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The Thousand Dollar Dinner: America’s First Great Cookery Challenge

Amazon.com Price:  $19.99 (as of 20/04/2019 07:35 PST- Details)

Description

In 1851, fifteen rich New Yorkers wanted to show a group of Philadelphia friends just how impressive a meal may well be and took them to Delmonico’s, New York’s finest restaurant. They asked Lorenzo Delmonico to “astonish our Quaker City friends with the sumptuousness of our feast,” and assured him that money used to be no object, as the honor of New York used to be at stake. They were treated to a magnificent banquet, enjoyed by all. Then again, to not be outdone, the Philadelphia men invited the New Yorkers to a meal prepared by James W. Parkinson in their city. In what became referred to as the “Thousand Dollar Dinner,” Parkinson successfully rose to the challenge, creating a seventeen-course extravaganza featuring fresh salmon, baked rockfish, braised pigeon, turtle steaks, spring lamb, out-of-season fruit and veggies, and desserts, all paired with rare wines and liquors. Midway through the twelve-hour meal, the New Yorkers declared Philadelphia the winner of their competition, and at several times stood in ovation to acknowledge the chef ‘s mastery. In The Thousand Dollar Dinner: The us’s First Great Cookery Challenge, research historian Becky Libourel Diamond presents all the seventeen-course meal, course by course, explaining each and every dish and its history. A gastronomic turning point, Parkinson’s luxurious meal helped launch the era of grand banquets of the gilded age and established a new level of American culinary arts to rival those of Europe. 

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