LOUISE DESJARDINS<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"What wine would you suggest suitable for this meal? And would you serve the same one with the fish as the cheese? Could you select cheeses that would compliment the wine?"</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>I paused and thought hard.<em>Is this a trick? Selecting wine and cheeses is his job.</em>I looked at him a little nervously wondering if this was really the sort of task I’d have here, my finger strayed to my lips.<em>Ummm…</em><br/><br/><strong>“Um… I’m not sure monsieur, ahh… I’m not a great wine drinker… white, obviously and something crisp and light if the fish is oily… but I don’t really know. I think a dessert wine is always correct in the better households like this isn’t it? Something sparkling perhaps with the cheese… but really I must confess, we are beyond what I learned before now.”</strong><br/><br/>I couldn’t stand there and tell him it was his job to do this,<em>so... how to get round it and be polite?</em><br/><br/><strong>“Where I worked before we had a head of cellar who would always select the wines, and of course a similar senior person to choose the menus… I’m not familiar with it beyond knowing what I like personally. Haha, I just like soft cheese myself, a nice runny Camembert perhaps? Maybe not a strong blue cheese with fish? Too powerful a flavour.”<br/><br/>“But I’m sure I can learn quickly!”</strong>I added brightly, smiling at him,<strong>“You know what you are doing, I’ll learn from you!”</strong><br/><br/>He went on to suggest a late arriving dinner guest. That was easier.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"Another guest has turned up unexpectedly as the meal is beginning. How do you adjust things for this?"</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><strong>“It’s an informal gathering so I do not think the diners would mind if a new guest arrived, they would either step away from the table to greet them or the staff should just add a new setting as needed as invisibly and quickly as possible, they would know of course, since a gentleman such as yourself would have advised them.”<br/><br/>“On which side would depend on the gender of the new arrival. Homme et femme I think, n’est pas?”<br/><br/>“And I think… um… it would be a casual visitor, a formal guest would never arrive unannounced, in fact I think no guest would come at such an inconvenient time unexpectedly. Yes! That’s my answer!”</strong><br/><br/><em>Was that right? I hope so.<br/><br/>Ugh, and I thought I’d just hoover and dust!</em>