Bormioli Rocco

The guest list is ready, the ingredients to prepare your main course are set, now the finishing touch which is only up to experts hosts like you: setting the table for a special occasion.First of all remember that there is no right advice, there is room for every solution and only your imagination and your taste will guide you. You can bring to the table creativity and colour with plates of the most varied shapes: high glasses, low ones, transparent or imaginative, and then again, napkins, place cards and centrepieces that will change aspect each time you decide it. The art of folding napkins will allow you to decorate the table and surprise your guests, especially children, with white or coloured fabrics that will enliven your meals in surprising ways.

A quick and easy idea? The candlestick! Place your open napkin on the table and make a corner match the opposite one. You will get a triangle you will begin to roll tightly from the base up to the vertex. It will form a tube which, held firmly at the centre, you will fold halfway: here are two candles that, placed in a champagne wine, will give an elegant atmosphere to your table. Another tip for decorating with style, is to think of customised place marks created with your hands. How about an envelope, made from a coloured sheet, which allows us to get a glimpse of the name of the host who will sit there?

It’s easy to achieve: Open the napkin and bring the lower right corner on the upper left corner, obtaining a triangle. Rotate it until the base is closest to you and fold its corners towards the centre of the base itself. Fold the right and left sides towards the centre again, obtaining a shape that resembles a house stretched upwards. Finally, fold in half, bringing the lower side of the base of the triangle to the top and close the envelope, overlapping the tip on the rest of the napkin. With a decorated clip, you can pin the placeholder for each guest, placing it in plain view between plate and water and wine glasses. You will make them feel welcome guests! 

Another imaginative idea to create a catchy centrepiece. Take a large loaf, preferably well-leavened with a hole in the middle, and hide it in the middle of a sponge, which you can get from your florist. Now take many toothpicks, which you will use to pierce small sandwiches for your guests to pick, and cover everything with stemless flowers. It will be a bread bin with the flavour of creativity!

If you've ever had a doubt on the correct placement for cutlery, follow a simple general rule: think about the hand you take the single piece with. To the right, therefore, you will place the knife with the blade facing the plate, then the spoon for soups. The fork  is on the left fork, with dessert cutlery in front of the dish: the spoon facing left, the fork with the tines to the right.

Now, all is set to set off your meal. And if you do not take to the letter the bon-ton dictated by etiquette, then "Bon appetit!"