Patrick White Recipes

Hi all... I know this slightly off beam but does anyone have a copy or knowledge of the dinner thrown at the national library of Australia based on Patrick and Manoly's recipes?
This was done in 2007. My friends and I will be hosting a centenary dinner and would like to try and recreate the dinner if at all possible.

Oh that sounds like great fun. I have a contact (wink wink) at the NLA so if you're desperate I might be able to help. If she's still speaking to me.
In fact, you could try contacting the NLA - they're very nice.

Are you having the dinner anywhere near Centennial Park?? In May??

ETA: I've sent an enquiry to the NLA.

Thanks Amanda, we are doing it in Melbourne. If you could source a contact for us that'll be great. We have some contacts in Canberra but unsure whether they can help. Nothing lost if we can't find it, short of calling David Marr!! I'll share the outcome of the dinner on this post! Just starting to read riders in the chariot in the last week. What a year this is turning out to be!!!

#3 I had a reply from the NLA and I left a copy on your profile page under "Comments". Sounds promising.

#4 - We are currently attempting to get access to the box at the NLA. A two pronged approach as one of us will be in Canberra for a conference... Fingers crossed!

#6 Crossed!

UPDATE: We got access to the box andwere able to take down some details of about a dozen recipe's mostly french influenced... we are shortlisting the ones for the dinner on the 26th... more to comes...

Fantastic! Please keep us updated.

We have decided on a 4 course meal (matched with wines + a cocktail I'm devising to celebrate the anniversary). I'll release the final menu later (as there many be changes), but I getting really excited now. One thing we are doing is a Souffle, which I'll be road testing this weekend so it doesn't flop on the night. It was hard reading some of his and manoly's handwriting however we have muddled through. Thanks for your earlier advice! The NLA staff were really good according to my envoy.

It does sound very exciting. How did you feel reading their very own handwriting to decide on the recipes? Sounds kind of gorgeous to me.

Hi Amanda, The night was a raging success, the table was dressed up with a giant paper image of Patrick White (the famous William Yang photo), the place mats were excerpts from the ABC web site on PW with images of all of his novels and short story collections, along with discussion on the works. The napkin rings were the cardboard PW glasses from the Canberra exhibition.

The menu was as follows: Iced Carrot and Orage Soup (a revelation!), the Haloumi Souffle (impressive and very yummy!), saddle of lamb with zeilook and "Substantial Cranky Salad" (lamb was divine and the zeilook spicy, and the salad beany!), Susan Previent Lee's Chocolate Mousse (insanely rich) and the Java Macaroon (for coffee/tea). Wines were Albarino for the soup course, Sparkling for the souffle, selection of reds (pinot, cabernet and shiraz) for the main and a cocktail which I created for the ocassion to go with dessert. I call it the Dogwoods Martini (cognac and vodka base with fresh mandarine juice amongst other tricks).

A great night!... and its not finished there NLA have asked me to do a blog for the Paddy's Kitchen site... keep posted!

#11 Loved every detail of your wonderful celebration! And a blog for the NLA?? WOW!!

we'll wait until until they deem it "safe" to publish... HAHAHAHA... not exactly I was expecting.

try this on for size... http://blogs.nla.gov.au/paddys-kitchen/2012/06/12/haloumi-souffle/

#14 Paul, that is one fantastic blog post. Love the huge photo of White on the table.

We are also doing a centenary dinner for Manoly Lascaris (Whites partner) August 5th is the centenary date. All Greek menu!

More on the Lascaris dinner. We had to postpone this until this coming weekend from about 6pm AEST (Sat 18th). Four courses 2 from the transcripts (and 2 from other sources) with a greek influence. It will be published in the Paddy's Kitchen blog on the National Library site in the coming weeks. I will also be tweeting through the dinner, track hashtag #Malony100 Watch out for our version of a special photographic tribute of Manoly and Patrick

#17 Hope you have a great time.

Amanda,

We did indeed, I haven't had the opportunity to write the blog entry (life gets in the way) as yet. I'll share link when available.

Cheers,

Paul