In 1983 Star Wars was ending (or so we thought), KISS showed themselves on television for the first timeāwithout makeup, and Americans were obsessed wrapping every food they could get their hands on in puff pastry.
1983 was also the year Epi's parent company, Conde Nast, acquired Gourmet. So I ducked into the Gourmet archives to find out what people cooked to watch the last episode of MASH. Here's what I found.
Every issue of Gourmet from 1983 features a column called the Paris Journal, and every issue ends with a list of recipes as lofty as the Eiffel Tower: Shrimp cooked in cognac, roast quail with currant glaze, ginger-jellied lamb. Richness was the goal in 1983, in the wallet as well as on the plate.
In 1983, people were asking two things: āDo these Ewoks really have to be in Return of the Jedi?ā and āWill it Wellington?ā An eggy yeasted dough covered everything from spinach feta tarts to the famous beef wellington. Because when you start covering a pork butt with pastry dough, youāve come a long way, baby.
Quinoa in the ā80s? Gag me with a spoon! But couscous, that traditional Moroccan staple, had its heyday as a health food and salad in 1983 (it was ideally eaten after watching aerobics videos while dressed in pastel sweats).
