Tuscan Themed Dinner

Recently I had the pleasure of throwing together a themed soiree for one of my favorite caterers. He was asked to cook dinner for Ben Harper, his darling wife, Laura Dern, their adorable children, and their crew before a large concert. My caterer can certainly cook exquisite eggplant parmesan, but he needed help with the décor and the ambience. Of course he called me. He’s a very smart man, with excellent taste.

I can only imagine the trials and tribulations of traveling on tour with a young family. My guess is even the most talented and fortunate have seen their share of white tables, oversized coffee urns, chaffing dishes, and industrial strength dinnerware. I decided to create a Tuscan oasis in the middle of the performance tour desert as a special treat for the weary band of traveling minstrels.

Over the standard white linen cloths that covered the banquet serving tables and six-top dinner rounders, I spread out new lemon yellow, twin-sized bed sheets. They are economical, an easy way to add color, washable, and reusable. I buy the solid colors in bulk, they are quite versatile.

On the banquet tables, I spread a 22” wide, 6” long piece of burlap as a runner, on top of the yellow sheets. The easiest way to do this is to fold 54” burlap in half (it comes this way at the fabric store, if you buy a bolt) and cut along the fold. Voila. On the round tables, I put 24” squares of burlap on top of the yellow fabric sheets.

Next, I started adding the fun accessories to really make the room festive. I placed several sizes of terracotta pots on top of the tables, and filled them with lemons. I put some pots on their sides, with lemons spilling out of them. Lemons, lemons everywhere. I made quite a statement with the lemons. Really, one can never have too many lemons.

Inside the smallest pots, I placed adorable nosegays of mixed flowers (daisies especially.) The easiest way to do this is to buy small clear plastic cups in the picnic section of your local grocery store. Place your sweet little bunches of flowers inside the cups, add water, and put the cup into the pots. This creates a tidy, easy to clean bouquet, and no messy water will leak out onto your burlap, which would certainly spoil the mood.

To add floral height and interest in the middle of the tables, I purchased tall, 18” cylinder clear glass vases. I filled the bottom of the vases with shiny pebbles. I placed a lemon over the pebbles. I filled each vase 1/3 of the way full with fresh water. I then added a single long-stemmed sunflower to each vase. The lemon added visual interest to the glass vase, and held the sunflower in place. Quite clever, I must admit. Quite.

I then cut lengths of shimmering gold and green wired ribbons and loosely wove them through the pots, the stray lemons, and vases of sunflowers to add a bit more dimension and interest.

The real show stopper, or icing on the proverbial cake, came from the last layer I added to the banquet tables. I strung specialty grape vine lights, complete with velvet leaves and faux vines, along the banquet tables. The grape clusters, which are green and purple, cast a pleasing glow at dusk, and are much safer than using real candles against burlap. Fire trucks and sprinklers can ruin an enchanted April evening faster than over-cooked eggplant.

Apparently, Mr. Harper, Mrs. Dern, and the crew were quite pleased with the décor and the effort. Due to a previous engagement which involved volunteering my services as a chaperone for a children’s zoo adventure, I wasn’t able to use my backstage passes to witness the positive reactions to the Tuscan dinner décor. I was assured that appreciative oohs! and ahhs! were uttered by all.

Another job well done.