For after the party
The Midnight Supper
The course nobody plans and everybody remembers: something hot, salty and simple served at one in the morning to guests who danced instead of eating.
Preparation
What happens when
- Two days aheadBroth or stew made and frozen or chilled.
- The dayKept hot in a single pot from midnight, with bowls and spoons stacked nearby.
Service
How to serve it
Self service from one station, in bowls or napkins, standing. No seating plan, no waiters carrying trays into a dance floor, and everything gone within forty minutes.
At home
Onion soup for twelve at one in the morning
Made two days earlier, reheated at midnight, and better than anything else you could serve at that hour.
- Cook 2 kg thinly sliced onions in 100 g butter over low heat for 50 to 60 minutes until deep brown, stirring often. This is the whole dish.
- Add 200 ml dry white wine, reduce, then 2.5 l good beef or chicken stock, and simmer 30 minutes. Season assertively.
- Cool and refrigerate. Reheat at midnight and serve in small bowls or cups.
- Top with a slice of toasted baguette and grated gruyère, grilled until bubbling, or serve plain with cheese on the side.
Editor’s tip: Season it harder than you would at eight o’clock. Palates at one in the morning need salt and acid to taste anything at all.
Plan it
Quantities and timing
How much to buy
Quantity Calculator
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Service Timeline
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Where this menu belongs
Format
One hundred guests, one kitchen tentWedding Banquet
Sixty to two hundred seated, a field kitchen, a timetable nobody may move and a cake that has to survive the afternoon.
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Format
Two hours, standing, forty bitesCocktail Reception
Two hours, no chairs, eight to twelve bites a guest and a bar that never has a queue.
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Format
Formal service, domestic buildingTownhouse Banquet
Twenty to forty guests, silver service or plated, in a building never designed for it.
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Where it eats best
Market
Townhouses, mews kitchens and a trade that never sleepsLondon
No city hires out a kitchen brigade faster.
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Market
Six flights of stairs, one service lift and the best brigades in AmericaNew York
New York has the deepest American talent pool and the hardest buildings.
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Market
Where catering is a trade with its own wordParis
France gave the trade its vocabulary, and the Parisian traiteur still behaves like a restaurant that happens to travel.
Read on