Silver tables The great art of French hospitality by Stéphane-Jacques Addade, with photographs by Masaki Okumura In 2010, UNESCO dedicated the haute cuisine of France; this beautiful book reveals the essential counterpart to this intangible heritage: the splendor of French tableware, through twelve tables set with some of the most beautiful, rarest and most prestigious solid silver tableware and objects in the history of our goldsmithing. Thus, masterpieces by goldsmiths such as Jean Desprès, Christian Fjerdingstad, Roland Daraspe or Goudji, designers such as Jean E. Puiforcat or François-Xavier Lalanne and houses of excellence such as Odiot, Puiforcat, Cardeilhac, Aucoc, Keller, and Christofle (one of the pieces presented is included in the exhibition Christofle, une brillante histoire which will be held from November 14 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris) are brought together for an absolutely unique in situ dialogue. Each of these tables immerses us in a unique atmosphere: a dinner under the reign of Louis XVI, a dinner during the Second Empire, a tête-à-tête in the 1930s, a cocktail evening in town, a tea break accompanied by mignardises... Far from being frozen in time, these tables are the living reflection of a typically French art of entertaining, where every detail counts, and whose uses and codes Stéphane-Jacques Addade illuminates, as an expert and an aesthete. Offering as an introduction a brilliant synthesis combining the history of the art of goldsmithing and the representation of the table in painting, Stéphane-Jacques Addade then guides us from one table to another. Through chapters, each embellished with a recipe inspired by the Petrossian universe, he provides us with valuable lessons on the origin and use of the different cutlery and accessories arranged on the table according to a precise codification – from the art of using a fork, knife or napkin to that of drinking Champagne. Once known and mastered, these rules will be all the more pleasant to apply... or to break!