Week 24: Historic Foods or Famous Dishes from History - World's Highest Formal Dinner Party [Cooking]

Intro from Cooking Challenge: This week, we’re taking a trip through history. One of the few things that sticks in my mind from high school for some reason was a story in history class about the origin of the croissant. The short version of that story is that after soundly defeating a Muslim army in the battle of Tours in 732, the victorious French had bakers make a pastry in the shape of a crescent – an up yours to the defeated Umayyad army. However, as I’ve just discovered thanks to Wikipedia, the actual origin of the croissant was at a Viennese bakery in Paris in 1839, where owner August Zang pioneered the pastry, an evolution of the Austrian Kipferl. Besides food factoring into historic events, you can also look into famous historical restaurants. For instance, Lobster Newburg and Eggs Benedict were both created at Delmonico’s Steakhouse in New York City (also where the name for the steak comes from). Escoffier set the dining world on fire with his work at the Savoy hotel, and codified what we now consider classic French Cuisine. More recently, there’s Chez Panisse, where Alice Waters pioneered the current trends of local and organic foods, making the fusion food known as California Cuisine. For some more ideas, check out here and here.

On Thursday, June 30, 2005, a team of adventurers broke the record for the "World's Highest Formal Dinner Party" by eating a three-course meal at a height of 24,262 feet.  David Hempleman-Adams navigated a hot air balloon while Bear Grylls and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal dined on asparagus spears, poached salmon, and a terrine of summer fruits, before the pair parachuted back down to the ground.  Here's a short but cool video from Grylls recapping the event.

Admittedly I was lacking the "specially designed warm boxes," though I still think everything came out pretty great for my recreation at 173 feet (16 stories)!  Poached salmon is quickly becoming one of my favorite meals to cook and fresh steamed asparagus is always delicious in the summer.  Here is my trusty poached salmon recipe.

The terrine came out really nicely as well.  I used the recipe found here, which uses rosé wine and had a really nice flavor.