To celebrate the opening of Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition we decided to recreate the last first-class dinner served on the Titanic. Journalists, students, and distinguished guests gathered on the 4th floor where we converted our Action Zone space into a fine dining area. How did we do it? We worked with the best.

Our Special Events team is responsible for helping people host events at the Science Center and they’re very, very good at it. Lucky for us, they also have a special connection to Titanic — they’ve seen the movie about 3,203,405 times.

Using their talents, the Science Center put together a remarkable evening complete with a live string quartet, Edward John Smith, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and a ten-course meal fit for an aristocrat.

To prepare such a meal, we turned to two of the best chefs we know: Alex Guarnaschelli and Donatella Arpaia. They were awesome.

Towards the end of the video, Donatella makes an interesting point about one of the big differences between preparing this meal back in 1912 versus today:

“… at the end of the day, it’s all about the ingredients. I think, back then, there was no farmed salmon… everything was naturally organic. They were working with much better raw ingredients.”

Both Alex and Donatella took turns speaking to guests throughout the evening. They discussed the challenges they faced while trying to prepare the meal, and also offered insights into the ingredients of each dish as it was served.

All of the cooking for the dinner was done at the Science Center by our in-house caterer CxRA. Their staff was tremendously professional and earned a well-deserved shoutout from Alex and rousing applause at the end of the evening.

If you’d like to see a picture of every single dish that was served, AM New York has an excellent article complete with food photos. Photos of the table settings, decor, and “Titanic Moment” photo op are on Facebook.

In addition to Donatella and Alex, Titanic artifact expert Alexandra Klingelhofer spoke to guests about how the artifacts were salvaged and called out some of the more unique pieces, such as a telephone believed to have been attached to the Crow's Nest:

The evening closed following the 10th and final course, a dessert pudding made from a recipe that allegedly went down with the ship.

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition features over 100 authentic artifacts from the ship. The exhibition is open now through May 30, 2016.