A wonderful 'Last Supper'

Melanie Dunea certainly gets this year’s “Silk Purse From a Sow’s Ear Award.” In fact, maybe they just ought to retire the thing in her honor. Dunea’s book “My Last Supper” takes one of the most hackneyed ideas possible — asking 50 great chefs from around the world what they'd like for their last meal — and turns it into a coffee table book that is not just gorgeously photographed but smart, funny and touching. This is a book that everyone who is fascinated by chefs and restaurants ought to own.

Most of the credit, it must be said, goes to Dunea’s photos, which are uncommonly sensitive. Somehow, she manages to capture the essence of the cooks, giving us real insight into their personalities. I love the picture of Jacques Pepin at a table of simple ingredients, looking like an elder statesman. And Gary Danko on a fainting couch surrounded by caviar and what appear to be drag queens. British chef Giorgio Locatelli looks like he’s in an ad for Prada’s mackerel store, and Daniel Boulud seems right at home on the steps of Versailles.

Some of the shots will even make you gasp. Gabrielle Hamilton was photographed nearly nude, breast-feeding her child — as primal an act of cooking as you can imagine. Anthony Bourdain is nude too, completely revealed but for one outsized, strategically placed beef bone. What makes this photo really work, though, is the slightly sheepish expression on his face — Bourdain is revealed as the smart kid who knows he can’t stop himself from being the class clown.

The text is based on a simple Q&A, which mainly shows what absolute control freaks most chefs are —they’ve got the last meal planned course by course with accompanying wines, where they’ll be held, who they’ll eat with, who’ll do the cooking and even what music will be playing. But some of them are nearly poetic. Michel Richard, captured in moody black and white, wants no music at his last supper: “Just the sound of the rain. When I was a kid, we used to play inside a big box carton, like it was a tent, until the rain destroyed the box.”

Of course, nothing matches Guy Savoy’s last words: “Dear Madam, I thank you for your note, and I am touched by your admiration. Nevertheless, I have a phobic rapport with death, and because of this, will never discuss my last meal! This returns me to my life’s philosophy: I talk about openings, not closings.”

"My Last Supper," by Melanie Dunea, Bloomsbury USA, $39.95, will be published Nov. 6.

-- Russ Parsons

Photo courtesy of Melanie Dunea / CPi / Bloomsbury USA