The Thousand Dollar Dinner: America's First Great Cookery Challenge

In 1851, after being feted at New York's legendary Delmonico's restaurant, a group of Philadelphia elites returned the favor for their Knickerbocker friends, choosing the establishment of young chef James Parkinson to host the gala. The 17-course masterpiece Parkinson and his chefs presented cemented his city's reputation as the leader in American cuisine and served as a precursor to the lavish formal banquets of the Gilded Age. Allotting one chapter per course, Diamond (Goodfellow: The Story of America's First Cooking School) guides the reader dish by dish through the menu. The history, regional significance, and preparation techniques of each ingredient make for dozens of entertaining digressions. No recipes are included, but given the complexity, or, in the case of the green sea turtle soup, illegality of some dishes, their absence is not particularly troubling.