Your ultimate dinner party

[Jenise]

You can invite any four people living or dead to join you for a stimulating evening of food, wine and conversation. Who would your guests be and why?

My mom, because she passed away before I was thirty and never saw our second son. My dad, because he and my mom split up when I was one year old and I never saw him again (that I remember) until I was thirty, then we had a wonderful relationship, until he passed away. Our daughter, because she lives far away, and we and our sons don't see her often enough. And because we had three children, I can't leave out our two sons, who would love to see their sister, my mom and dad. We would all tell stories, share good food and make memories.

Not as simple as it may seem Jenise, as I would have to reserve three of the upstairs private rooms at Paris' Laperousse Restaurant. In the first Anna Delions; in the second room Samuel Pepys and the Marquis de Sade; and in the third Umberto Eco.

The first room would be devoted primarily to dining and other pleasures of the senses; the second would involve dining along with conversation and debate; and the third to dining while reporting on and writing about what was happening in rooms one and two.

As to what would be served at each of the three tables - with Ms Delions langoustines in Sauce Nantua to be eaten of course with the fingers; in the second an abundance of oysters Rockefeller; and in the third huge porterhouse steaks which would hopefully give me the strength to survive rooms one and two. In keeping with the spirit of things, all wines, of course, in fine crystal glasses but served from pewter pitchers circa 1780, the wines served by robed monks.

We five will put the famed meal of the three emperors quite to shame!

Best
Rogov

The choices, the choices ... !

I'd want to invite Queen Elizabeth I. What an amazing life she had. But then, I'd also quite fancy dining with her dad, Henry VIII (when he was young and fit and before the suppurating leg ulcers... ) and I don't think they'd be a good combination. Come to think of it, her mum Anne Boleyn would be a good conversationalist, too, and once again I wouldn't want family dynamics to get in the way of my conversations with the guests. It's my dinner party, after all! So: Bess it is.

It's almost impossible to come up with a single guest-list for "the ultimate dinner party". Instead, here's who I'd like to invite round this time. In fact, I think I'll make it a women-only dinner.

So, starting with Elizabeth I, I'd also like to invite ...

Eleanor of Aquitaine. Now there's another interesting woman. Well read, cultured, a political manipulator, someone who attacked life with vigour.

Benazir Bhutto. A career politician, the first woman to be elected head of a Muslim state, educated in England - a leader in turbulent times. I always watched her career with interest, and would enjoy hearing her views about politics and the art of compromise.

Julia Gillard - our Prime Minister since a party-room vote last Thursday. Born in Wales, grew up in the next suburb from where I'm sitting. She has a tough time ahead of her, and an election due in the next 12 months.

The menu: Food that won't get in the way of the conversation.

Smoked Tasmanian salmon and trout, served with brown bread, finely chopped white onion, paper-thin slices of lemon and freshly ground black pepper. A dry Tasmanian white sparkling wine (thinking Stefano Lubiana).

A hearty chicken casserole of some kind - the sort of thing you don't have to concentrate hard on to eat. Don't want the food to interrupt the conversation other than to evince enthusiastic murmurs of appreciation over the flavours. If I'm cooking it will probably be coq au vin; I usually turn out a pretty good coq au vin ... fit for two queens and two prime ministers. A silky shiraz, an elegant Coonawarra cabernet.

Cheese and fruit, with a mellow Adelaide Hills riesling (thinking Geoff Weaver). (White after red? Yeah. This one goes with the cheese.)

Individual Balfours frog cakes for dessert. These are disgusting, really - but might turn the conversation to discussions of national and regional identity as personified by food. We probably wouldn't eat these, but would move on to coffee, and a good box of chocolates. Dark. Cream centres. Naturally.

[Jenise]

I'm still working on my answer to my own question, but I can offer this: nearly every scenario I envision includes Dorothy Parker. What dinner party with Dorothy would not be a riot?

Julia Child
William Shatner
Jancis Robinson
Margaret Atwood

I don't know what this says about me, but I know one thing: ol' Billy would sure get a kick out of those three strong women.

Julia Child
William Shatner
Jancis Robinson
Margaret Atwood

I don't know what this says about me, but I know one thing: ol' Billy would sure get a kick out of those three strong women.

Ok, I feel compelled to explain my choices a bit more:

Julia Child - she's got a quirky sense of humour, she's down to earth, she loves food, and she did something I'm trying to do myself - transform her passion from a hobby into a career.

William Shatner - he has great stories and a great voice. Also I think he'd really enliven a room with three strong-minded women, as I mentioned above. Also I just think he's hilarious.

Jancis Robinson - she's definitely one of my role models, and I would love to sit down and pick her brain over a few good glasses of wine.

Margaret Atwood - famously bitchy and reticent, nonetheless I think I could get her to open up. I've been a fan of her work since I was a 13 year old girl (and what better time to start reading Atwood?), and her books have only gotten better with age. I think part of me chose her purely so that I could later brag to all my English-degree friends about how I dined with a Canadian literary icon.

[Jenise]

Melissa, can I be a fly on the wall at your dinner party? I love the idea of Bill Shatner aping around all these bright and intelligent women.

Daniel, you subversive: interesting grouping. And I hope you chose wisely, it would be a shame to resurrect Ms. Delions only to find out that she'd contracted syphillus from one of her Imperial courtiers.

Matilda, I too tend to think in groupings and one of mine was Courageous Women of History. Bess, as you call her, occurred to me too, but my #1 choice for that group is one Harriet Tubbman whose uncanny ability to hide in plain sight and outsmart the men who chased her enabled her to make a grand contribution to the history of my country called the Underground Railroad. Marie Antoinette would join her, but I otherwise haven't filled that table yet.

