Social Networking

Although there is little study done on the lower classes concerning Dinner Parties, there is certainly much evidence that they became an important social event for the middling to upper classes.  Hannah Glasse’s innovative method of recording recipe’s made her the “Queen of the Dinner Party” as she was the first to document recipes in a step by step manner making it easy for anyone to reproduce the dishes. 

The dinner party became important socially as it brought different networks of people together. With urbanisation the was a growing trend in the separation of your place of work or business to the home, in particular for the middling and upper classes, and the dinner party allowed these spheres to meet again.  It grew to such an extent that they developed into the charity events we know today. The Royal Academy of London owes much its existence to orchestrated dinner party, canvassing patronage and favours from the attendees. An invitation to one these dinner parties, was a mark of one’s social standing.

Hannah Glasse was the Masterchef celebrity of the time, her Art of Cookery was republished 20 times from 1747 to 1843.  She also published The Servants Directory and The Confectioners Handbook.

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