Much of the plot for Downton Abbey revolves around the dinner table.  Explore the final years of a time when one changed into dinner clothes and chose jewelry to reflect candlelight, where setting the table and serving a meal was an art.  Any dinner at Downton Abbey is a well-choreographed dance performed with military precision.  Everyone from the hostess and guests to the butler and kitchen maid, know the parts they are to play.

 

In this one-hour program, food historian Tames Alan demystifies the manners, menu, and accoutrements of a formal 12-course dinner as would have been eaten upstairs at Downton Abbey before the outbreak of World War One.

 

  

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