House Proud: Picnics

Hosting outdoor eating doesn’t have to mean old rugs and plastic plates

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Posh up your picnic by taking inspiration from leading events expert Sophie Lillingston of London-based Lillingston Event Management (0044 207-221 5820 lillingston.co.uk), who says it’s all about creating a sense of theatre. She has served oysters on the half shell on the shores of a loch and set up a picnic table on a Tuscan hillside groaning with tomato and basil plants and an array of olive oils. Guests pick the tomatoes and basil to accompany the buffalo mozzarella. It’s all about surprise and ease, she says. At a recovery picnic brunch a Bloody Mary bar offered a cure to those who partied the night before.

Breads and pates were served with ham, carved off the bone, and omelettes made to order on a simple travel gas burner. This is food for thought if you want to impress someone special. This large-scale picnic, pictured, is a very upmarket version of the standard picnic table.

Philippe Starck has given the restaurants and bar of Paris hotel Le Meurice a small facelift. The grand diningroom, serving food by Alain Ducasse, has Saarinen Tulip chairs, gloriously baroque chandeliers with silk wall lamps and rose copper finishes. Focal points include a bespoke crystal sculpture by Aristide Najean and a stainless steel-trimmed bronze screen. Starck’s daughter Ara created an ochre-hued carpet and ceiling tapestry for the Dali restaurant but it is the feminine space, Galerie Pompadour, with pink copper and marble-topped tables, and oval portraits of Madame de Pompadour, one of Louis XV’s most political mistresses, that single out the furniture in a very Starck way.

Thu Jun 16 2016 - 06:00

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