Emperor1956
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Joined: 11/7/2005
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A great post, OP, and I for one do not think you wasted My time. But an attractive apology is always welcome *smile*.
This gets long. I hope it is of interest. My comments about service at table and "tea" and then a few thoughts on other posts:
A bit of personal background: I worked in resturants or banquet catering much of my adolescence. My mother was a well known party and resturant consultant, and she worked for (and derivatively I worked in) some top dining rooms and resturants. BUT resturant service may not be what you are seeking, as it is by nature rather brusque (a great resturant will eliminate that feel) and rather short handed. Yes, in fact modern service has to accomodate the fact that servants are hard to find!
This issue...labor...will dictate the decisions you will present to your Mistress for her to make. While it might be interesting from a D/s perspective to have an overworked submissive try to serve 10 Dominants a formal tea (more on that later), I for one would prefer good service and quality to the almost certain blunders of an overworked and inexperienced boy. Is this an exercise in humiliation, or in service? If the former, good luck with it. I'm not interested....but if the latter, consider:
-if you have enough servants, then traditional "footman" service where each guest has His or Her own waiter would be wonderful. This also entails a change of style of serving. Modern food service derives from the 1830s when a Russian noble expatriated to Paris began serving plated meals -- prior to that, banquets involved a number of prepared dishes placed on table (or carried from guest to guest by a footman) and each guest filled his or her own plate. The "new" service was called "Service a la Russe" and to distinguish it, the old service (which actually dates back to the Middle Ages, with some refinements* was known as "Service a al Francaise". If I had several willing servants, a table of lovely, honored guests, and time...I'd serve a meal a la Francaise. That means each guest (or pair of guests) has a server. In days of old, these were either the footmen of the House where the event was, or, the guest's own servant (well, EVERYBODY had one at least!) who served, along with the other guest's servants. This of course could be tailored so that your Mistress's guests could bring THEIR servers as well. But to serve "a la Francaise" is to serve an entire elaborate meal, and you said "tea".
-what are you serving? "tea" is an elastic term, going from the delicate "Ladies Tea" which is basically a pot of tea and a biscuit or cookie to "afternoon tea" (which is the meal served in the USA at fine hotels and often mistakenly called "high tea") where the meal was delicate finger sandwiches, sweet cakes, scones with clotted cream and preserves, and several choices of tea, but rarely other beverages to "high tea" which is a full meal with the above plus meat or fish, beer and wine and cheeses. Often "high tea" was the man's meal, when men would come in from a day of riding or hunting and join the ladies; afternoon tea was a more refined, feminine event. Again, is it just you serving? Then an afternoon tea for four or six Dominas might be the ticket, but then also you needn't worry about plate placement or removal from the left or right: It is entirely proper for the servant to place trays (well arranged of course to please the eye!) on the table and for the ladies to pass the trays to eachother. The servant should make sure there is plenty of food, that no one is lacking anything, and for god's sake you better know how to brew a proper pot of tea and to serve coffee.**
Re: other posts. Ms. SonnetMarwood is dead on. "Mrs. Beeton" while very dated for commercial resturant and catering use, is accurately Victorian and would serve as an excellent model. CrappyDom, your esoteric knowledge always amazes Me.
And finally, MisPandora, while I adore the Tea Service of Japan (and I've been to several authentic ones as My wife is a student of the Tea Way, a fluent Japanese speaker and a stickler for authenticity) and I think a submissive trained in the Tea Way is wonderful, the Japanese Tea Service has nothing to do with the OP's request (save perhaps instilling grace and solemnity). For one thing, the Tea Way is highly spiritual and ritualized, with no real food served, and I understood that what the OP was seeking was advice on serving tea as a meal and an event. For another, the participants in the Tea Way -- those that will observe the server, and drink the tea -- bear a huge responsibility to conduct themselves exactly right, else they spoil the Way. I for one will forbear in assuming I could train a group of Dominas to do anything in unison, let alone the rituals required of the participants of the Tea! Don't send the poor boy off to learn the Tea Way when he needs to learn to serve plates and bus dishes!
E.
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*These refinements included forks (introduced sometime in the 13th C. and Napkins (14th C. or so...prior to that in Ireland and Scotland, small dogs were at table to lick and clean hands, or you just wiped them on your or your neighbor's cloak.)
**A nod to my lovely girl, who is the most gentle and kind of women, except when a waiter without asking pours more coffee into her cup of perfectly balanced coffee-cream-sugar, upsetting the balance. Then I've seen her nearly utter a harsh word of disapproval. But she always is entirely demure and kind...with an edge *GRIN*.
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"When you wake up, Pooh," said Piglet, "what's the first thing you say?"
"What's for breakfast? What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?"
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said.
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RE: serving food at dinner party with Dom/mes - 
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