Another table would be lady authors with, of course, Dorothy Parker. From there it's just a matter of figuring out who would light her off in the best way possible, and I'm tempted to think Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf would both be a gas. With them, who else? One of the Bronte sisters? Margaret Mitchell, if only just to find out why she never wrote another book? Not sure.

Another table yet would be Famous Actresses from Hollywood's golden era. Marilyn Monroe would top that list because I'd love to find what really went down with the Kennedy boys. And Sinatra. And Gable. And Joe. And Arthur. With her I'd include Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis and maybe Carole Lombard, although I may have to scrap this list and start over just so I can be sure to have someone at my table who slept with Cary Grant.

Karen, when I read your note last night it kind of kicked me in the gut to realize that of all the fantasizing I'd done during the day on this topic, dining with my own mother who died when I was a teenager didn't occur to me. I guess that's because I felt I knew her very well, and because she didn't like dinner parties. We never had them at any rate: growing up, but for family, we had zero guests at our home.

Karen, when I read your note last night it kind of kicked me in the gut to realize that of all the fantasizing I'd done during the day on this topic, dining with my own mother who died when I was a teenager didn't occur to me. I guess that's because I felt I knew her very well, and because she didn't like dinner parties. We never had them at any rate: growing up, but for family, we had zero guests at our home.

My mom raised me all by herself, but we had a close family with her sister (my aunt and five cousins) they lived in a beautiful big home, in a redwood forest, and had five horses, dogs and cats. My weekends were filled with fun and good food, trail riding in the redwoods, putting the horses up in their stalls at night, and feeding the Dalmatians and Siamese cats. We always had parties at my aunts for family. Mom entertained her co-workers, now and then and I was usually bored out of my mind. I missed not having siblings and a dad, but I had two nice uncles who drove me places and filled in with advice anytime I needed it. Both my mom and aunt were great cooks....mom, more on the comfort food and my aunt, very gourmet and cutting edge ahead of her time. She also raised much of the produce they ate. My grandparents, had a large home and raised chickens, goats, rabbits...we had tons of eggs and a huge veggie garden. Mom and I lived with them for much of my pre-teen years, later moving into our own apartment as I became a teen. It was great because I could walk to school, to downtown and to my skating lessons and the rink...which was my great love all through my teen years. I would love for her to see our adult kids and grandkids.

so I can be sure to have someone at my table who slept with Cary Grant.

Before or after his many LSD sessions with his shrink?

Oh, Jenise!
so I can be sure to have someone at my table who slept with Cary Grant

Why not invite Cary Grant? Although, the girls might tell what he wouldn't say out loud himself!

Another one of my dinner party combinations might be Alan Rickman, Richard Armitage, David Tennant and Ralph Fiennes .... nothing but a fangirl at heart really.

[Jenise]

Before or after his many LSD sessions with his shrink?

This is something I didn't know anything about! You went to the same shrink?

Since my wife died over six years ago, I have met many wonderful folks through the WLDG. I'm sure she would like these people as much as I do, but I would be hard pressed to limit the list to her and three others. I can visualize Janet trying to get things done in the kitchen while sharing bubbly with Jo Ann, Cynthia, Jeanette Roscoe and Julia. I'd be in the back yard, cooking something on the grill with Bob H, Bucko and Stuart, while Chef looks on (all of us sipping a Stone Wolf Pinot). Meanwhile, James, Ed Draves, John Fiola and Paulo pitch horse shoes next to my small vineyard, which is being inspected by Linda, Carl and Robin. I'm not sure what dinner would consist of, but '75 Lafite would be served. A bit of fantasy.

food and wine theme:
Julia Child, Anthony Bourdain, Paul Draper and Steve Edmunds, just because I love what each of them has to say individually (though it would be evil fun to replace Julia Child with Alice Waters just to see her interact with Bourdain )

arts and music:
Brian Eno, Marcel Duchamp, Jim Jarmusch and Kurt Schwitters, to hear the thoughts of four artists who knew no boundaries

literature:
Toni Morrison, Primo Levi, Vikram Seth and Margaret Atwood, for their insights into humanity

politics:
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Theodore Roosevelt and Frankin Roosevelt, to discuss the mess we're in today

My main concern when planning dinner parties is to assemble the guests with the same care that I assemble the foods and the wines. It's important to invite fun, interesting people but they also must interact well with each other.

Mark Lipton

Duchamp ... Schwitters

Mark, you're a Dadaist!! (Wanna help me host a dinner party for the whole Cabaret Voltaire group?)

When you invite 'personalities' you rarely get a word in edgewise anyway so best to make sure it will be entertaining and sit back and enjoy it.

How about Bob Parker and Jancis Robinson, for a blind double vertical of Lafite and Pavie? Or for that matter, Bob Parker and any number of mercurial Burgundy producers (probably have to hide the steak knives for that one)?

Duchamp ... Schwitters

Mark, you're a Dadaist!! (Wanna help me host a dinner party for the whole Cabaret Voltaire group?)

Da, da.

Mark Lipton

Great question that I have been passively thinking about for the past few days and still cannot really answer. In large part because while there are famous people I would like to meet and ask specific questions (e.g. ask Obama how he maintains his cool and what he really thinks of things, or ask Roger Federer how he deals with the pressure) I'm not sure how fun they would be at dinner if we didn't already know each other.

So I'm going to just have to go with four of my close friends (not to be named here), free of all obligations and worries (just like the undergrad or high school years!) and sitting in front of a glorious spread of food and wine. We can approach that state of mind during a dinner party, but these days the care-free moments are usually only fleeting...