[Sca-cooks] table service in Spanish Islamic and Jewish cultures?

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach david friedman:
>Manuscrito Anonimo has a brief discussion of the difference between 
>the cultured, up to date way of serving feasts (each dish 
>separately, with a discussion of order of service, I think) and the 
>old fashioned, uncultured way (big pile of rice, some of this dish 
>on it here, some of that there, ...  much less trouble for serving, 
>whch is why we do it that way). I gather the cultured way was a 
>westen innovation credited to Ziryab and that the old fashioned way 
>was retained in eastern Islam.

I vaguely remember a book review being published in TI several years 
ago, and that you had taken issue with some of the statements made in 
the book (I believe it was a a modern Spanish work that the reviewer 
was translating into English, or it had been translated into 
English)... but wasn't it about Ziryab? I have this nagging 
recollection of somebody being credited with introducing a new, 
refined system of courses for meals. Although this modern work 
contained some very flawed recipes (kind of like a Spanish version of 
"Take A Buttock of Beef" -- take a period recipe and instead of 
adapting it, find a modern recipe that is vaguely similar in one 
respect or another), is it possible that you might remember the 
title, and whether it had anything that might be of value in 
answering Jadwiga's questions?

Adamantius