THE TRATTORIA.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—As a number of a firm that has been in close touch with the everyday needs of British householders for the last 200 years, I can assure " Professor " that the Trattoria spirit— as we may call it—is not easy to kindle in the minds of English people ; and a system for providing daintily cooked meals direct from the caterer to the customer's table cannot develop until it receives a gesture of welcome and encouragement from the public.
" Professor " believes—and rightly—that the Trattoria helps to solve the servant problem, but he evidently thinks that caterers are dull dogs who do little to provide such a service— and in this he is not quite just. If he will bear with me for a moment, I think I can show him that Fortnum and Mason, at any rate, are alive to the needs of the day. For instance, when he urges that purchasers should have facilities for personally choosing a meal rather than having to rely on austere printed lists of foods and prices, I reply that we recognize this fact and display great assortments of suitable cooked dishes. We also retain an experienced chef, whose duty it is to help customers with expert advice. Special pro- vision is made for those who cannot visit the shop. To make choosing from a printed list easy for them, we supply a special catalogue in which cooked dishes are faithfully illustrated in colours, so that a discriminating choice can be made without difficulty.
In fact, we have given much time and thought to " Profes- sor's " dream of perfection. We can, and do, supply com- plete and perfect meals at short notice ; more frequently still we provide the more elaborate dishes, such as the host's domestics could not produce ; but I admit we do not attempt to carry out the Trattoria system to the extent that it has attained abroad, because British ideas are not ripe for it.—I am,
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