Rooms to Eat, Greet and Meet

“We do not sit at table only to eat, but to eat together.”--Plutarch, Greek biographer, circa 46-120.

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Patrick Dunne, proprietor of Lucullus, a New Orleans antiques store, feels strongly that dining and dining rooms are essential.

“Food has become the last realm of nostalgia in a culture that’s become very scattered,” said Dunne, who was one of five design experts who spoke at a lecture series in Newport Beach sponsored by the Decorative Arts Society.

“Even people who don’t cook every day like to think about it, and the dining area is the one little zone that we can create that makes people feel comfortable and part of the past,” Dunne said.

The grand history of the dining room is evident in Ann Dennis’ home. The owner of Ann Dennis Unique Home Furnishings in Costa Mesa uses her traditionally designed dining room as both a place to eat and a library.

Multipurpose dining rooms have been in style for centuries. As in some homes today, tables and chairs were stored away and then set up when it was time to eat.

Homes in Europe in the 11th to 14th centuries had a main room with a hearth, where cooking, eating and, often, sleeping took place, according to “Food: A Culinary History From Antiquity to the Present,” edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari (Columbia University Press, New York, 1999, $40).

In larger homes, kitchens were the place where people ate--often on trestle tables, buffets or small benches that served as individual tables. If there were dining rooms with tables and chairs, they were reserved for the masters of the house, with servants eating in the kitchen around a fire or in a communal room.

Around the 18th century, wealthy families in Europe and the U.S. began building houses with separate rooms for dining. According to Dunne, Louis XV built one of the first private dining rooms in France at Versailles.

Mission San Juan Capistrano has the oldest dining room in Orange County. A room with a huge flue in the ceiling was set aside for cooking, while another small room was used for eating.

“The padres and visitors to the mission would have eaten here,” said Gerald Miller, the mission’s director.

By the 19th century, dining rooms were important features in middle-class homes, though they were often also used as sitting rooms.

“In England, the dining room became a social battlefield. There, it was evident which class you belonged to by whether or not you knew which fork and spoon to use. They had a battery of 24 forks on one side and 24 spoons on the other, and believe me, they zeroed in on who knew how to use them. It was a way of leveling off things,” Dunne said.

The French, Dunne explained, had one big fork, one big pointed spoon and one knife.

“I love that,” Dunne said. “That, to me, is quintessential style.”

Dining rooms appear to have come full circle. The most popular ones today are part of a great room that combines the dining room and the kitchen.

Diane Johnson, owner of Diane Johnson Design in Newport Beach, created a comfortable living/dining room in a small space in a Doheny Beach house.

“This is the reemergence in the 21st century of the hearth,” Dunne said. “This is going back to the idea of food as nurturing, rather than as a status symbol. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a separate room, just a place where people can meet, eat together and be nurtured.”