Chef-d'oeuvre A Dinner of Dessert Thanksgiving 2010 Guest of Honor : David Shapiro A Menu Poem Chef-d'oeuvre A Dinner of Dessert by Geoffrey Gatza Copyright © 2010 Published by BlazeVOX [books] All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews. Printed in the United States of America Book design by Geoffrey Gatza First Edition BlazeVOX [books] 303 Bedford Ave Buffalo, NY 14216 [email protected] \ publisher of weird little books BlazeVOX [ books ] blazevox.org 2 4 6 8 0 9 7 5 3 1 A Dinner Menu of Dessert Amuseé New York State Sparkling Wine With A Gingered Chrysanthemum Flower Appetizer A Mixed Grill Of Sugared Papaya, Lychee And Caramel Banana Soup Deep Chocolate And Tarragon Soup With Frothed Coffee Cream And Hazelnuts Pièces Montées Chocolate Sculpture Of A Stuffed Turkey With Marshmallow Stuffing Desserts From Around The World Sour Cherry, Vanilla, Fig, Almond And Walnut Glyka Firnee With Pistachios And Flavored With Cardamom. Coconut Puff Cookies Coconut Pudding Flavored With Clove And Ground Excellence Scottish Black Bun Mango, Banana, Strawberry, Sweet Potato, And Chestnut Mochi Canned Peaches Cheese, Port & Exotic Nuts Dessert The Best Rice Pudding In The World Table of Contents The Big Story ................................................................................................................................................................................11 One Game of Scrabble .................................................................................................................................................................13 eagerly ...................................................................................................................................................................................17 Pain........................................................................................................................................................................................21 Row.......................................................................................................................................................................................24 Whaler...................................................................................................................................................................................26 Scrabble (Part 2)............................................................................................................................................................................33 Hued .....................................................................................................................................................................................34 Zeta........................................................................................................................................................................................38 Airy .......................................................................................................................................................................................45 Fade.......................................................................................................................................................................................60 Mean......................................................................................................................................................................................62 Vote.......................................................................................................................................................................................63 Scrabble (part 3)............................................................................................................................................................................65 Ti ...........................................................................................................................................................................................67 jerrid......................................................................................................................................................................................68 Ox..........................................................................................................................................................................................69 Bunn......................................................................................................................................................................................70 I win ......................................................................................................................................................................................71 End Notes and Game play..................................................................................................................................................72 Definitions............................................................................................................................................................................74 Dessert Around the World ..........................................................................................................................................................78 Kabul, Afghanistan ..............................................................................................................................................................79 Episkopi Cantonment, Akrotiri and Dhekelia..................................................................................................................80 Pago Pago, American Samoa...............................................................................................................................................81 Luanda, Angola....................................................................................................................................................................82 Tokyo, Japan ........................................................................................................................................................................83 Edinburgh, Scotland ............................................................................................................................................................84 Grytviken, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands............................................................................................85 St. John of God .............................................................................................................................................................................87 The Best Rice Pudding Recipe In The Whole World ...............................................................................................................92 Chef-d'oeuvre chef-d'oeuvre: PRONUNCIATION: (shay-DOO-vruh) MEANING: noun: A masterpiece. ETYMOLOGY: From French chef-d'oeuvre (masterpiece) from chef (chief) + oeuvre (work) Thanksgiving introduction Hello and thank you for coming to this year’s Thanksgiving poem menu! We are honoring David Shapiro with a truly experimental dinner, a meal made up of different courses of dessert items. This may sound weird, but as this is set up, it would act very nicely as a full meal. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting this together. To work with Mr. Shapiro in mind is a real pleasure. He is so influential to everything I seem to understand / admire / embody as art, it is hard to extricate what it is in my memories of what comes from him and what flows through him. Like one wondering if the fun from a cherry comes from the red color or the unique taste. And it was this quick, poorly developed metaphor that toddled it's way on towards the notion to have a full seven- course meal consisting solely of dessert. I have never had the occasion to do such a thing, a full dinner of dessert, as there is little call for it. This is exactly why this is perfect for David Shapiro. I am a trained chef and I have the ability to prepare this meal but I do have to say that if he came to my home, I would, of course, cook him a fine meal of vegetables and other common comestibles. But for poetry, a paper plate, and a paper soup, why not? There is a wonderful story that David once played violin for John Lennon. David is an accomplished violinist and this must have been quite the treat to play music for one who has reached the souls of so many. And it is in this spirit that this dinner menu came about, David emailed me to ask if I would do one for him. And I can tell you; it was a happy thing to receive that request! I love David and his poems, in that way one loves and sees John Lennon’s body of work. In the making of this work, I went at it with the glee I can only imagine he played his violin. Thank you a thousand times for coming and be sure to come back next year! Hurray! Love, Geoffrey Gatza PS: There is a fun interview with Kent Johnson, Thanksgiving Dinner Menu 2004 Guest of Honor, in Jacket http://jacketmagazine.com/37/iv-shapiro-d-ivb-kent.shtml Chef-d'oeuvre A Dinner of Dessert Amuseé New York State Sparkling Wine With A Gingered Chrysanthemum Flower The Big Story The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The Big The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The