????如果你覺得舉辦一場宴會很有壓力，不妨設想一下臨時接到通知，要招待250人用餐會怎樣。卡普莉西亞?皮納維克?馬歇爾就擅長此道。作為美國首席禮儀官，馬歇爾和她杰出而精干的團隊（團隊成員包括美國國務院大廚杰森?拉爾金和克里斯?詹姆斯）為來自全世界的外交家和政要們精選每一道菜和飲品。食物、葡萄酒，以及它們的和品牌，這些他們精挑細選出來擺到桌子上的元素都是外交的重要組成部分。

你在供應商公司或品牌中尋找什么要素，確保能向賓客傳達正確的信息？

????我們都知道美國是一個大熔爐，我們想做的就是展示我們的獨特性和對全球文化的融合。今年2月接待中國副主席習近平的晚宴我們特邀了美國著名的鐵馬酒莊（Iron Horse）拿出他們?yōu)閼c祝中國春節(jié)特釀的一批酒。習近平對此非常欣賞。我們還請到了蔡明昊，他是（馬薩諸塞州威爾斯利）著名的藍姜餐廳（Blue Ginger）的美籍華裔主廚。他做了一頓美式晚餐，包括烤甜土豆湯和脆煎油封鴨，但同時融合了中美兩種文化。

????因此，當希拉里?克林頓和喬?拜登將這些展示給中國副主席習近平時，你確實可以從他的眼神中看出，他感到十分榮幸。最近為英國首相戴維?卡梅倫準備的午宴我們請來了名廚愛普瑞爾?布羅姆菲爾德。愛普瑞爾有幾家非常出色的餐廳，其中紐約市的The Spotted Pig大多數(shù)人都去過。我們通過幾個線人了解到它是卡梅倫夫人在紐約最喜歡的餐廳，所以，愛普瑞爾同意前來和我們一起工作時，我們非常興奮。

誰來挑葡萄酒？

????杰森的選酒本領過人。當然，我們都會參與討論。我們坐下來吃飯，我們協(xié)作，但他會做大量的調研。我們舉行品嘗會時，杰森會帶來三四種他認為適合此次主題的葡萄酒。他會出去找一家特別的酒莊，把酒帶回來，征詢我們對酒的意見。

????我們在白宮外交官接待室（Diplomatic Reception Rooms）50周年慶祝會上提供了一種叫Royal Pippin的蘋果酒，因為它非常獨特而且與眾不同。而且，我們都嘗了嘗，想確定所有人都滿意。這種酒在托馬斯?杰弗遜和喬治?華盛頓時代很常見。它太應景了，人們放任反響良好，過后還談論起這種酒。

你們決定哪些公司的產(chǎn)品最終構成最終的菜單，你們如何確保人們能夠領會你們的苦心？

????我們確保能在飯菜中展現(xiàn)一些歷史元素。我們想讓他們了解我們的明星大廚，了解我們選擇的酒莊、了解食物來自哪里，我們希望人們離席的時候能夠理解我們的用心，了解我們?yōu)槭裁催x擇它們，為什么那款特別的產(chǎn)品是這場宴會的重要元素。或許，他們也會在他們選擇的某個特殊活動上選用它。

????If you think hosting a dinner party is stressful, try having 250 people over on short notice. Ambassador Capricia Penavic Marshall has mastered that task. As Chief of Protocol for the United States, Marshall and her small, but powerful team, including State Department chefs Jason Larkin and Chris James, pick out every dish and beverage served to diplomats and politicians from around the world. Turns out, the food, the wine -- and the brands -- they select to stand out on the table are all an essential part of diplomacy.

What elements in a company or brand are you looking for to send the right message to your guests?

????You know, the United States is the great melting pot, and what we want to do is showcase our uniqueness and the infusion of cultures around the world. For Vice President Xi's dinner this February, we brought in Iron Horse vineyards and they created a special Chinese cuvee that was in honor of the Chinese New Year. That really went a long way with Vice President Xi. We also brought in Ming Tsai, who's a Chinese American chef from the famous Blue Ginger restaurant (located in Wellesley, Massachusetts). He made an American meal, including roasted sweet potato soup and crispy duck confit, but with a fusion of the two cultures.

????So, when Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden presented that to Vice President Xi, you could really see in his eyes that he was very honored by it. For our latest luncheon with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, we brought in April Bloomfield as a celebrity chef. April has a couple of fabulous restaurants, but The Spotted Pig in New York City is the one that most people have gone to. We also found out through a few little birds that it was Mrs. Cameron's favorite restaurant in New York, so we were very excited when she agreed to come work with us.

Who picks out the wine?

????Jason really has a fine technique for that. We all talk about this. We sit down, we have a meal, and we collaborate, but he's the one who does a great deal of research. When we're doing tastings, Jason will bring in 3 or 4 ideas of wines he thinks really could work for an event. He reaches out to find a particular vineyard and he'll bring it back and ask us what we think about it.

????During the Diplomatic Reception Rooms 50th anniversary celebration, we served the Royal Pippin, a cider, because it was so unique and so different. And we all had a tasting because we wanted to make sure people felt okay with that. This was a type of drink that was common at the time the rooms were established in the era of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. It just fit perfectly, and people really reacted to it well, event talking about it afterward.

How do you make sure people understand the significance of picking the companies to create the menu?

????We make sure that we lay out some history of the elements of the meal. We want them to know about our celebrity chef, about the winery, about where the food comes from, we want people to walk away with an understanding of why we chose them and why that particular product was an important element of this meal. And maybe they'd want to use it at a special event of their choosing.