For whom would you most like to prepare a meal?

[Gifted Gourmet]

For whom in history, or even in the present, would you most enjoy making a meal?

and, if this intrigues you as it does me, what would you choose to prepare? I think this "proposition" allows for a very wide variety of unusual possibilities ... Allow your creativity the full range of options ....

Edited July 27, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[Carrot Top]

This is a tougher question that one would initially think!

I would not choose a professional chef or famous gourmand, probably, for that would be very stressful. (I'd rather have them cook for me!)

The first criteria that I would use to choose would be that it be someone from before the year 1550, to see how they would react to the lightness and freshness of the food available. Obviously it would have to be someone of the 'upper-class' or otherwise there would be no comparisons of foods to be had...

Wow. What to make them? First thought was a three to five course meal, quite detailed, but now I rather think a Burger! Grilled, with all the 'toppings' available. With french fries, an average sort of salad with all sorts of dressings available, and three beverages for them to try. Beer, soda(s), and bottled water. Ice Cream, all sorts, and sorbets, and toppings, and cookies for dessert. Oreo cookies and chocolate chip.

Would love to see how someone from the sixteenth century would react to this generalized 'All-American Meal'!

How about you, who would you choose?

[Gifted Gourmet]

I have had similar ideas .. but you have analyzed the question beautifully here!

Also would have a great deal of trepidation about cooking for someone with a culinary background ... for many of the same reasons ... and I like the idea of a typically American meal ...

I would like to do something "California-esque" for someone who had never been there, or was used to heavy European cuisines of their day .. perhaps a Mandarin emperor? or maybe Cardinal Richelieu? Or Benjamin Disraeli ... have to keep thinking this out ... oh, I nearly forgot, Bill Clinton .. something from the 60's but modernized and sooo chic ...

How about an American meal for Christopher Columbus to "show him the denouement" of his explorations ...

Edited July 27, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[GG Mora]

Rachel Ray, just to show her how it's really done.

[Lady T]

This is a tougher question that one would initially think!

The first criteria that I would use to choose would be that it be someone from before the year 1550, to see how they would react to the lightness and freshness of the food available.

How about you, who would you choose?

Fascinating. No doubt they'd be astonished and delighted at the quantity and quality of the raw foodstuffs available. I wonder, however, how happy they'd be at the quantities that reach the table. Remember the feasts and banquets thrown (at least by/for European royalty, anyhow) in those days, and the sheer eye-popping quantity that was consumed? Don't forget the complexity per course of those meals, either, or the 'subtleties' at the end, or or or...

Expensive guests, that pre-1550 crowd.

[TJHarris]

This is tough. Several people came to mind immediately, Winston Churchill, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Jim Morrison and F. Scott Fitzgerald. After reflecting a bit longer, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to see someone with a more personal connection. I think that I would like to prepare a meal for my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, James McElroy.

James McElroy was the first of my ancestors to come to the North American Colonies. He arrived in Pennsylvania in the late 1750's, fought in the American Revolution and raised a family in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. We know little of the family history prior to James coming to America. I would not prepare a meal that would astound my guest or try to get a reaction, but I would cook a meat that would be a comfort to him and allow us to converse and gain knowledge of where our family has been and where it has gone.

[Ore]

Ciao,

The first person that comes to mind is the food lover Jeffrey Steingarten. Why? From reading two of his books, I have come to notice that we like most of the same things, and I think (I KNOW (cocky!)) I can cook some of those things damn well!

Plus, just a few coincidences...My mother is Tunisian, and I am studying the cuisine of Italy, two fairly hot topics in his books. Plus, this might one day become a reality!

So, first thought goes to Steingarten...if you're out there...PM me!

Ciao,

Ore

Edited July 27, 2004 by Ore (log)

[Carolyn Tillie]

From the theatre of the absurd:

I would like to prepare a French Laundry-style feast for the Last Supper.

Something about the image of Jesus holding one of those minature cones and Judas arguing over the wine pairings...

[Gifted Gourmet]

Carolyn Tillie, you minx you, the visual on this Last Supper (gratuity included for such a large group??) left me in hysterics!! Thank you for making my day!

[Carolyn Tillie]

Carolyn Tillie, you minx you, the visual on this Last Supper (gratuity included for such a large group??) left me in hysterics!! Thank you for making my day!

Ah, thank you... If someone were really good at Photoshop a doctored shot of the famous fresco might be fun, eh?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Still thinking about whom I would enjoy cooking a meal for and have concluded that it would be Thomas Jefferson .. now, the rationale..

His love of good food and the pleasures of dining are well documented in his account books, letters and other records. Jefferson's early Monticello dinners included ducks, geese, chickens, partridges, game, beef, fish, oysters, anchovies and an incredible array of vegetables and herbs that he grew in his garden ... during his five years in France he became serious about the pleasures of the table.

Surely, he would truly enjoy a meal I had prepared for him since he truly understood the food he ate and enjoyed so deeply ... I love to cook for someone who appreciates what he or she is eating!

[andiesenji]

I would like to prepare a meal for two people, Jane Austin and Dr. Johnson.

Can't you just imagine the conversation? Splendid.

I would prepare a diverse meal from multiple ethnic cuisines with each one a separate course.

I have to think about the individual dishes.

[foodie52]

My grandparents who died before I was born. I'd like my mom to be there too, so that she could beam proudly and say, "See? See what she can do???"

[TatarsHat]

Thomas Jefferson...

It would blow his mind. Mine too!!

[Carrot Top]

A 'ladies luncheon' with Queen Victoria. Serve a lot of wine, get her drunk, and see what would happen.

Maybe invite Jane Austin and Emily Bronte too.

Lots of just really scrumptious food.

I can hear the corset hooks pinging and breaking....and the ladylike demeanor turning into silliness and guffaws.

I would hope, anyway.

Interesting to try and guess if food and wine could break down the sturdy decorum of Victorianism....

Wonder what they used to cure hangovers.

[bigbear]

My grandparents who died before I was born. I'd like my mom to be there too, so that she could beam proudly and say, "See? See what she can do???"

Finally..... An answer that makes me feel good.

(Nice sig, too.)

[Carrot Top]

My grandparents who died before I was born. I'd like my mom to be there too, so that she could beam proudly and say, "See? See what she can do???"

Finally..... An answer that makes me feel good.

(Nice sig, too.)

Food and the act of preparing a meal for others can be many different things to different people. It can be an intellectual exercise, it can be an exposition of culture or of manners, it can be a scientific test, or, at its best as you say, it can be be emotional succor and the giving or showing of love or pride.

Chacun sa gout!

I have never been able to think of another subject besides food that is so widely extendable into different potential areas....

[get in my belly]

my family......who are spread out across the world and my parents are devorced . mom lives in holland and dad in arizona sis in ohio so i feel the good times had at dinner when i was little will never happen again .......wish i could cook for them now that i know what im doing . instead of over cooked over salted food . thanks for the memory .

[My Confusing Horoscope]

foodie52 beat me to it, but I would love to reunite and cook for my departed family members and relatives.

Besides that I guess I would like to cook for some of my musician heroes so they could make music in the kitchen while I am getting things ready. Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Johnny Dodds! "When's it gonna be ready?" they ask. "Not before a few more songs!"

[rich]

Richard Nixon, Julia Child, Jackie Robinson, Jerry Orbach, Pope John XXIII, Golda Meir, Thomas Jefferson and Anwar Sadat.

That's a terrific eight. I would cook, keep quiet and just listen to the conversation. Of course I would need single-malt scotch for Dick, California Chardonnay for Julie, top-notch vodka for Jack, Italian sparkling water for Jer, a sweet wine for Johnny, micro-brewed beer for Goldie, classic bordeaux for Tom and tamarind juice (with club soda) for Wary.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Richard Nixon, Julia Child, Jackie Robinson, Jerry Orbach, Pope John XXIII, Golda Meir, Thomas Jefferson and Anwar Sadat.

That's a terrific eight. I would cook, keep quiet and just listen to the conversation. Of course I would need single-malt scotch for Dick, California Chardonnay for Julie, top-notch vodka for Jack, Italian sparkling water for Jer, a sweet wine for Johnny, micro-brewed beer for Goldie, classic bordeaux for Tom and tamarind juice (with club soda) for Wary.

Don't forget a good French wine (Bordeaux, I believe!) for Nixon who was notorious for serving California wines at State Dinners, but having HIS bottle re-filled with fine Chateau Margaux and Petrus!

[NulloModo]

Wow hmmmm....

I'm thinking Dmitri Shostakovitch or Igor Stravinsky.

[rich]

Don't forget a good French wine (Bordeaux, I believe!) for Nixon who was notorious for serving California wines at State Dinners, but having HIS bottle re-filled with fine Chateau Margaux and Petrus!

Not only was Nixon a great president, but that proves he was smart too! Never share the good stuff with the masses. (I do the same thing at home.)

[johnnyd]

I'd cater the oer'dourves for any of George Plimptons parties in the sixties.

I'd bartend for the Algonquin Round Table

I'd prepare a beach fire as Ernest Hemingway steps off the boat with a big fish, grill the sucker while we drink rum and beer, and pontificate 'til we pass out in the sand, under the stars...

[petite tête de chou]

John Ford, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. The conversation would be stupendous, the food simple and Irish.

Brown and soda breads, hunks of beef and lamb (or mutton?) with roasted vegetables and a rich sauce. Perhaps bread pudding or cobbler. Whiskey, bourbon and tequila (Ford and Wayne liked it on their yacht trips). Strong, chewy black coffee, cigars and a piano. It would be a very late night.