Table for 6 at your house (or rehab room, prison cell…)—you and 5 others. Fill the 5 slots with anyone dead or alive (…obviously they wouldn’t be dead at your table, you know what I mean). You can fill slots with your significant other, kid (s), all historical figures—any configuration you want, but only 6 total.
Who do you invite?
What do you serve for dinner? Catered? Impress them with your best recipe?
What specific questions would you ask specific guests?
What after-dinner game do you play?
Mine:
I’d invite Beethoven, Michael Jackson, Ben Franklin, Queen Elizabeth I, and Bill Burr.
I’d serve my signature Charleston Style Shrimp & Grits for dinner. I’d ask QE-I to bring a delightful dessert from her court chefs. I’d ask the guys to bring wine and cigars.
I’d ask Ludwig who his immortal beloved was and if there was ever any whoopee involved. I’d ask Michael to play Beat It on his iPhone and moon-dance for Beethoven’s critique. I’d ask Ben to elaborate on the evening he shared a bed in Paris with John Adams and how close he came to murdering him out of frustration. I’d ask Liz if she thought she could keep stooping Robert Dudley a secret and how she really felt about signing the death warrant on sis/cousin Mary, QoS. I’d ask Bill to just keep the conversation flowing and bust everyone’s chops with humor, especially Elizabeth (I’d love to see her bust a gut laughing).
After dinner, we’d partake of fine wine and medical marijuana. Then we’d play Twister.
I’d invite Abe Lincoln, Clarence Darrow, Jane Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, and Eliza Hamilton.
I’d probably grill a salmon and some veggies.
I don’t have any specific questions, but I think I’d get some interesting insights into American history.
Afterwards, we’ll watch TV
A slightly different twist on the topic, inspired by this beautiful book:
The book attempts to recreate the meals from the first class menus on the Titanic on that last fateful night, and has many suggestions for recreating the authentic ambience of dinner in the first class dining room of the great ship, in the Edwardian era when fine meals had a great number of rich courses.
So my time travel dinner would be centered around the meal itself, the experience of dining in the extravagance of the Edwardian era in the first class salon of the Titanic in April, 1912. The dinner companions would have to be authentic, so I would invite the following actual passengers from the Titanic:
Captain Edward Smith, the ship’s captain, for obvious reasons
J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman and managing director of the White Star Line, who became infamous both for allegedly urging Captain Smith to the greatest possible speed despite iceberg warnings in order to beat the ocean-crossing record, and demonstrably for using his authority in abject cowardice to precede women and children to get on one of the first lifeboats.
John Jacob Astor IV, the richest passenger on the ship, and a gentleman to the end, who perished in the sinking.
Molly Brown (“the Unsinkable”), just for the sheer colourful character that she was.
The fifth guest would be a random passenger from steerage, outfitted with fine formal clothing in the manner of Jack Dawson from the movie, just to provide some views from a very different perspective.
As to specific questions, I’d just let the conversation flow naturally, and interject with comments and questions whenever I felt like it.
FDR, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, Wilhelm II, and that French guy.
A British barmaid serves roast beef.
Some of them will realize that some other guys are dead. How does that work out?
Some of them want to kill each other. How do I deal with that?
Many years ago I watched an episode of Steve Allen’s show “Meeting of Minds” I think I’d invite the four guests and Mr Allen himself. So hard to make choices out of thousands, and those four seemed fascinating. So we would have me, Steve Allen, Florence Nightengale, Voltaire, Plato, and Martin Luther. I remember the actor who played Luther was Leo Genn, better known as Gen. Burkhalter from Hogan’s Heroes.
I’d serve a dinner I made myself. There would be a number of dishes. Soup and salad to start. Salad would be a good Greek salad, soup would be French onion. Bread rolls on the side. Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. For dessert it would be a sponge layer cake with strawberries between the layers and covered with whipped cream and more strawberries. I learned about it when researching Christmas dishes, and it’s from Japan. Best quality coffee I could afford.
Not high cuisine, but using the best ingredients.
For questions I’d ask Florence about nursing. For Luther I’d ask about how he felt when he defied the Diet at Worms. For Voltaire I’d ask about literature and politics, and for Plato I’d ask about his writing. In the TV show I remember Voltaire and Luther started going at each other about religion, if I could get a recording of that it would be cool. Mr. Allen coould hopefully referee.
Sounds delicious! How about dis-inviting Plato and Voltaire and invite me instead!? I’ll bring Franklin as my plus-one. We’ll bring a platter of roast turkey—Ben’s favorite.
Well, maybe I could give up Plato and Ms Nightengale, and take you and Franklin. I want to keep Luther and Voltaire. Turkey would be good, but the dishes I picked were(mostly) ones the most of the guests could have been acquainted with. Not sure about the turkey with Plato, but certainly the rest of the guests could know it.
Speaking of historical food availibility, have you seen the channel Tasting History with Max Miller. He’s on Youtube. He has shows about a wide variety of food and drink mentioned throughout history, and tries to reconstruct their recipes with modern ingredients. Sometimes we simply don’t know how things were done, and recipes were more directions, than amounts and temps as they are now.
I’d pick six famous 19th century chefs like Escoffier and invite them to come over, bringing their best covered dishes. I’d supply the soda and iced tea.
Guests: Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Brautigan, Frank Zappa, Stanley Kubrick, and Bill Watterson
Menu: A thick, hearty burgoo, heavy on pork, with home-made drop biscuits and salad; German chocolate cake for dessert, and Wild Turkey 101 served for the game
Topics of discussion: General observations about life and how to live it.
