The Endless Table;  Recipes From Departed Loved Ones

Featuring Tom Colicchio, Ben Ford, Jasper White, Amanda Hesser, Jose Andres, Jody Adams, Michel Nischan, Naomi Duguid, Tim Ferriss, Marc Forgione, Gordon Hamersley, Kathleen Flinn, Ina Garten, Jeffrey Zurofsky, Roger Berkowitz, Steve DiFillippo, Kathy Gunst, Ellen Goodman, Michael Hebb, Roberta MacDonald, and Christopher Kimball. Photography by Annie Musselman.  Designed by Civilization. Styled by Ashley Helvey. 

We asked 20 of our country's leading chefs and food writers to send a recipe and a story.  Not your average recipe and story, but instead a very important one. 

We asked for recipes from their loved ones who are no longer with us. And we asked them to tell us a story about this person, this recipe, and about their last days - in short - the end of their life. Was it tragic, or a thoughtful departure after a long full life. These are powerful stories for us to tell and share. 

How we die in America is pretty messed up. The Conversation Project and DeathoverDinner are working to change it. We want people to know what their loved ones want. We want people to know what they personally want. We want people to be able to speak openly about end of life fears and hopes. AT THE KITCHEN TABLE, NOT IN THE ICU. This simple conversation can change the care model. It can change how we die in America. 

After inspiring thousands of people to come to the table, we wanted to have some comfort food to serve alongside this important conversation. The idea for a cookbook was born. A very unusual cookbook. A cookbook that asks us to remember the people that are no longer with us, and celebrate the food they cooked us, the food we shared. 

It will launch on Dec 15th 2014 as an e-book ($15, available on itunes, kindle, nook), and in the coming year we will expand it into a beautifully printed cookbook. We are also building an interactive website where you can post your own recipes from departed loved ones - extending the table - making it ENDLESS. 

All we need is some final funding to complete the design and production. 

We would love your help making this project a reality. Please support our modest campaign and help us bring these recipes, stories and this conversation to the world. 

Proceeds from the Endless Table e-cookbook downloads will fund our two non-profit organizations www.deathoverdinner.org and www.theconversationproject.org.  

The Endless Table

excerpt from: Jose Andres, Vegetable Paella In Memory of David Pearson

"...I don’t like funerals, but when David’s parents told me there would be a celebration of his life, I knew I had to be there. I was blown away by how many people came to remember this amazing boy. Hundreds and hundreds of loved ones gathered to share stories and feast on paella, the very same paella we made in my backyard the first time we met. I thought to myself, this is a party, and I was so happy because I knew in my heart it was how David would’ve wanted it to be. Friends and family, together, united over one meal. When I go, I want it to be like that. I will always carry David’s spirit with me. He was a selfless, passionate young man and he inspires me every single day. Every time I make this vegetable paella, I smile and remember David, and I think of how lucky the angels in heaven are to have a chef like him."

excerpt from: Christopher Kimball, Mary Alice's Creamed Summer Corn

"...When she died, I took the ancient birch and gut snowshoes; there is nothing better in deep snow. They are a reminder that Mary Alice was fond of gearing up to challenge the elements or whatever else stood in her way. She knew the secret of life, taking that first step.

Her legacy is the garden and the cornfield – this is still our family’s hallowed ground. We plant every year with the expectation of those first sweet ears, quickly boiled or creamed. Good food always makes good memories."

excerpt from; Kathleen Flinn, Blueberry Jam like my Grandad’s

"We sat quietly, eating our biscuits and jam. It made me wonder, what would I have said to my father if I had known then it was our last conversation? I’d have told him that I loved him. But he knew that. I didn’t know then to tell him that I’d miss him every day for the rest of my life. That I’d be lonely for him on every Father’s Day, and I would pretend to be happy when he wasn’t there at my graduations or the day I married.

If could have one brief conversation with him one now, I’d ask the secret to his chicken and dumplings.

I’ve been trying to make my father’s version for more than 30 years ago. The dumplings vex me. They’re always soggy or bland or both. What am I doing wrong? So irrational, but somewhere my heart believes that if I can get that recipe right, I can have him back, just for a moment. Just for one bite.