Such are the parties thrown by food veterans Lisa Alvendia, Glenda Barretto, Myrna Segismundo and Wynn-Wynn Ong, for whom no idea is spared in the pursuit of a guest’s enjoyment.
"Imagination is what sets extraordinary parties apart," says Alvendia. The former restaurateur and caterer turned wedding-and-events planner recently mounted a table-setting exhibit with Via Mare’s Barretto, Restaurant 9501’s Segismundo and Burmese jewelry designer Ong, not only to show their flair but also to share their wares, menus, suppliers and tips with members of the International Food and Wine Society, epicures like Fil Juntereal and Manila’s aspiring hostesses.
At EDSA Shangri-La’s Boracay Room, the quartet set 10 tables featuring five different styles of service from six countries, including Burma, Indonesia, Japan, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Barretto stayed close to home with her setting "Manila Romantica," which showed nostalgia for a time gone by with jusi napkins folded to resemble kimonas, complete with tambourine "napkin-holders." Sweet scent filled the air, thanks to lush sampaguita garlands draped on the chairs and table.
"It’s nice to relive our yesteryear," explains Barretto, "when life was lived in leisure, and you had a coterie of help to debone birds and seafood, or to string sampaguita."
No less Asian in flavor was Wynn-Wynn Ong’s "Casual Lunch by the Irrawaddi River," a Burmese meal served on an imposing wooden table. Though she mixed modern with the traditional, everything in Ong’s setting harked back to her native Burma, from the teakwood dining set to the five different kinds of lacquer she used as serving plates and flower vases. She put Burmese artisanship on display: water goblets were of purple handblown glass; the soup bowls, which you could bend in your hand, were made of horsehair lacquered to a tortoiseshell finish. Even the saffron color of the handwoven table runner had significance–according to Ong, all Burmese men have to become Buddhist monks once in their lives, and saffron marks the color of their robes.
Fresh chilies and very spicy bagoong were set on the table, ready to be employed with dishes like butter-fried gourd, prawn salad and traditional beef curry with fried shallots. After dessert, everything is then washed down with hot green tea.
Ong claims that the relaxed feel of her table setting is based on her own style of entertaining. "This is normally how I do it at home," she says. "I want friends to feel comfortable."
Creating a modern and mellow atmosphere is also how things are done on the other side of the world. Myrna Segismundo, who manages ABS-CBN’s executive Restaurant 9501 showed how in her setting "Dishes of the Sun: A Mediterranean Offering."
Segismundo says that Mediterranean is the easiest theme to do, since it involves more than 10 countries, including Italy, Spain, Morocco, France and Greece.
The former chef turned the tables, literally, on conventional etiquette. Wanting to add more interest to a plain glass tabletop, she and assistant Raul Ramos got the idea of inverting the table legs below it and filling the stand with rock salt, bay leaves and garlic, creating a mini-tableau under glass.
"I like ideas discovered by mistake," she says. "There are no rules, just pick a theme and don’t be afraid to use what you have at home."
Noting also that the varied, multi-colored tableware she used was busy enough, this lover of stone and glass put her décor of flowers, cushions and smooth stones underneath the dining and buffet tables.
"It’s all about freestyle, borrowed things, imagining and having fun," she reiterated.
The brains behind the exhibit, Lisa Alvendia, outdid herself by taking on seven out of the 10 featured table settings. The author of the book Creative Catering and Entertaining, who friends fondly refer to as the "Martha Stewart of the Philippines," tackled an intimate dinner for two, five o’clock cocktails for a golden anniversary, and Indonesian and Japanese-themed tables, among others.
Most asked about was "Fantasy in Black and White," her striking setting for a formal dinner. In a bid to create maximum impact, Alvendia used the opposing colors in every item she set on the table. Glass-lined placemats contrasted with the black tablecloth, and reflected glints from the silverware and black-stemmed glassware. A stark floral arrangement, grass in miniature urns and tiny satellite cakes in different designs further enhanced the theme.
Alvendia‘s "Middle Eastern Feast" turned guests’ thoughts to the current crisis in Iraq, and may have opened a small window of understanding on a cultural level, at any rate. While Arabs customarily eat on the floor and use their hands to take bread and dip it into spreads, she added butter knives to the place settings "so it would be more stylish." Again illustrating to visitors that no idea is too small or way-out in creating an authentic atmosphere, she sought out well-traveled friends and even the local Jerusalem Restaurant to borrow filigreed lanterns and sheeshas (water pipes).
Another lauded and timely setting was her "Easter Brunch Celebration," a whimsical buffet that featured painted eggs in place of namecards, a "cupcake tower" holding party favors of iced cakes topped with Easter chocolates, and a centerpiece of toy bunny rabbits nesting in hollow ostrich eggs.
"You just mix and match and color-code," says Alvendia, who advised visitors to shop at stores as varied as Landmark and A Perfect Life, Restoration and Kish for the unusual plates and unique accessories that make up her tablescapes. "First you choose a theme by country, region or occasion. Then you conceptualize it, make up the guest list and finally the menu. Table setting is like dressing up, putting on makeup and a hairdo," she explained.
And, one might add, entertaining successfully at home isn’t just the domain of artists with deep pockets; it can be achieved by anyone with a little enthusiasm and a lot of inventiveness.