One might think the first-class diners would start to feel full after all this, but they know to save room, because there’s plenty more to come.

Next we enter more familiar territory, with dishes (unlike Consommé Olga) that would be recognizable to someone dining in 2020: lamb with mint sauce, roast duckling, sirloin of beef and vegetables. But in April of 1912, far before the advent of frozen foods, the Titanic’s chef can procure marrow and fresh peaches and virtually anything else that he thinks his elite dinner patrons might enjoy. It is April, after all, and marrow is a summer vegetable. The marrow serves as a small reminder of the gastronomical perfection of the Titanic’s kitchen. Farci means it’s stuffed in this dish, it is stuffed with rice. The fish is followed with Filet Mignon Lili, tender beef in a buttery wine sauce, and Chicken Lyonnaise, sautéed chicken in a sauce of onions, tomato, and white wine. Diners can feel free to have a generous helping of the Mousseline sauce – it’s 1912 and no one has heard of cholesterol! The fish course is poached salmon with Mousseline sauce, a rich sauce of butter, eggs, lemon and whipped cream. Consommé is a rich soup made of concentrated and clarified stock, beef in this case add “Olga” and diners know to expect Russian influence, which in this soup is the spinal marrow of the Russian sturgeon.

The choices are Consommé Olga or cream of barley. The blog Ephemeral New York cites William Grimes’ book Appetite City on the popularity of oysters in the Gilded Age: “In humble cellars and lavish oyster palaces all over, oysters were consumed voraciously.” The Titanic left port with 1,221 quarts of oysters. The meal starts with varied hors d’oeuvres and oysters. Let’s follow the menu from appetizers to dessert.

Titanic a la carte restaurant