Mad Hatters holds ‘Titanic’ night
What the heck is ‘Punch Romaine’?
The dish almost threw Ben Jewett. He had promised local foodies a real experience: the final meal served to first-class passengers on board the ill-fated RMS Titanic.
It took some searching, but eventually the Mad Hatters chef worked out that Punch Romaine was a palate cleanser.
White rum and champagne gave it a kick; orange juice, zest and shaved ice finished it off. The alcoholic slush was such a hit the restaurant is considering adding it to its menu.
“Some of us thought it was a drink, others thought it was romaine lettuce,” Mr Jewett laughed.
“Things get changed through the decades. What romaine means now was probably not the same thing in 1912.
“We got the ingredients together and instructions, and gave it to Bailey’s Ice Cream to make up for us. It was lovely.”
Evening gowns and tuxedos were the required dress for the spread at the Richmond Road restaurant last week. Diners forked out $185 for the meal.
Mr Jewett got the idea while visiting Ellis Island in New York last August.
“The gift shop had all these touristy gimmicks including a copy of the first-class menu from the last night of the Titanic,” he said. “It cost me $1.75. Everyone has a bit of interest in the Titanic sinking, because it was such a traumatic event. It is one of those major disasters that everyone can learn from.”
He and staff members spent months researching the menu and sourcing items.
“I had to condense the menu, so we made it eight courses instead of ten,” he said.
“We didn’t want people to roll out of here. We know what they ate on the ship because a lot of it was documented beforehand. They also had their own printing machine on the Titanic and printed their menus daily.”
Even with that guide, recreating the glamorous turn-of-the-century menu wasn’t easy. Punch Romaine was just one of the items that brought quizzical looks from the restaurant team.
Sourcing squab, a type of pigeon, proved a real problem.
“Today squab is very difficult to get,” said Mr Jewett.
“It is more chickeny and slightly bigger than a quail. Instead, we ordered quail from England. We did a roast quail and served it with roast asparagus in a vinaigrette.”
It turned out the quail was quite fiddly and the preparation was laborious.
“We made a venison mousse and had to pipe that into the quails and then tie the quails’ legs,” the chef said.
“The birds are about the size of a coffee cup.”
Lamb, duckling and fillet mignon would have been separate choices on the Titanic, Mad Hatters amalgamated them into one dish as tasters. Salmon was served with mousseline sauce and cucumbers.
“Mousseline is a basic hollandaise sauce and incorporated whipped cream and dill,” explained Mr Jewett.
“Everything was very rich. They liked their rich food back then. Money was no object.”
Mr Jewett said it was definitely a “call a taxi night”; almost every course had some type of liquor. Discovery Wines helped: Château Tour Baladoz 2008, Conto Sur Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2013 and Château D’Arche Sauternes 2005 were on the list of drinks served.
“I think everything was drunk on the Titanic,” laughed Mr Jewett.
“They had an endless bar of whatever you wanted. If you were spending the money, they had what you wanted. We saw a glimpse of the wine list and it included Château Margaux and Château Lafite Rothschild.”
Mr Jewett said recreating the menu made him hungry to know more.
“I wonder what they used for refrigeration and how they stored everything?” he said. “The food was Escoffier-based and quite easy to replicate in a modern kitchen. I’d like to know how much food preparation was done on the ship and how much was done beforehand.
“We had a lady in for dinner whose great-great-uncle was a surgeon on board the Titanic. He died with the ship. It was a black-tie event and the ladies wore evening gowns. Everyone looked and played the part. A lot of people were fans of the television show Downton Abbey. The first season was all based around the sinking of the Titanic. People watched that and got interested.”
The evening went so well they are considering doing it again next year in some form. In the meantime, they are planning an East Meets West dinner at the end of May.
“Watch this space,” Mr Jewett said. “For this, we will take classical western dishes, French, German, North American, and give them a twist of the Orient.”
Builders claimed the Titanic was unsinkable however the ship struck an iceberg four days into its maiden voyage — and sunk.
Of the 2,200 passengers on board, 1,503 died. They’d left Southampton, England on April 10, 1912 expecting to land in New York City a week later.
The ship sunk within two hours of the accident, 375 miles off Newfoundland.
It carried two tons of sausages, more than a ton of ice cream and approximately 40 tons of potatoes.
First-class passengers could pay extra and eat in a more private restaurant with food made-to-order; they could also request in-room catering.
Second-class passengers were offered some of the same dishes as first-class passengers, but without all of the fancy decorations.
Today, hundreds of intact wine bottles surround the wreck of the Titanic. Wine connoisseurs have speculated on what they would taste like, as the chilly ocean bottom provides the perfect conditions for wine preservation.
