Ladies lunches -- style-makers, bloggers, writers, business owners, doctors and anything in between -- are flooded with endless question-and-answer-style dialogue such as: what wrinkle cream to use, what to wear for your upcoming date, if you should send your child to private school, what your mutual friend said about you last week, who is getting married (and divorced), what diet is working on that day and when the next yoga class is scheduled. This, usually, unsolicited advice is how these ladies (myself included) consumed by a material world, work-it -- sans food.
What this means is that they (and often, we) are too busy gabbing about something provocative to admire the food nestled on a Wedgewood plate. And at the parties the gathering-spot is almost always the bar with cascading glasses of champagne, sexy cocktails and fine bottles of wine, but what about the hors d'oeurvres? How could one pass up the cheese platter with L'Etivaz, aged Gruyère and Chevre, or the bowls of ceviche made with the freshest fish and the enchiladas made a la minute?
So what if your arch-enemy is looking bigger (in ways you can imagine) and thinner than you? She's also missing out on the citrus oil infused with fresh herbs that garnishes that ceviche, the tomato foam resting beside the enchilada made by fine molecular gastronomical technique and the chocolate tart made with Grand Marnier that is topped with a crème anglaise. Since when is this acceptable to miss out on such fine food? It should be a crime to push-aside or pick-at a meal prepared by a Michelin star chef (or any chef, for that matter). The glamorous sophisticated ladies, who stand for tradition and class go against everything they believe in by not eating -- whether it's vogueish parties or ordinary lunches this behavior is disgraceful.
Just as no hospitable woman would let a guest come in her home without offering something more than a warm or cold libation, no woman of valor should forgo a meal or snack that someone so carefully created. So the question lives on: Why do these lunching ladies bother ordering or dining when they hardly eat? Why lunch at all? Props to the women who are successful enough to attend these soirées, but for the love of god, please eat.