Fifty years ago readers of the New York Times were assured there was no need to fret. The newspapers' update opened with "the lobsters have been glazed and decked out with black truffles”. Great sighs of relief and wiping of brows.

 

The United States was celebrating its bicentenary and the White House was preparing for its white tie dinner of the century. The Queen was on her way having set sail from Bermuda aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. She would arrive tomorrow with Prince Phillip and the couple would enjoy a refreshing light private lunch with President Forde and First Lady Betty Forde: chilled cucumber soup, crêpes filled with chicken (capon, actually… the tender delicate meat from young castrated roosters) and mushrooms, and finishing with a chilled Champagne mousse with frosted grapes.

 

But the social highlight of the year would be that night’s State Dinner held under an airconditioned tent in the Rose Garden of the White House.

 

“For the Queen's dinner, we had violinists stationed along the paths, and to be out in the gorgeous night air, with the moon shining down and the violins playing as you walked by, was unforgettable”, remembered the First Lady in her memoirs (The Times of My Life by Betty Ford).

 

Ahead of the dinner, celebrity TV chef Julia Child had elbowed her way into the White House kitchens with TV crew in tow, and tasting spoon in hand. Here the Swiss-born White House chef, Henry Haller, had to put aside two hours to explain to Child and her viewers how each dish was being prepared for all 224 guests.

 

The State Dinner was a relatively late start. It wasn’t until a little after 8pm that the Queen, Prince Phillip, the President and First lady greeted dinner guests that included Hollywood legends Cary Grant, Bob Hope and Telly Savalas; and music legends Ella Fitzgerald and Yehudi Menuhin.

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The New England lobsters would be served with a tangy Rémoulade sauce made from gherkins, capers, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and herbs all mixed through a thinned mayonnaise.

 

The roast saddle of veal would be stuffed with minced veal mixed with Cognac, breadcrumbs, shallots and an herbal assortment of marjoram, thyme and parsley. The gravy was made from the pan-juices mixed with a dry Chablis; and served alongside a broccoli mornay and baked noodle baskets filled with crispy rice croquettes that had been bound with butter, ham and parsley. The accompanying “Garden Salad”, as it appeared on the menu, was made from peas, carrot, celery and apple and, in very 1970s fashion, bound in mayonnaise.

 

According to the New York Times, the dessert of “fluted bombes of peach ice-cream with brandy” were decorated with a “wreath of fresh raspberries and ruffles of whipped cream”.

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