What would you have for your final meal? It’s a question that Melanie Dunea has asked of fifty famous (I reserve judgement on “great”) chefs. Their pictures and answers comprise My Last Supper, an oversized pictorial book, published by Bloomsbury in 2007. The five page introduction by kitchen bad boy Anthony Bourdain is perhaps the most substantive part of the huge book. Each of the fifty chosen chefs are each asked six questions: “What would be your last meal on earth?”, “What would be the setting for the meal?”, “What would you drink with your meal?”, “Would there be music?”, “Who would be your dining companions?”, and finally “Who would prepare the meal?”
The answers range from the brief and flippant to the long and thoughtful and each of the included chefs is pictured next to his or her answers. Some of the photos are quite striking, in particular that of Bourdain, who is picture nude and holding a huge beef bone in front of his penis. There is also a section of recipes at the back of the book featuring some of the dishes each chef has selected for their final meal. The recipes for the most part did not appeal to me, and I was overall underwhelmed. If you are a hard core foodie, it may be worth checking out from the library, but I can’t honestly recommend spending $39.95 for it.
You need to correct the typo right on the first line.
oops. Thanks for the heads up, Steve. I fixed it.
My last meal would have to include cornbread (a nice southern pone with lots of crust), smothered potatoes and onions, and red beans and rice. And for desert, sweet potato pie. Dang, I’m making myself hungry just thinking about it.
If I knew it was my last meal, I would be too upset to eat! If I did manage to eat anything, I guess it would be the time to try something exotic and dangerous since the possible deadly outcome would not matter.
Good review. This very much felt like a Christmas-gift book. (and a pricy one, at that!)