You will find yourselves swept into an era when Philadelphia was the heart of the "newest" cuisine in the Americas. When the punches flowed over loaves of sugar and into new fangled ice creams and old fashioned syllabubs. When the ships docked from Spain, Portugal and Bordeaux with aged wines and Madeira.

Your exceptional evening will be made even more special by its taking place in an historical 18th or 19th century mansion. There you will be wooed by period music and charmed by intriguing anecdotes and kitchen gossip of the period by that evenings chef - an enlightening feast that turns strangers to friends and friends to confidants!

- One evening's recreation can take you into a tavern atmosphere for $45 and up per person. 50 - 450 Guests.

- Another evening can take you to a 17th Century Guild Hall in the middle of the historic district with a sumptuous repast from 1790. 30-450 Guests

- And Another evening can cosset you in the connoisseur's world of a recreated banquet for The Marquis de Lafayette in 1825. 30-150 Guests

It was 95 degrees on the evening of July 23, 1825 when the Tivoli Garden Theater in Philadelphia opened with Kotzebue's tragedy " Pizarro, or the Spaniards in Peru ". On Chestnut Street, not far from the wrenching scenes of Pizarro's destruction of the Incas, another tragedy was unfolding.

The Paris trained chef Jean Dupuy was considered the finest French chef in the city. Standing over his sauce pans in the killer heat - it did just that - and he collapsed and died over those pans.

Being in the middle of preparations for grand banquet of 20 courses to honor the return of the Marquis de Lafayette, tragedy was averted by Charles Mercier stepping into his comrade's kitchen. Chopping and roasting his way to an Epicurean triumph, Mercier did honor to his adopted city - renowned for the finest cuisine in the Americas.

From detailed inventories and notes, it has been possible to reconstruct many of the recipes intended for Lafayette's grand repast.

This many coursed and flavored banquet is a triumphant evening for the fledgling gourmand and history buff conoisseur.