Dining Alone? Yes Please...

There's in a scene in the movie The Thomas Crown Affair, where Thomas Crown, a wealthy investment banker who has it all yet loves to steal priceless works of art, comes home alone to his uber posh NYC home. In this scene he walks in, opens what I would assume to be an a amazing bottle of wine, pours himself a glass...looks at his most recent acquisition and raises a glass to it and to himself. All alone. Now I'm no Gazillionaire banker nor an "acquirer" of priceless works of art. I do however absolutely relate to this scene. Why? Because he is alone and he is enjoying that glass of wine and his surroundings....alone. I think there is something very special about dinning alone, in your place with your things surrounding you and there is an amazing amount of solace that comes with that. It is impossible to share this intimate moment, because the very essence of the point is to BE alone.

I equate it to cooking, because often after having a similar scene in my MUCH smaller NYC apartment with my glass of wine, I tend to move on to the cooking portion of my evening....again....alone. If you've ever taken a moment to notice some of the things you do when you're alone, you'd be amazed. With cooking, I often find myself setting a proper table setting. Hell, sometimes I even light a candle. (and yes this plate was just for me)


I am ABSOLUTELY conscious about plating probably even more so then when I have guests over. I am far from being a meticulous person, and yet there I am, carefully laying out a meal that would cost more than a pretty penny in a fine dining establishment. But I think (and maybe you agree with me on this maybe you don't) there is a fleeting preciousness in that time alone. You know I don't actually remember when I started caring about plating (I'm no chef remember) but I am quite certain that it was when I was dining alone. Cooking alone is a chance to dream...to wonder...to explore...well...just about everything in your life. It's there to take chances and be wrong and it being ok. Places like this are very rare indeed these days my friends. BUT....I don't need to tell you that, you already know....Don't you? Yeah. Me too.


Then comes the next character in our little play.. Some may even call it the main player, but to me it's just another character. Maybe the leading lady. The meal. When you are alone You cannot be judged on what you eat. It is all you. Your choice. Your desire. Your world....even if just for a few hours. You can make the simplest of meals or the downright strangest concoctions. Why? Because it's just you....no judges here. And we ALL have that special meal or two. You know the one I'm talking about, the one you just NEED to have sometimes. The one where you get that first whiff of a smell and the house around you beings to change and fade into familiar old time surroundings. You take that first bite and the haziness of those memories solidifies into reality. And boom there you are again. Back in that little place you call comfort.


We all have one dish, maybe even two or three. But the number is never large. If the number was large the scenario would no longer be intimate. And I would probably not be writing this thought. I have two or three, but I think the one that always just settles me down is probably the very simplest of meals. Just give me a bowl of pasta, two or three spoon fulls of ricotta cheese and cover it with homemade Marinara sauce. Hell it doesn't even have to be homemade marinara sauce. There's many a fine jar of marinara sauces out there which can most certainly get the job done. Grate some fresh parmesan cheese (and on this I won't substitute, it must be fresh) all over the top, maybe a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, some fresh bread on the side (which I will tear and NOT slice) and am truly in the very essence of the word, good.


But that is my little piece of soul comfort. We each have our own with all sorts of combinations. And none of them are odd. Why? Because they are ours....alone....with no one else to have an opinion but us. And this is a kind of wealth that anyone can own. I would love to hear some of the dishes that you guys do.

Until we do this again....

Enjoy....Have Fun...and Eat Well!

TPC