Fine Dining

Fine dining brings up images of fancy, old school restaurants or ultra-hip modern bistros, and menus with outrageous prices, but fine dining doesn’t have to be that. Fine dining is simply exquisite food served in an exquisite atmosphere, neither of which requires a lot money. This article will show you how you can get the same fine dining experience that you find in restaurants at home for a fraction of the cost.

Fine dining at home begins with a fine table. You don’t need a huge expanse of a table that seats twelve; any size will do. If the table is old and icky, just throw over it a table cloth, or any pretty cloth you have laying around (I frequently use scarves and sarongs). One of those bistro patio tables is perfect for a romantic meal outdoors (or it can be dragged in for romantic indoor dining).

Don’t forget about what goes on the table: flatware and drinkware. I personally believe that fine dining goes hand in hand with fine wine (which I’ll get to in a moment) which requires fine stemware. Fine stemware is expensive, unless of course you pick it up cheap on E-bay. My best stemware is a set of six antique lead crystal Champagne flutes. I picked them up for three dollars a glass; they sell for upwards of $20 per glass. Of course, the stemware need not be crystal, any clear, glass stemware that is the proper size for the wine will do. Fine flatware is easy. Remember that fine dining establishments often serve meals on plain white plates so that the food gets all your attention. You should do the same.

As I said above, I believe fine wine is a prerequisite for fine dining, and though with wine, you generally get what you pay for, fine wine need not cost a bundle. The best way to pick up expensive wine cheap is to buy during sales. Don’t worry about timing, there is such a glut of fine wine on the market that wine shops are always having sales. If there’s no wine shop nearby, bulk buyers – warehouse clubs especially – acquire otherwise expensive wines relatively cheaply. Another great thing to do, if you’re not dining with a connoisseur, is pick up a cheap bottle of foreign wine, most people don’t know the wine in their own country very well, much less foreign wines. They automatically assume foreign wine is fine wine, and since much of fine dining is in the perceived experience, this works wonderfully.

Once that’s all taken care of, fine dining, of course, requires fine food. Fine food need not be expensive. Recipe books and websites abound with inexpensive recipes for fine dining. Again, a simple trick is to go foreign. If you have spaghetti, bread crumbs, marinara sauce, mozzarella and chicken breasts, you have chicken parmigiana. If you have skewers and an assortment of fruits and vegetables, you have kabobs that go wonderfully with couscous or wild rice. And what fine meal would be complete without a fine desert? Try grilled fruit with a simple sugar glaze or berries flambéed in sugar and brandy and spooned over sorbet or vanilla ice cream. It hardly gets cheaper or simpler.

Once you realize how easy it is to enjoy fine dining at home, you’ll be eating in all the time, wondering why you ever paid as much as you did to a fancy restaurant.