Normal Entertaiment

Most of us moderns look with amazement, not to say dismay, at the menus of traditionally formal dinners. Such meals are a vanishing breed, like the bison- but, like the bison, they manage here and there to survive.

They begin with both clear and thick soups. Then comes an alternation of releves and removes, each with its accompanying vegetables. The releves are lighter in quality than the hefty joints and whole fish which make up the removes. Any one of the rather ironically titled removes could count as the equivalent of what, in current parlance, is called an entree, or main dish.

However, in the classic formal menu, the term entree has a quite different significance. Classic entrees occur immediately after a final remove and consist of timbales, sea foods and variety meats, served in rich pastes and with delicate sauces- trifles distinguished for their elegance.

A salad takes next place in this stately procession, and is usually made of a seasoned cooked vegetable, such as asparagus, with greens doing garnish duty only. After this, the diner may choose from a variety of cheeses.

Entremets- hot or cold sweets-succeed the cheese course and these are topped off, in turn, by both hot and cold fruits. We now have completed the major framework of a classic formal menu, in which, it goes without saying, each course is accompanied by a sympathetic wine.

We marvel at the degree of gastronomic sophistication required to appreciate so studied and complex a service-to say nothing of the culinary skills needed to present the menu in proper style.

But, more critically, we ask, "Where do the guests stow away all that food?" Granted that a truly formal dinner lasts for hours and that each portion may be a dainty one, the total intake is still bound to be formidable. Such an array is seldom encountered in this casual and girth-conscious era. But a semiformal dinner with traces of classic service still graces the privileged household.

When the guests come into the dining room, the table is all in readiness, t The setting forecasts the menu through the first three courses. Should more silver be required, it is always brought in separately later. The water glasses are about % full; the wine glasses, though empty, stand in place.

At formal and semiformal dinners, butter plates are seldom used. Melba toast or crackers are served with the appetizer or soup, and hard rolls later, with the roast. The next setting sketched indicates a seafood cocktail, a soup, a meat course, a salad course, water and two wines. Water and wine are poured from the right.

The glasses may stay in place throughout the meal, but it is preferable to remove each wine glass after use. A third wine glass may be strung out on a line with the others or placed to form a triangle slightly forward toward the guest and just above the soup spoon.

However, if more than three wines are to be served, fresh glasses replace the used glasses as the latter are removed.