Each year, the San Francisco edition of Le Dîner en Blanc, or “The White Picnic” takes place in September, right around the time of my birthday.  Each year a group of us head into the city to spend an evening dressed head to toe in white.  Everyone arrives and beings setting up tablescapes, which run the gamut from simple to sublime.  At 7pm, the dinner officially begins with the ceremonial flip of white napkins.  With live music playing in the background we stroll through the tables, admiring costumes, table setups, the various themes that groups come up with, and then head back to our own table to dive into our traditional Italian picnic fare.  This year, I put together this antipasti platter with pickles and olives for our feast. Alisha Westerfeld brought the wine and helped set up our minimalist table, and we were joined this year by our friend Rebecca too. What a very happy birthday indeed!

Le Dîner en Blanc takes place in major cities all over the world.  For more information about this event, follow this link here.