Wow, I love this headline.
I’ll interview all my millionaire friends and let you know. Back soon.
Well, first of all, they tell me billionaire is the new millionaire, so I’m going to raise the bar.
Second — I was thinking it must be all about eco-friendly, sustainable, local food. Rich folk are locavores this week, right? Here’s the food-for-the-rich scenario as I had imagined it (turns out to have been entirely wrong):
“I’ll have my au pair drive to the farmer’s market to buy all the freshest just picked vegetables - the lettuces, the leeks and onions, the rainbow chard, the homemade pies, the early baby creamer potatoes, the hand-salted goat cheese. It can be a lesson in sustainable farming for my seven-year-old. Truffles dug up by my yard man’s farmer friend Joe. Corn and raspberries are hand-picked and delivered to my home weekly.”
As I looked into it, I realized actually that’s how I eat, and I am not a millionaire. Or billionaire. Plus, I don’t have kids, an au pair or a yard man. Wish I did - at least a concierge or something.
How do the very wealthy eat? I did some light reading, and this is what I found. Let’s go look at some of the finest restaurants in the most expensive cities in the world:
According to selected menu items listed in the SPellegrino 50 Best Restaurants in the World, the very wealthy might be eating at this very moment:
Snail Porridge
Bacon and Egg Ice Cream
Warm lettuce hearts soaked in vanilla brine
Sheep’s milk curd seasoned with hay and toasted fern
Beef roasted with the embers of vine cuttings
“Macaroni and Cheese” (butter-poached Maine lobster with mascarpone-enriched Orzo Pasta)
“Oyster and pearls” (”Sabayon” of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar)
This convinces me that I am not a billionaire. However, thanks to the beautiful farmer’s market in the small village where I live, I do eat like a millionaire of home-grown tastes. Very sensible of me. Only without the yard guy or the au pair.
With that in mind, here is a recipe for pasta, fresh vegetables and goat cheese with herbs de provence:
Set your pasta water on to boil.
- Prepare your vegetables - chop or slice nice and thin, as you liike it
(you choose your veggies - this is what we had yesterday):Onion
Garlic
Yellow bell pepper
Yellow squash
Zucchini
Fresh oregano
Herbs de provence - chervil, rosemary, savory, lavendar, tarragon, marjoram, mint (variations are common)
Goat cheese
Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil. When these are soft and clear, add each vegetable in turn. Cook at a medium-high temperature. Don’t abuse your vegetables by mashing them about with a spatula or boiling them to death. Add a generous splash of vermouth or white wine. Let sit for a moment.
Drain your pasta and dress lightly with oil or butter.
Plate the pasta, sprinkle an ounce or slightly more of goat cheese on it. Spoon the sauteed vegetables on top of all that. Add salt and pepper.
Serve hot, with a glass of chilled white wine. Have some while you are cooking, too, if it seems advisable.
Light mixed green salad on the side.
Life can be relatively easy, can’t it?
