My Last Supper (file under Interesting Question)

One of the nice things of having a little time to myself before starting at The Club is that I can catch up on posts and projects that I have been meaning to do for a while.

Melanie Dunea created a marvelous book called “My Last Supper.” In it she asks some of the most famous Chefs in the world what their last supper would be. In the introduction Anthony Bourdain says;

“If cooking professionally is about control – about manipulating the people, the ingredients and the strange, physical forces of the kitchen universe to do one’s bidding always anticipating always preparing, always dominating one’s environment – then eating well is about submission. About letting go.”

I’ve read this quote over and over again. I’ve thought about it quite extensively since I first read it because I agree with the sentiment completely. I think that cooking is about control of chaos or rather order from chaos. Whereas eating is about submitting to the dish, the person that made it and the environment that surrounds you.

One of the things that shocked me most about the book was the number of Chefs that said that they would prepare their own meal. Moreover, in most of the cases, the meals were something that you would not suspect, while in some, it was exactly what you would expect. So then, how exactly would these Chefs let go and submit.

The questions that were asked were; what would you want for your last supper? Where would you want to have it? Who would you want to be there? Who would you have prepare it for you? What kind of music accompaniment would you have? Along with their answers are beautiful pictures which also say something elemental about the Chef.

Each of these questions and ultimately their answers reveal an intimate portrait of the Chefs that answered them. Some of my favorite responses are as follows;

Daniel Boulud would have his last meal in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles with his dinner guests being Apicius, Bacchus, Careme, Escoffier, Bocuse and Ducasse with Ducasse as the Chef.

Ferran Adria, the worlds number one Chef from El Bulli would eat his meal in Tokyo, at Kiccho and have Escoffier cook it.

Eric Ripert would have a simple meal of toasted bread, olive oil, truffles, rock salt and pepper. And naturally he would prepare it himself.

Masa Takayama would have blowfish on a boat with Mozart playing live while they sipped on Bowmore Scotch over glacier ice.

Dan Barber; would eat his pig Boris; “If I’m going so is Boris.” Barber would cook the meal himself; “I’d have one finally chance to get it right.”

Thomas Keller would have Osetera caviar, Otoro, a quesadilla, roast chicken and Brie with truffles.

Gordon Ramsay would have a classic roast with Yorkshire pudding and red wine gravy naturally preparing it himself.

Nobu interestingly enough would have Kenny G while eating Sushi prepared by his Sous Chef.

Mario Batali, ever the great eater would have an Italian feast of eight or ten courses including seafood, pasta and vegetables.

Jacques Pepin would have an eclectic, relaxed and informal meal of Brittany butter, Oysters, Iberico ham, eggs and roast squab.

Lydia Shire would make herself a 14 to 16 ounce Sirloin with fried parsnips ended by a Carlos Fuente Cigar (a woman after my own heart).

Raymond Blanc would have something humble and simple prepared by Bocuse.

Charlie Trotter would have many courses, raw, tiny and delicate seafoods. Miles Davis would play with Bob Dylan while Dostoevsky, Hemingway, Bukowski, Miller, Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson along with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. His Chef Matthias Merges would prepare it.

Jean – Georges Vongerichten would have a Royal Banquet such as they have at the Grand Palace in Bangkok prepared by the Royal Chef.

Martin Picard (a great Canadian Chef) would have a multi course feast which would start with a kilogram of Caviar, butter and vodka. 2 one hundred gram truffles, one black and one white. It would be served in a forest with Bach as played by Glenn Gould. LOVED THIS ANSWER!

Ducasse would eat on Mars. He currently prepares special celebratory meals for the European Space Agency for astronauts on board the International Space Station.

Guy Savoy’s exact response was as follows;

“Dear Madam,

I thank you for your note and am touched by your admiration. Nevertheless, I have a phobic rapport with death and because of this, will never discuss my last meal. This returns me to my life’s philosophy: I talk about openings not closings.

Receive, dear Madam, my best wishes.”

As I said earlier the responses to these questions reveals quite a bit about these Chefs.

What would your last meal be? Who would be there? What would be playing? Where would it be?

I plan on answering these questions in the next blog post.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM

Apicius’ Roman Cookery Book (file under Nouvelle huh?)

Pliny once wrote of Apicius; " the most gluttonous gorger of all spendthrifts, established the view that the flamingo's tongue has a specially fine flavor." And I need to beg the question; who says he was wrong?

I imagine that my file under has you all a bit perplexed. Of course Nouvelle Cuisine came to us by way of Marin, Menon, Escoffier, Gault, Bocuse, Chapel, Troisgros Brothers, Guerard, Verge and Oliver as is observed by common consensus. However it would seem (though I do need further study) that much of what we term as nouvelle cuisine today is in fact the result of Apicius Roman Cookery Book which was written an astonishingly fifteen to sixteen hundred years ago.

The particular copy that I got my hands on (though I am sure by now Google has it on Google Books) is presented with the Latin version on the left side of the page and the English translation on the right.

I observed that some of the recipes seemed to be arcane (ah duh), silly or just plain unnecessary such as one which teaches how to turn red wine white. The first question that popped into my head is why would anyone assault a red wine with a recipe such as this?

Another recipe that struck me (perhaps because it reminded me of Garde Manger) was to turn bad honey into good honey. This is quite simply accomplished by heating two thirds of the bad honey with one third of the good honey. And according to the recipe “Voila” good honey. To me it is unclear whether this recipe is meant to be dishonest or as a means of eliciting further profit. Moreover, for me, it is hard to test the recipe as most honey today is prepared to avoid such spoilage.

He has numerous recipes for the preservation of meats, vegetables, fruits, etc. I am excited to try each and every one of them and to relay the results to you my loyal readers. He has numerous recipes for broths, soups and purees which I am curious to try. Specifically in the trying of these recipes I want to know about the texture resultant.

On page 149 of the copy I had is the recipe for Flamingo that Pliny is so bothered by. Interestingly to me was that there were recipes for snails and wombs. I’ve never had nor conceived of eating a womb (perhaps because of my consciousness) but it did make me wonder why there would be a recipe for it. Are people out there eating womb today? If so I would be curious to know how it is prepared and moreover if there is a ritualistic aspect to the use of the womb.

All in all I would suggest that anyone serious about food should at the very least peruse this book as it has some very interesting recipes. When I try them out I will let you know the result.

Plutarch once wrote; “The same intelligence is required to marshal an army in battle and to order a good dinner. The first must be as formidable as possible, the second as pleasant as possible, to the participants.”

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM