Food History

Today was the first Big Day. I put together six pages that covered the work that everyone’s done to date on the Prohibition banquet and Karen (the Chair of Conflux) and I went to The Marque to talk to the chef.

I felt underdressed sitting at a table next to someone in full chef regalia and I felt very much like explaining things in French. I defend myself with the excuse that it was his accent, but really, it was the meeting being on April Fool’s Day.

It was a serious meeting, despite the date. We made some serious decisions.

I’m very happy with the new chef. He has cooked historical food before – he did a Titanic meal last year, in fact. When I talked about the changing fat content in milk and the move from rich to subtle, he understood. He also understood French influence and how far to take it. In fact, his understanding was sufficient so that I finally feel I can stop worrying about the main soup and about the sorbets. All I need to do is indicate the most popular garnishes for that soup now, and he already knows the preferred sorbets.

My feeling from the meeting was that it’s going to be a very fine meal indeed.

My feeling from today’s other meeting, with the functions manager, is that the rooms will work well. Their standard table format will look just fine and when the down lights are turned off, the light comes from chandeliers and very Art Deco looking wall lamps. With white tablecloths and people in their finery, the room is going to look extraordinarily smart.

The truth about creating historic banquets is that the historian can only do so much unless she is also trained as a chef (which this historian is not). It doesn’t matter how well I interpret sources or how many languages I read or how much I understand the trade and culture and society, my actual cooking is of good amateur standard. The big moment is always when the chef sees what I’ve done and nods and says ‘This is possible.” The ideal situation is what happened today, when he gets a glint in his eye and takes all the papers away saying “I will play with this.”

He’s going to take ownership and that means – given how excellent he is at his job – that the food will be divine. He understood exactly what I was saying about the look and feel and flavours. He understood about the problem areas. He didn’t try to brush over anything or dismiss me. In short, both of us want to see what happens next.