If you asked famed 19th century Delmonico chef Charles Ranhofer to serve your Thanksgiving turkey roasted and succulent with an oyster dressing but served on a platter complete with all its fan of tail feathers and looking remarkably realistic, I'm sure he would say, of course.

But you could do it yourself, or so he'd say.

This is 1894, after all, and he's just published one of the greatest cookbooks ever written,

called The Epicurean, a complete testament of over a thousand pages to the food of the Gilded Age.

Join me and my very special guest, food stylist, chef, and cookbook author

Victoria Granof for a look at this extraordinary Gilded Age chef and his recipes, how they tasted,

and most importantly, how they looked, and I assure you, Victoria knows all about both.

Oh, and along the way, you'll get a few tips for your next holiday dinner,

and just remember, it's okay to start small.

You can always work up to a peacock.

Music I'm Carl Raymond, host of the Gilded Gentleman History podcast, where every two weeks I share stories, secrets, style, and often some scandal from the grand and glittering Gilded Age, Francis Belipoc, and late Victorian, and Edwardian, London,

and usually over a nice cup of tea. The Gilded Age was, as we know, a time to show off, and as

money became more plentiful,

you could show off by building a great mansion or buying the most expensive jewels,

and of course wearing the finest clothes, usually from Paris.

And it was a time when you could show off with food.

At your next dinner party, well, why not show off by serving a roast peacock delivered to the table with all its plumes?

Or perhaps delicately poached salmon covered in a clear aspect with a mosaic of finely cut truffles laid over the top?

Or even perhaps adorned with skewers of the finest silver, with scallops, more truffles, and tiny shrimp

threaded onto them in a dramatic display. Or if your own downstairs staff wasn't really up to this

kind of thing, well, there was a place where you could go where master chefs would do it for you.

It was a restaurant called Delmonicos. How did American food

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