The following is a true story.
My wife is an important person. You knew that. In 2000, in her capacity as Balli of the Bermuda Bailliage of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, she (with unimportant me in tow) was invited to attend the gala celebration of the 40th anniversary of the American Chaîne des Rôtisseurs. The event was held at the iconic Plaza Hotel in New York City. So it was that on March 24th of that year, we found ourselves in white tie attire at what is incontestably the most lavish food and wine event we have ever attended. The event had been orchestrated by the then Balli of the New York chapter, Harriette Rose Katz, whose power and influence in the hospitality industry was manifestly sans pareil. I say this because it became evident early on in the evening that the food and decoration costs for this event bore no relationship to the ticket price and as surely as truffles grow in the ground, the Plaza was putting this party on at a considerable loss. It is difficult to do this event justice in the sense that “you had to be there” but here’s my meager attempt.
Formalities were completed in the Rose Room from whence we were lead to the Terrace Room, which had been transformed, into a cherry orchard in full bloom. We were invited to stroll around to whet our appetites with a few pre-dinner offerings. Well I never…here is a sampling of the gastronomic delights we were treated to: Perrier-Joüet Grand Brut and Domaine Comte Lafon Macon Chapeau 1997, French goose liver, French duck liver, and Hudson Valley goose liver pan sautéed to order, four varieties of oysters on the half-shell, Louisiana crayfish, Norwegian langoustines, tiger shrimp from Venezuela, white shrimp from Guatemala, Hawaiian rock shrimp, and shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, tuna presented three ways: roasted with red and green pepper salsa, sashimi with soy vinaigrette and ginger, and tartare with mustard wasabi, sweetbreads, Scottish hare stew, wild pigeon confit, Coquilles St. Jacques, risotto with truffles.
A short walk up the white marble staircase past a dozen violinists in tails took us into the Grand Ballroom for dinner. The Ballroom was spectacular having been decorated with 4,000 yellow roses, I kid you not. Wine older than my children accompanied myriad dishes of extraordinary splendor including: lemon and dill marinated Atlantic salmon with scallop tartar and a spoon of Imperial osetra caviar; seared antelope chop with
huckleberry sauce,
antelope bourguignon
and parsnip timbale,
glazed pearl onions, carrots
and fava beans; Fourme d'Amber with honey and almonds, toasted baguette with white truffle oil; spiced bread Bavarian with Armagnac coulis and frozen nut cream Jivara, sugar "bulb" with plum compote and lemon ice cream; mignardises. …I know what you’re thinking but we’re professionals and we train for these things.
Now that you have a sense of the evening, I’ll get to the point of the story. Josée was seated beside an elderly gentleman in tails who kept her entertained with stories of fame, fortune and artificial sweeteners. At one point, he turned to Josée and said, ”You know, my dear, I’ve just received my new G4.” “Really?” replied Josée. “I didn’t know the G4 was out yet. We have a G3 but I’m sure that as soon as my husband finds out the new model is out, he’ll insist we get one. What color is it by the way?” “We got ours in white.” the gentleman replied. “And is it fast?” Josée asked. “Much faster than the G3.” He replied. The conversation was interrupted at that point by the Cuban rhythms of the Buena Vista Social Club no less.
The evening over, we stumbled back to our room well sauced. That’s when I noticed that Josée was giggling to herself. The giggling quickly became uncontrolled laughter prompting me to ask her what was so
funny. “You’ll never believe this,” she said “but I had a long conversation with that man sitting next to me at dinner. We talked about G3s and G4s and it just hit me that while I was talking about Macintosh computers, he was talking about Gulfstream jets!”
We’ve always thought this would make a great ad for Macintosh computers.
Joseph Froncioni
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