Back-in-time dinners
Dining room at Casa dell’Abate Naldi
Childhood memories: the snowdrop and the black flower
Among the things I’m most passionate about are definitely ancient tableware and old kitchen utensils, bowls, knives and glasses. Everyday objects attract my attention more than an antique vase, probably of greater value , born only with a decorative purpose.
Casa dell’Abate Naldi, as every historic home, has many hidden treasures in its cupboards and they all have tales to tell.
In the picture above the table is set with my great-grandmother Emma’s plates, probably mid XIX century. They are hand painted with a snowdrop decorations and a a light yellow tablecloth embroidered with flowers.
My grandmother told me that my mother had embroidered it when she was five (!!) when she was learning from the nuns. I just didn’t think it was possible, I didn’t know how to hold the needle at that age, but the thing that amazed me the most was that one of the flowers was black! It can’t really exist, I thought, but I always wanted to seat at the table where the strange black flower was…
Ginori's porcelaine, a Tuscan excellence
The Ginori Manufactory was established in Doccia , near Florence , in 1735 by Marquis Carlo Andrea Ginori.
The Eighteenth century was very important for the development of porcelain in Europe, and in the mansions, palaces and courtyards, the precious porcelain of the Ginori’s Factory was synonymous with elegance and refinement.
In our home, among the oldest porcelain, there are three Ginori’s plates with the “tulip ornament”, a classical decoration for the tableware, very easy to find in the XVIII and XIX century mansions.
Unfortunately the plate set was almost totally destroyed during World War II because it was stored in one of the rooms that collapsed for the bomb that fell in the garden: there’s only three of them left…
Nowadays these plate sets are no longer used for many reasons. They cannot be cleaned in the dishwasher and their value, now from antiques, does not justify the risk.
Dinners of past times
The table service, even on special occasions, is offered more and more often on the guest's plate prepared in the kitchen. The showy soup bowls, with their beautiful heavy and bulky lids, have retired: to use them it requires a trained waiter who knows how to turn the heavy bowl to the left of the guest so that he can help himself , and then to return it on the service table with its lid to keep the soup warm.
Even the recipes reflect these changes: triumphs of Russian salad, pasta and rice timbales, stuffed game and puddings made with decorated molds have almost disappeared from our tables.
A few years ago a friend asked me to prepare private dinners for small groups. I gladly accepted inspired by my childhood memories at my grandmothers' home, but I didn’t fully realize how much times had changed and how difficult it was to serve a dinner without giving up the less formal conviviality to which we are accustomed today.
We called them ‘back-in-time dinners’… a very positive experience which I would like to repeat to give Granny’s porcelain still some opportunity to decorate the table and to propose some recipes that ar e disappearing because they are not suitable for a la carte restaurant menu or for buffets set up for a large number of guests.
I Prossimi Eventi
La Casa dell’Abate Naldi ospita le Lezioni di Cucina de Gli Archi Culinary School, eventi musicali, mostre di Arte ed Artigianato.
Clicca sui giorni del Calendario per scoprire quali sono i prossimi eventi, ti invitiamo a partecipare e a venire a conoscerci a S. Quirico d’Orcia, in Toscana.