Your Culinary World

How the Academy Awards Celebrates the Best in Food and Film

It’s Oscar time! That means designer gowns, elaborate production numbers, red carpet interviews and seemingly endless ‘thank-you’ speeches in addition to those prized statuettes.

Also present will be the elegant food that no Oscar event can be without. This year Cheryl Cecchetto is designing and Wolfgang Puck is catering the elite after-the-awards Governors Ball.

This Ball is an insider's must with an A List that literally defines who's who's in Hollywood. Being omitted can easily declare a career is in decline.

So what will Chef Puck serve to the 1,500 invited VIPs of the Film Industry that will be attending this year’s party-of-the-year ball? Here’s his innovative (and health conscious) menu:

Appetizers

Bolognese-stuffed Rice Balls
Mini-burgers with Aged Cheddar and Remoulade
Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone
Salmon on Flatbread Shaped like Oscar Statuettes Garnished with Caviar
Taro Root and Avocado Tacos

Passed Entrees

Handmade Pretzels Stuffed with Pimento and Parmesan Cheese
Bacon-wrapped Dates
Small Chicken Pot Pies with Black Truffles
Baked Potatoes with Black Caviar
Shanghai Lobster
Short Ribs with Goulash and Spaetzle

Desserts

Licorice and Chocolate Parfait with Caramelized Tobacco Leaves (Gluten Free!)
Yuzu Semi Freddo with Green Tea Meringue and Sake Blueberries
Caramel Garden of Coffee "Soil" Supporting a Chocolate Malted Tree with Fleur de Sel

Yet the revere that Hollywood holds for fine food and all matters culinary is not limited to the grand galas surrounding Oscar Night. In nearly every decade there have been great films about food, wine, the people who create them and those who truly enjoy them. Here are some of the best:

Babette's Feast

Chocolat

Julie and Julia

Ratatouille

Vatel

How to Plan a Dinner Worthy of a Nobel Prize

Each year after the Nobel Prize is awarded, the invited attendees progress to one of the world's most exclusive banquets. Among the guests are some of the world's greatest minds and most influential leaders. Former guests have included Barack Obama, Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and Marie Curie among others.

So how does one prepare a celebration for diners such as these? With care and insight as explained by Chef Fredrik Eriksson:

Culinary expert, Fredrik Eriksson, works behind the scenes to uphold Nobel's high standards and add Nordic flare to the exacting standards of the banquet help for this years' prize winners. The stakes are high in creating Sweden's biggest night.

And what are the results of all those months on planning? Here is the feast as served this past year on December 10th:

Guinea hen mosaic, carrot variation with Gotland truffle,
and chanterelle duxelle with truffle mayonnaise

Turbot cupola stuffed with Norwegian lobster,
tartelette with lobster on a bed of cream cheese and spinach,
pointed cabbage terrine, lobster sauce and almond potato purée

Chocolate silhouette with nougat and sea buckthorn explosion

Coffee & Grönstedts VO

Facile Punsch & Stenkulla Brunn Mineral Water

(Crafted by the Restaurant Stadshuskallaren staff in collaboration with Chefs Andreas Hedlund and Fredrik Björlin as well as Pastry Chefs Ted Johansson and Conrad Tyrsén)

Yet as everyone knows, no feast is complete without fine wines. One in particular, the Château l’Hospitalet La Reserve Rouge 2011, is remarkable. Its provenance can be traced back to the Templars, that ancient Order that brought many of the Eastern sciences to the West over a thousand years ago.. What wine could be more appropriate for celebrating the achievements of scientists and peacemakers past and present than this fine wine?

Truly this is a wine worth collecting for the Ages!