Ever wondered what Rita Hayworth or Ava Gardner might have served at a dinner party? Or what dessert would have been dished up at Johnny Weissmuller’s house?
Well, I might just have the answer. I was recently introduced to a fantastic blog where a couple of talented ladies are thinking about just this sort odd thing. Silver Screen Suppers have amassed a vast collection of recipes from the stars of the golden age of film, and one by one, cooking their way through them to let you know how things like Bette Davis’ apple dessert turns out.
But why a post rather than just adding a link to my blogroll? Well, I have had a link for some time, but as of yesterday, rather excitingly, I am now a test cook for Silver Screen Suppers project, and will be testing some of them ahead of a book being published at some future date. But don’t you just love the idea of Zsa Zsa Gabor or Alan Ladd actually preparing these recipes in their kitchens? Would they have known where their kitchens were? I like to think they did…
I think this will be fun and interesting for several reasons. A lot of these recipes will have seemed very exotic back in the day, but will be rather more familiar to our sophisticated palates. Will there be a need to adapt recipes, or even jazz them up to make them match our expectations? I suspect that in some instances the answer will be yes, but given anyone making a film star’s cake in the 30s was hoping that just a little of the stardust would rub off on them, I secretly hope that a lot of them will also be quite good as they are. Perhaps there will be more of an impact in terms of the ingredients use, as many of those considered “luxuries” in the 30s have gone on to become commonplace. To misquote Miss Davis, “fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride“. But a fun one too!
LondonEats 