"Elsie De Wolfe's Recipes For Successful Dining" 1934 DE WOLFE, Elsie (Lady Mendl)
$350
DE WOLFE, Elsie (Lady Mendl)
[102] pp.
D. Appleton-Century Company
1934
7 3/4" x 5 1/4"
This charming book on dining and entertaining from one of the most prominent American socialites of the early 20th century, providing an interesting and amusing look into how this legendary decorator entertained. Lady Mendl suggested using silver or gold lame as a tablecloth (see above) and advised that objects like rock crystal candlesticks and porcelain rabbits made good table decorations. It is her recipes, though, that a reader back to a time-past and perhaps appreciative of today's lighter cuisine. De Wolfe believed that there should be a "surprise" dish at every dinner party. To that end, there are recipes for Boiled Tongue a la Ritz, Creamed Haddock, and Indian Sardine Squares. A Bit of Trivia: The author was immortalized in the lyrics of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. She's been credited, though not entirely accurately, with having invented the profession of interior design. Background Information: Elsie de Wolfe was the first professional interior designer in America. She believed in achieving a single, harmonious, overall design statement, and felt that the decoration of the home should reflect the woman's personality, rather than simply the husband's earning power. De Wolfe introduced a startling freshness to the elaborate, heavily fringed and tasseled Victorian design sensibility of her time.