Historic Dinner.

Dinner for Two: Language Activity

Hardik Shrestha 7HF

Leonardo Da Vinci

If I somehow had the chance, I would definitely invite the famous inventor and artist, Leonardo Da Vinci, over for dinner. One of the most diversely talented people to have ever lived would be invited over to my 15th century mansion and enjoy a relaxed night of gourmet food and the best entertainment. We would talk about his technical ingenuity and his many masterpieces, including the Mona Lisa.

Only the most loyal of servants would serve Da Vinci and myself a freshly made four-course meal. The dinner would start off with servants bringing in scalloped potatoes fresh from the wood oven. The potatoes would also be served with cheese curd and a bit of pork to give it diversity. Here, a small hidden Orchestra would begin to play a joyful tune to symbolize how amazing the night would be. During this time I would only do the most elementary of talking. Next we would have leek salad, also freshly made, and combined with fennel and capes. At present the drinks, beer and water, would be brought in for Leonardo and myself. Here the music would slow down quite a bit and become but a memory. I have a strong notion that this would make Leonardo relax and feel more comfortable; after all he is enjoying gourmet food from around the entire planet while listening to a few of the most talented musicians alive. At this stage in the meal I would start up a bit of small talk, perhaps asking about his future ideas and plans. The main meal would consist of fire-roasted turkey; together with a side of spinach pie topped with thinly cut baby carrots. As of present the musicians would play deeper tunes and really bring out the fierceness in the turkey. By now we would be deep into the conversation and would have moved on to talking about the Mona Lisa as it is a fairly relevant topic and goes in expertly with the rest of the dinner plan. The dessert would be the finest ever served to Leonardo Da Vinci, as it would contain a special treat he had only heard of, chocolate. The servants would bring in chocolate croissants with chocolate glace, not only would they smell amazing but also taste marvellous, and raspberry compote with fresh mint leaves. Finally the servants would bring in Dark Chocolate bark topped with white melted chocolate. The Orchestra will have resumed the joyful theme of the appetizer and will slowly fade away into the night. The rest of the night would be spent with quite chatter and loud laughs as Leonardo Da Vinci and I conversed into the nightfall.

As mentioned briefly above, I would chat mostly about his technological creations and models as well as his artistic talents and pieces, namely the Mona Lisa. During the appetizer we would converse about basic topics, mostly to break the ice and make the dinner a little more enjoyable. During the Entrée we would talk about his future plans, mainly about his flying machine, armoured vehicle, solar power machine, and calculator. Unfortunately most of these were hardly feasible to build during the 14th and 15th century and were all but mere thoughts. I would mostly question him of his calculator, or as he enjoyed calling it, his “adding machine”. On the machine, to figure out something as simple as, 2+17+5, we would need to enter in, “2” “plus sign” “17” “plus sign” “5” “plus sign” “T”. The machine design was in fact used in American offices until calculators in the 70’s and eventually personal computers in the 90’s fazed them out. Next, as we moved on to the main course we would talk about the Mona Lisa, which presently holds the titles for best known, most visited, most written about, most sung about and most parodied work of art in the world. I may pick up a few techniques and tips about painting and have an enjoyable time having an artist describe a painting he used 14 years of his life to perfect. Lastly, after the dessert we would converse mostly about his notebook, something know to contain a few of the most intriguing things on the planet. I would ask if he realized that it was as diverse as a list of groceries to a war machine to hover shoes.

I would definitely benefit greatly if I were to have this amazingly unreal dinner in real life. It is obvious that I would pick up quite a few tips, as he would be much older than myself, and probably quite a few more ways talented and experienced as well. Specifically, I am expecting to expand my knowledge of mechanics, applied physics and the basis of artificial intelligence. At times, I feel regret as we will never be able to bring Leonardo into the future and have his thoughts on our current knowledge of the universe. Back on topic, I would also be looking to further my extremely tiny sphere of knowledge of art. I feel as though, I cannot even begin to estimate how beneficial this dinner would be as it has never been or ever will be done. If nothing else, it will be very, very interesting.

In conclusion, I would treat Leo to a satisfactory four-course meal and talk about his life’s work. This would benefit me greatly, and I would like to think that it would benefit Leonardo greatly as well. A night with Leonardo together with a 15th century mansion and gourmet food, simply put cannot be beat. The only possible way to make this better would be to have more people over for dinner!