Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals (3 page)

Waldorf Pudding

Peaches in Chantreuse Jelly

Chocolate-Painted Éclairs

French Vanilla Ice Cream

11th Course: Dessert

Assorted Fresh Fruits and Cheeses

After Dinner

Coffee

Cigars

CAPTAIN SMITH’S LAST MEAL

While on board the
Titanic
, Captain Smith ate in the elegant first-class dining saloon, where he had his own table for six. For his last meal of April 14, 1912, he was a guest of an American couple in the à la carte dining room, known as the Ritz because of its imitation of the Ritz Carlton restaurants inspired by Auguste Escoffier. The
Titanic
had huge refrigeration and storage facilities, and had stocked its fridges with even more luxury items for this maiden voyage. The captain had a light meal that night.

Particularly popular with the gentry of the age, this is an excellent dish, easy to prepare and perfectly accompanied by a crisp Chablis or white burgundy.

• Remove top halves of oysters, separate membranes from lower shells, and place on crushed ice.
  
• Combine all other ingredients.
  
• Spoon mix onto oysters, sprinkle with crushed black pepper, and enjoy!
  

• Wrap the bacon slices around the steaks and secure with wooden cocktail sticks.
  
• Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan until just below smoking. Put in steaks, turning every few seconds until brown on all sides. Cook for no more than 4 minutes, then remove steaks from pan.
  
• Add garlic to pan, remove the bacon, and seal sides of steaks for about 1 minute; remove the steaks and place on the Pommes Anna.
  
• Deglaze the pan with red wine, add the artichoke hearts for about 2 minutes, and spoon over the steaks and potatoes.
  

• Brush a 2-inch-deep ovenproof skillet with butter and lay overlapping slices of potato with light seasoning, brush with butter, and build layers.
  
• Cook for 8 to 10 minutes on open stove.
  
• Cover with foil; place in oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 450°F.
  
• Cut the potatoes into wedges and serve with the Filet Mignon Lili.
  

• Rub the duckling inside and out with a little salt and pepper and rub the outside with Worcestershire sauce.
  
• Combine all other ingredients (except the Calvados and consommé) and stuff the mixture loosely into the ducks.
  
• Place the ducks (breast side down) in a hot roasting tray and cook for 20 minutes, then pour on the Calvados and consommé.
  
• Roast for about 3 hours at 325 to 350°F, basting every 15 minutes.
  
• Turn the ducks over and roast for another 30 to 40 minutes until golden, basting as often as possible.
  
• Serve hot on a bed of watercress with apple sauce.
  

• Peel, core, and quarter the apples, then slice and place in a pan with about 10 tbsp water; cover and cook gently for about 8 minutes until soft.
  
• Puree in a blender, add butter, and sweeten to taste.
  

• The classic test of where to cut asparagus is to bend it gently. At the point it is ready to crack, cut it there, and discard the hard stems.
  
• Place the asparagus tips in boiling salted water for 4 minutes, remove, strain off the hot water, and place the asparagus in ice water (this keeps it green and fresh).
  
• For the dressing, combine the chopped saffron, salt, pepper, and mustard into a base, gently whisk in the oil and champagne in equal amounts, pour on chilled asparagus, and serve.
  
• Serve with a cold burgundy, champagne, or cold sparkling wine.
  

MARTIN LUTHER KING

U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King was a man of extraordinary vision. In a time of intense segregation in America, King inspired the black people of the United States to walk in the footsteps of Gandhi and try to obtain justice by peaceful protest and nonviolent direct action. He was gunned down by James Earl Ray on April 4. His life can be summed up no better than by the vibrant speech he made to the crowds at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.

The government of his day demonized him; he was constantly followed by the FBI and other federal agencies and portrayed as a troublemaker or criminal working against America. He rose above the bigotry of the time to conduct himself with dignity and power at a time when the Ku Klux Klan was at its height and black
children were denied education in the “Land of the Free.” That he was vilified and hounded by the authorities and still came up with the following contribution is a fitting tribute to his spirit.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But, one hundred years later the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination still sadly cripple the life of the Negro. One hundred years later the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.

So we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense, we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—yes, black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, property, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwind of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our Nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold, which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical
violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community, must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.…

So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream. That one day—even the State of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression—will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream. That my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.…

Let freedom ring, and when this happens—when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.

MENUS

Last Dinner

Southern Fried Chicken

Louisiana Hot Sauce and Vinegar

Black-Eyed Peas

Collard Greens

Cornbread

Favorite Food

Catfish Creole