Winter Life Raft: Titanic’s Last Meal

CELEBRATIONS | by SHERRY STRIPLING

RAIN SPLATTERED AGAINST THE WINDOWS, where 12 diners gathered to shuck off the dreary end of winter with a celebratory dinner: The last meal on the Titanic.

SOURCE: COOKINGMONSTER.COM

Theme dinners are an excellent way to break winter doldrums. They’re like Halloween without candy. People dress in quasi costume, suspending belief and adding giggles.

Our group had a 1920s night ­― “Flapper, yes sir, one of those!” ― then moved to the fedora 1940s before ending the season with a glorious rendition of April 14, 1912.

There’s nothing more cheery than knowing you are not going to the bottom of the sea but that you still get to sample that great ship’s first class meal, including poached salmon with Mousseline Sauce, Punch Romaine and Waldorf Pudding.

The entire 10 courses from menus that survived the Titanic’s sinking can be found online.  Author Rick Archbold details the preparation in “Last Dinner on the Titanic: Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner”, ($25.95).

Our meal hosts ― a 14-year-old boy obsessed with the Titanic and a 50-something woman who loved to cook ― modified the menu to lessen cooking demands. Wisely, we didn’t indulge in a different wine for each course.

Guests provided the drinks, chipped in food money and dressed in thrift-shop finery to sip champagne with the Astors and smoke real or imagined cigars with the Unsinkable Molly Brown.

In between courses, our hosts read details about the voyage’s grandeur and the menu. We stayed in character, making cracks about sinking under the weight of the rich food and asking each other if we wanted that drink “on ice.”

I’ve since read that the night serves an important life lesson about grabbing the gusto: Think of the poor souls who turned down the sweets cart.