The Art of Hosting: Pleasure, Joy and Respect

Hosting is the subtle art of many talents: designing a special décor, a warm and inspiring atmosphere that is conducive to celebration, a menu that delights the taste buds, but also the perfect encounter between guests who will spend this beautiful moment together. Guests whose diverse and varied tastes and requirements must be respected above all else so that they are comfortable and happy.

How to hold a successful dinner?

The advice of Brillat Savarin in his work The Physiology of Taste in 1825 is still, two centuries later, unsurpassable, exactly as he predicted!

“But the impatient reader will probably exclaim, how, then, in this present year of grace 1825, is a dinner to be regulated so as to bring together all the requisites necessary to the highest pleasures of the table? I proceed to answer this question. Prepare your minds, my readers, and give attention; it is from Gasterea, fairest of Muses, that I receive inspiration. I shall be more easily understood than an oracle, and my precepts will live through future ages.”

The Art of Appreciation : The Beauty of Gesture

The day after a dinner, it is customary to thank the hosts for their invitation by sending a short note. While the 21^st century pushes us to go for the easy option with thank-you notes written on WhatsApp or by text message, we can still remember the advice of fashion journalist and eternal arbiter of elegance André Léon Talley: “When I have interns, I always say, 'Handwritten thank-you notes can make a difference.' People remember that - not an e-mail, a handwritten note in an envelope.”

December 22, 2023

The calligraphy service of The Officine Universelle Buly

is the perfect way to create your thank-you notes, with meticulously handwritten telegrams that will be remembered for a long time to come. The service also includes the creation of menus, announcements and dinner invitations, which, in accordance with the codes of savoir-vivre, should be sent out three or four weeks before the planned date. The art of inviting and the art of the table thus merge in perfect harmony with Officine Universelle Buly. To make the world a more beautiful place, for just one evening...

SEND A TELEGRAM

“What can we do with such a world? Faced with the despair of the world, politeness is the first step in a process of rationalisation. It is the art of moderation. It is the distance between people, you should not be too far from people, you should not be too close. There is a whole schizophrenic art to the proper assessment of distances, and this art consists in making the meeting between people a minimum of ritual. The right measure...

Politeness is the determination of the necessary space.”

Gilles Deleuze, “Hommage à François Chatelet” 1987, Collège de philosophie 

Joan Crawford

... about entertaining at home: "The best parties are a crazy mix of people. Take a few company directors, add a few charming young actresses, a bearded painter, your visiting friends from Brussels, a politician, a hairdresser, and then mix them. All together. It's especially important to have all age groups. Of course, I wouldn't want any hippies arriving with unwashed feet, but all the young people I know are bright and attractive, have something to say and dress like humans.Another important party secret is that I always add a little vodka to everything. No one ever knows and everyone ends up having a wonderful time."

A reminder of a few rules of etiquette

Guests must arrive at the time indicated on their invitation: neither too early nor too late. Guests arriving late will be expected to wait about 15 minutes before the evening begins. Guests will be introduced to each other if they don't already know each other. Since Victorian times, seating plans have alternated between men and women, with the number of men and women balanced. Care should be taken to ensure that a guest is never "left out" by his or her neighbor or excluded from a conversation. All food should be handled with cutlery, with the exception of some that can be taken with the fingers: bread (always broken by hand), cookies, olives, asparagus, celery and sweets. Last but not least, let the time fly during dinner - no one should be in a hurry. As the day draws to a close, it's time to enjoy the time spent in good hedonistic company (but without elbows on the table!): Carpe Diem!