Gedonistica Literary and Historical Dinners

The Gedonistica gastronomic project is holding a new series of literary and historical dinners, allowing guests to try dishes from different eras and countries and learn what writers and artists, kings and princes, peasants and characters from famous books ate and how they lived. The project team finds authentic recipes, and together with chefs, adapts them to modern times for those who appreciate more than just culinary history.

Upcoming meetings of the Gedonistica project will be devoted to pirate cuisine, the feast of Griboyedov’s Moscow and the princely feast, Gothic dishes appreciated by Edgar Poe, the gourmet preferences of Marie Antoinette and the court of Louis XVI, and more.

On July 26, Artie Restaurant will host an Old South-style dinner celebrating Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind. Guests will learn about traditional Southern cuisine of the United States, which absorbed the heritage of different peoples and eras, hear about the writer herself, explore the culinary preferences of the main characters, discover why the worst test for Scarlett O’Hara was not the collapse of the Confederacy, but hunger and memories of peacetime food. The dinner menu will include shrimp cocktail, sweet yam pie, glazed ribs with traditional Southern grilled vegetables and chocolate cake with whipped cream.

On August 21, the Siesta: Wine & Pasta restaurant will prepare a fine dinner based on 18th-century recipes. Guests will learn how they ate at the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, why their reign ended with the royal execution and the Great French Revolution, they will plunge into Versailles life, and taste the dishes that kings and ordinary peasants ate. One of the main courses of the dinner will be French desserts, so beloved by Marie Antoinette.

A detailed dinner schedule is on the project website.

Photo: Gedonistica