At our dinner parties at the Chateau, we serve based upon a table d’ hote model, (which is where there is one menu and one menu only at a restaurant), of three to seven courses (and occasionally up to 17 courses for something truly spectacular like a New Year’s Eve party). The composition of the menu requires a tactical mastery, a sense of tastes, and execution with imagination and practicality, suited to all diners, yet one that fully pleases perhaps only myself in the end.
I strive for a harmony of simplicity of preparation with sophistication of ingredients, which I see at the market, sample what looks good, serve what tastes right, often changing the menu at the last moment. Eating with friends, and cooking for them, is what this model is all about. In the process, we hope it becomes a familial experiences for all, but the planets have to correctly align for this to occur on a given evening, let alone on a regular basis. And you have to cultivate your cooking with travels, experimenting fine meals, not from books on fusion experiments. Gathering in the kitchen and at the table, with friends, and finely tuning the ingredients into something divine is what is really all about for us.
But for complete sources of ideas, see the following sample menus from French cooking:
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