The bill of fare for a luncheon is usually briefer now than formerly, the emphasis being laid on the quality of the food rather than on the quantity. Fruit, soup, fish, chicken or chops, salad, a sweet course, and coffee make a menu that is amply sufficient for most people. It may be extended by the addition of an entrée—sweetbreads creamed or mushrooms, perhaps—between the fish and the meat course. The fish may be omitted, or it may “suffer a sea-change” and become oyster soup. A delicious bill of fare recently offered at a lunch for six ladies consisted of grape-fruit, oyster soup, fricasseed chicken served with sweet potatoes and string-beans, lettuce salad, brandied peaches surrounded with whipped cream, coffee, little cakes, and candies. The bill of fare may be varied in a great many ways, and lengthened or shortened to suit the tastes and circumstances of the hostess and the season of the year. A lady entertaining two or three friends at lunch very informally could offer them simply two or three courses with coffee or chocolate. These would be soup, chicken or some other form of meat with vegetables, and a sweet dish. When the weather becomes warm in the spring, the soup would be replaced by salad served after the meat.
In summer cold dishes are popular, but it is always well to have one or more hot courses. Certain old-fashioned hostesses still serve tea at luncheon, pouring it out themselves, and perhaps making it at the table. The prevalence of the afternoon tea-drinking habit has resulted in banishing the “cup that cheers but does not inebriate” from the noonday meal in many houses.
The hostess wears a pretty house gown or street dress, as she prefers. She will choose the latter if she is going out as soon as her friends leave. She does not, however, wear a hat. The guests come in street or reception costume, brocades being much worn at the present time by older women. They are invited to leave their outer wraps in the hall, the reception-room on the ground floor, or up-stairs, as the hostess may find most convenient. They keep on hat and gloves, however, the latter being removed when they sit down at the table. These may be turned back at the wrist should it be inconvenient to take them off altogether.