Tuck in to the Titanic's last supper

Published on Saturday 13 March 2010 19:32

IN FIRST class they dined on filet mignons lili and pâté de foie gras, served on fine china while in third class it was cabin biscuits, roast beef and brown gravy.

&#149 The dining room from the film Titanic

Yet as the evening meal was served onboard the flag ship of the White Star line, regardless of location and the social pecking order, it was a last supper ruined by too much ice.

The vast majority of the diners aboard the infamous Titanic went down to the bottom of the Atlantic with the ill-fated liner in 1912, but the menus survived intact and now a cookbook is to reveal how to recreate the 98-year-old class-based culinary experience.

And soon a whole new complement of cruisers will be enjoying the same meals as they are recreated for passengers on a Titanic Memorial Cruise which follows the route of the ill-fated ship – hopefully avoiding any icebergs.

The new book has been compiled by Yvonne Hume the great-niece of the tragic vessel's first violinist, John Law Hume, who was drowned in the maritime disaster, aged just 21.

RMS Titanic: Dinner is Served travels from the Palm Court restaurant on A deck to the third-class dining saloon on F deck in search of the tastiest dishes.

Her love of fine cuisine with a personal interest in the tragedy have combined to produce a title that will be a unique contribution to culinary readers' bookshelves.

A former restaurateur, Hume, who lives in Norfolk, disagrees that the subject is ghoulish. "I think the whole subject is almost romantic.

"There are many Titanic societies across the land and these enthusiasts get together and have Titanic-themed evenings as this is their point of interest."

Each recipe comes with the date and class in which it was served, such as the honey-roasted salmon with mouseline sauce, which was served in first class on the evening of 14 April, hours before the ship sank.

Wealthy first-class diners – perhaps reflecting the cost of their ticket which rose to $4,500 (equivalent to $96,000 now) for a Millionaire's Suite – had an extensive choice from 11-course menus, which included oysters to start, roast squab for main and Waldorf pudding to finish.

Second-class travellers also had choice but dined on more ordinary fare, such as pea soup, baked haddock with sharp sauce, and coconut sandwich with American ice-cream.

It was in third class, where the passengers were mostly poor emigrants looking for a new life in the US, that the real differences emerged. The cheapest one-way fare was $36 and lunch, called dinner, was rice soup, beef and potatoes and plum pudding. However, supper was also served in the form of gruel and it could all be washed down with beer at 3d a tankard.

It was while researching a separate biography of her great uncle that the author decided to compile the book: "Over the years I have become fascinated with not only this majestic liner, but also the food served on board," Hume said.

"I just researched and found the actual menus themselves and then brought them up to date as well as simplifying them so that cooks of all skills can actually recreate the menus."

The Titanic sank in the early hours of 15 April after striking an iceberg, four days after launching on its maiden voyage with the loss of 1,517 of the 2,223 men, women and children on board. Considered to be at the cutting edge of maritime technology the liner was thought to be unsinkable.

The ship had four restaurants on board, the Veranda and Palm Courts were on A deck, while the la carte restaurant and Caf Parisian were on B deck. Then there was the first, second and third-class Dining Saloons.

As the first violinist, John Hume, had been employed by the Liverpool firm, CW and FN Black, who had contracts with many of the major steamer companies to provide musicians. Hume, who was born in Dumfries, was one of a handful of musicians who tried to dampen down the rising panic by playing on deck while the lifeboats were loaded with women and children.

He drowned while wearing a light rain coat, uniform jacket and purple muffler with a cigarette case, a knife with a carved pearl handle and an empty purse in his pockets.

A similar fate befell Pierre Rousseau, the Titanic's chef, a Frenchmen who had previously worked in the kitchens of the Balmoral hotel, then the North British station hotel in Edinburgh. He and the kitchen clerk, Paul Mauge made it up on to the boat deck but while Mauge managed to leap into a lifeboat and pleaded with Rousseau to follow he couldn't. As Mauge later testified to the public inquiry: "He was too fat."

The tragic story of the ill-starred liner was given a new lease of life by James Cameron's 1997 Oscar-winning blockbuster, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Now the new recipe book is eagerly awaited by Miles Morgan Travel, the organisers of the Titanic Memorial Cruise, which will see 1,300 passengers follow the itinerary of the original White Star line voyage.

The cruise on board the MS Balmoral from the Fred Olsen line, takes place in April, 2012, and will include a memorial service on the evening of the 100th anniversary of the disaster on the exact spot where the ship sank. It has already sold 60 per cent of tickets.

"We are planning to re-create the menus that were served in first class, second class and third class," said Tara Plumley, of MMT.

"We will also be organising the high teas that were so popular on board the Titanic. The chefs with the Fred Olsen line are keen to be as accurate as possible."