press)

Dinner parties demystified

1:52pm Tuesday 13th April 2004

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HOW can you turn dinner with friends into a special occasion without a private cook, a band of helpers or days of preparation?

Simon Offen, executive chef at Waddesdon Manor, is setting out to demystify the dinner party at a series of Menu Masterclasses. I went along to his Spring Masterclass to pick up tips.

I now have no excuse for sloppy presentation, misjudged wine-food marriages or panic in the kitchen.

After a welcome coffee in the Manor's beautiful former Dairy, half of the dozen participants went straight to the kitchen, while the rest of us met Marco Berrini, the banqueting manager.

He left us in no doubt that preparing the table is just as important as cooking the food. So get glasses a-sparkling by holding over steaming hot water before the final polish, make white plates shine by swilling in a mixture of egg white and hot water before washing off, make sure no one is seated in front of a table leg, and line up place settings with military precision. "You are telling your friends and family: I care, you are important to me," he explains.

Then it was time for Patsy Knappett, the Manor's housekeeper, to answer questions. She's not a woman with a vacuum cleaner. She is expert at caring for exquisite Victorian linen used by Baron Ferdinand and Miss Alice at Victorian house parties, as well as keeping priceless antiques in perfect condition.

Your best linen tablecloth is yellowing? Wash and hang out in bright sunshine, and if that fails, use diluted baby bottle steriliser (never bleach). And if you're the sort of person who starches linen, don't store it starched or the linen will crack along the folds. Never polish furniture, just use a good chamois leather once a year.

Tables laid, my group went into the kitchen to watch the chefs cook lunch and lend a hand. The other group had already made the starter. One of us volunteered to trim the lamb chops, another whisked the cream, and I ended up dabbing butter on sponge fingers to make them stick round the edge of a tin for the pear charlotte.

A useful tip I picked up in the kitchen concerned vegetables. For functions, they blanch the vegetables (cook them until almost done) ahead of time, then drop them in ice to chill them, drain and pop in the fridge. Then simply bring to the boil half an inch of water with a big knob of butter, add the vegetables and quickly heat through. Sprinkle with fresh herbs and serve. It makes special-occasion meals a lot easier.

The Manor's Wine Master would normally be here to talk the group through a tasting of the three wines we were to have with lunch. Simon filled in on this occasion. Then we ate the lunch we'd helped to prepare: smoked haddock lasagne with chive sabayon, followed by lamb cutlets with spring vegetables, and pear charlotte. Very good, if we said so ourselves.

This is one of an expanding programme of food events held at the elegant chateau-style manor. After all, if you have the chefs and the expertise, plus beautiful surroundings, why not share them with a wider audience than the 18th-century-art buffs who tour the house itself? Or the gardeners who drool over the Victorian parterre?

Events include wine tastings, wine tutorials and children's cook-ins. For a brochure giving details of these and day courses on other topics, ring 01296 653226. The Summer Menu Masterclass is on April 20, Autumn on April 27.

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