I've been impatiently waiting for the UPS santa to deliver this book. I fell under it's spell last Thanksgiving when Radio West (I will never be able to say enough about the beauty of Radio West) interviewed it's author and invited listeners to contribute to the conversation of how one would spend their last meal.
If you know me very well you know that one of my favorite subjects is food. My life seems, at times, to revolve around the simplicity and the complexity of feeding myself.
Sitting in the quiet comfort of my car while the autumn rain patterned my view, I found myself mesmerized by the gentle thoughts of chefs and the everyday Joe. The intimacy and details of why certain foods would be chosen for a last meal left me in tears at the Highland/Alpine exit. So many memories and moments of bliss are intertwined with the sharing of a meal.
The chefs were asked the following: what they would eat for their last meal, what they would drink, where they would be, what music or sound would be in the background, and who they would dine with. Some of the answers as you can imagine, are a bit pretentious. Some are so incredibly evocative, I've found myself mulling the thoughts over. Tyler Florence wrote that he wanted the last thing he tasted to be the first thing he remembered tasting. So beautiful-I had to trace my steps back.
Now that I've had a few months to think it over, I've narrowed it down to a place I could call happiness. So here it goes:
It would be a sunny August evening in Old Mission, Michigan. We would be seated on my grandfather's deck facing the bay. The air would be heavy with pine and decomposing forest. The sand would be warm beneath my toes and the sail boat would be heard rocking gently atop deep blue waters. Birds and squirrels would be squabbling over seeds and vacationing children would be chasing each other down the side walk that leads past cottage after cottage.
I would sit at the head of a long comfortable table shaded by towers of trees. I would ask to be surrounded by those I love and who I know love me and who allow me to be myself without judgment. I would love for my grandmother who has passed to be there. I would also hope to find friends who have been lost along the way and whose faces and smiles I genuinely miss. Comfort would be paramount.I hope there would be no pretense, and that the laughter would flow freely and easy (and of course that Bobby would indulge us by sharing his current and ever evolving philosophies).
Like Tyler, I would hope to return to my happy childhood by having corn that I picked with my 8 year-old hands from our garden. There would be plenty of butter, brussels sprouts, tomatoes, fresh peas, roasted carrots, and apples. I would include all of my beloved cheese, no alcohol (I don't want to be caught drinking the night before I die), seafood gratin and bread. I would love fresh grilled trout and salmon. I would also like a perfectly roasted chicken (this is my last meal remember). I would indulge in about 6 different sauces, they don't need to be on anything in particular, I just want some sauce. For desert, I would want my mother to make my usual birthday cake: Angel food with boiled icing. I would expect my sister in-law Sarah to make me creme brulee and my sister Sarah to make me rice krispie treats.
Most important, I would want to smile and remember all the happy meals and people who came before.
I know you have already indulged me; but I am truly interested. What would your last supper be like?
11 comments:
let's make a pinky pact and die together, k? because i want what you're having.
this book sounds amazing, i think i will have to buy it!
my last supper would probably be of the breakfast variety because i am a fool for french toast, pancakes, fried eggs over easy, with toast for dipping...yum!
and a whole lot of desserts: hot fudge sundaes, creme brulee, doughnuts...i could go on and on, but now i am hungry!
great post...i might have to do my own version!
What an interesting subject..I have to read that book now! Like you, I LOVE food. I watch Food Network in between Curious George every chance I get. I love the memories it helps create, the bonds that can form with conversation over a good meal. You seem like an amazing cook..I'll really have to give this one some thought.. oh the possibilities!
Well I have thought about this quite a bit, and it is not an easy question for me to answer! But I think I would have to say that my last meal would be at my home in Idaho. It would be in the backyard on a gorgeous summer day where the blue sky goes on forever and it's not too hot because Idaho summers never get too painfully hot. I would have all my friends and family there to dine with me. We would start out with fresh shrimp cocktail and crab legs with butter. Next would come baked brie, the way my sister makes it, stuffed with yummy sauteed mushrooms and garlic. This could be eaten plain (because it is that delicious) or slathered on a piece of pear or my recent favorite: crusty and chewy peasant bread. Then we would dive into pasta. Throughout the past few years, my sisters and I have had 'pasta fests' where we all get together, makes loads of homemade pasta (all sorts of varieties: fettucine, cheese ravioli,butternut squash stuffed tortelini etc ) and lots of different sauces (again, many different kinds: carmelized onion, roasted pepper and sausage, alfredo etc). It is SO good. If that didn't fill me up I would then ask for a mountain of mashed potatoes, the really good kind made with gobs of butter and heavy whipping cream, salt and pepper and fresh rosemary. I would also want a fresh tomato sandwich, just like my mom used to make, with tomatoes right from the garden on a toasted piece of wheat bread. Dessert would either be a good tiramisu or ripe, fresh berries with warm creme anglaise, not unlike the 'berries and custard' that is served at the Tree Room. I'm not big on drinks and generally just have water, but I do love Italian sodas so i'd probably have one of those.
And that would be my last supper.
This is going to take some serious thinking.... I may have to get back to you. I DO know that, like you, the meal would include sauces and rice krispie treats - but not together. Let me think on this and I will comment again in a bit, my pregnant mind is racing with all the random cravings I have making this very difficult for me.
You and I are one with the sauces Sarah.
I forgot about Welches grape soda, which promotes some seriously sunny memories of childhood.
SO true. The culinary world would be a sad place without all its yummy, versatile sauces
Lots of fresh delicious vegetables
Pina colada's, margaritas and other sweet (non-alcoholic) drinks
Steak - perfectly seasoned and medium-rare
Warm, but not hot weather
And then desserts and more desserts - strawberry shortcake, key-lime pie, chocolate pie, brownie sundaes, dark chocolate truffles, ice cream, etc.
Lots of good conversation and laughter - lots of laughter
Martha, I didn't think trying to write my response here would make me cry.
At first I couldn't imagine what my last meal would be. I'm not so artistic about food. I simply enjoy pretty much anything; I'm not very picky. I thought of once when my sister came to visit, and how most of our first day together was spent talking about food and smiled.
Then my grandmother's fried chicken came to mind. And her homemade doughnuts. And mashed potatoes and gravy.
I couldn't think of other things that would go well with her meal, and I realized I didn't need anybody else's contribution. I can eat whatever I want for the rest of my life . . . but I will never again get to eat a meal made by my Grandma. And I miss her and her cooking and being in her kitchen.
So my last supper, imagining it possible, would be a typical meal made by my paternal grandma: fried chicken (best in the world), mashed potatoes and gravy (like nobody else's), buttered corn (not significant in flavor, but part of the memory), and her many homemade desserts: strawberry short cake, doughnuts, ice cream, angel food cake (my birthday favorite, too), chocolate pie, the various cookies & chocolates she made around holiday time, her weird white cake with an overcooked fudge frosting. Oh, and ground cherries, which I have never seen grown anywhere but her backyard. I'll skip the orange jello salad with shredded carrots (a Swedish thing, not a Mormon thing), as I never did like that.
Yep. That's what I would have.
I'd have artichokes for my second-to-last supper. And hamburgers. That was my birthday meal I wanted when I was ten, and I still love them.
What a great question. Mine wouldn't be supper at all but all dessert!
I would want it with my family, my sister, and a couple choice friends.
I love that picture of you and Laurie W. I'm so bummed I'm not going to make it to Utah this spring to see you again.
Speaking of food, we really need to get together for lunch sometime soon. Laurie and I will call you.
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