My Dream Dinner Party - With Famous Chefs

Bon Appetit magazine is one of the premier cooking magazines in the country and each issue ends with an article that interviews a famous personality about their dream dinner party. While I’m not famous and never will be, I thought it would be fun to share some thoughts about my dream dinner parties with different guests, like famous chefs for instance!

Famous chefs (clockwise from top) - Anthony Bourdain, Julia Child, Jose Andres, and Ina Garten

One of my dear work friends and colleagues from my days working at the Center for Naval Analyses, Aline Quester, loves sharing her stories about renting an upstairs apartment from the famous chef Julia Child when she was getting started with her first cooking show on TV. She talks about the amazing smell of baking bread wafting up from Julia’s kitchen as she was learning how to bake bread (and the many loaves she left for them at their door!). She also has wonderful stories about Julia’s and her husband Paul’s generosity and how they would invite them down for dinner parties on occasion. Can you imagine? Dinner with Julia Child!!!!

When Aline and her husband George came up from Venice, FL to visit Laurie and I here in Sarasota for a wonderful afternoon she shared more of her stories about Julia, and I started thinking how fun it would be to have dinner with some of my favorite celebrity chefs. Since that will probably never happen, I decided to rip off Bon Appetit magazine’s monthly “Dream Dinner Party” feature where they interview a famous personality about their dream dinner party and interview myself instead! This first installment focuses on my dream dinner party with famous chefs.

Me and my work colleague and friend Aline Quester

If you could invite any four famous chefs – deceased or alive – to your dream dinner party, who would they be?

I’d invite Julia Child of course, because she’s hilarious and fascinating as well. Next would be Ina Gardner (The Barefoot Contessa), because I absolutely love all of her recipes and she is so sweet and kind. Also, I would kill to have her as our next-door neighbor! Third would be Jose Andres, because he is so creative, and I’m fascinated by his philanthropic endeavors. Finally, I would invite Anthony Bourdain, the profane “rebel chef” who has a foul mouth but is also funny as hell, just to mix things up and make the dinner as lively as possible!

That’s some gathering! What would you make for this illustrious group?

What would I make? Absolutely nothing!! Why on earth would I cook when I have some of the greatest chefs in the world coming for dinner? We would do potluck, with each of my guests bringing something to share (or cooking it when they arrive, which would be even better)!

OK then, potluck it is. What would you ask each of them to bring or make for the dinner?

I’d ask Jose Andres to bring the appetizer, a selection of Spanish tapas from his fantastic restaurant Jaleo. Andres would also make the cocktails before dinner (hopefully one of his famous Gin & Tonics!). I’d ask Julia Child to bring or make the main course, her famous Coq a Vin (Chicken in Wine). Barefoot Contessa would bring desert – I’d tell her anything chocolate! And finally, I’d ask Anthony Bourdain to bring or make whatever he wants – that would likely result in a weird and funky dish that he would choose just to throw us all off and make us uncomfortable (I mean, his favorite food was blood sausage, and he once said the only things he wouldn’t eat were cats and dogs, …), but it would also amp up the fun for the evening!

Where would you host?

I’d rent out the Poetry Inn situated in the hills above Napa Valley for the evening (they have five suites so everybody could stay the night in their own private suite and enjoy breakfast together in the morning!) and have dinner on the Inn’s veranda overlooking Napa Valley – it would be perfect!

And what would be the vibe?

Casual and comfortable! Dress would be shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. We’d have Sinatra and the other members of the rat pack crooning in the background on the speakers, along with some Burt Bachrach as well. Later on in the evening, Ben Folds (Indie music god!) would show up to sing and play some of his hits and favorite songs on the piano while we enjoy our after-dinner drinks.

What would you talk about?

I’d ask Julia about her life as an intelligence officer in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS – the precursor to the CIA) during WWII, and what challenges she had to overcome in being the first woman to host her own cooking show on television. I’d want Jose to talk about his humanitarian work and his World Central Kitchen which is focused on cooking and providing food to people in need around the world. I’d want Ina to dish on fellow chefs that annoy her and why (because she’s so nice and you never hear her say anything mean or bad about anybody!), as well as food she despises and that she refuses to eat. And finally, I’d ask Anthony to talk about the most disgusting things he saw in the restaurants he worked in, as well as the most entertaining stories he has from his time as executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan as well as his food travels around the world.

Then, I’d just sit back and listen to these four famous chefs talk with each other about whatever interested them most – I’m betting the conversation would go on for hours and be both hilarious and entertaining!

Sound like fun? If so, I’d like to hear what famous chefs you would invite to your dream dinner party – let me know!