I’ve always been drawn to the sight of a large feast. Dishes sprawling as far as the eye can see. A plethora of aromas. The sensory overload. Throughout history feasts were always used as a hallmark of commemoration. Think of any large scale celebration and you’ll find it largely centered around food and drink. It seems only natural to also be captivated by the concept of gigantic food. An equivalent to the concept of a feast, but with one dish as opposed to many. Or as I like to think of it, one dish that would feed the many.
There’s a certain comfort in a massive shared dish by knowing there is more than you can eat. A comfort incited by the looming certainty that your appetite will be satiated by what you see in front of you. Now amplify this satisfaction by having this experience be shared by those around you. What would have been a normal meal now becomes a communal event, and finishing that meal turns into a goal for that community to accomplish (unless of course, you’re a competitive eater). This is the magic of a gigantic dish. Together you marvel at the experience you are about to partake, indulge in its assault on your senses, and relish the goal of consuming the entirety of the creation in front of you. Call it communal eating, a big dish, a one meal feast, or whatever. Its fun in one of the most primal senses, and one in which food is truly an experience.
I first stumbled upon this format being inspired by the fusion fries craze blowing up around the time I was in college. Starting with Mexican American California fries and ending up with every ethnic french fry combination you could possibly think of. Take a meat, one or more cheeses, fries, some sauce, a garnish or two, and voilà, you have a solid concept for some fusion of fries. That sounded easy so I tried my own and shared it with all my friends. Except it didn’t make sense to make ten separate portions, so I just made one big one.
I don’t know about you, but not many things gets me quite as excited as the sight of filling the top of a table with a mountain of food. So, with the momentum going and a tad more creativity, I did it again.
And, because once is not ever enough, why not have both?
Now getting back to doing something a little more creative…
Then I heard of sushirittos that I envisioned being these massive sushi rolls. You can only imagine my disappointment so I had to make things right.
And it dawned on me I needed my entry in the giant burrito craze…
The format was quickly becoming natural instinct, which came in handy when I had too many leftover blueberry donuts (pro-tip: people don’t realize how many donuts they eat when you turn it into bread pudding).
As you can tell from the pictures, these were all taken during more nascent periods of my culinary endeavors and, as such, some records of these events have been lost (R.I.P. giant sundae left unfinished by a record attendance of twenty-eight people, your legend lives on in my heart). But these giant food events became a semi-regular occurrence that somehow evolved into me making coursed meals with my “staff” and the rest became history. Although I don’t frequent this format these days, there is nothing quite like throwing together one large dish onto a table and tackling it with some close friends. So, instead of having your next potluck with a million dishes, remember that sometimes less is more. You can have a million items filling that table or a table filled with one huge item. The choice is yours.
Epicurean Experience 