Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published August 22, 2007 The Story Behind The Dish             Not long ago, I was asked to speak at a dinner for a friend of mine who was running for office. My job was to get up there and talk about the food and wine that would be served, and provide an atmosphere of goodwill. Which was easy to do, since the menu and wines were both intriguing. The crowd was a mix of those who really like great dinners, with those who wanted to make a contribution to the candidate and didn't care much about food at all. Knowing that would be the case, I came equipped with some good stories about each part of the dinner. For example, several people seemed to be very much interested in the aroma and provenance of white truffles (it was in the soup). Others were taken in by my telling about the stunning winery in Napa where Clos Pegase--whose Cabernet was on the table--makes its wines, amid sculpture and art. Food or wine with a story commands much more attention and excitement than even much better eats or drinks without the story. Below, I've made a list of dishes that would go nowhere without their backstories. It's the food writers and the menu writers who are to blame. Most of us, for obvious reasons, home in on the dishes and foods that give us the most to say. But a dish like grilled pompano with brown butter--about which I've told you nearly everything you need to know--is a much more satisfying dish than a quail stuffed with foie gras and moistened with a quail demi-glace with port. I coukld give you two paragraphs on the latter dish, and I've never even had it. Maybe this explains why chefs are working hard to appeal to our minds than to our palates. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com