[Denton] Cooley reportedly answered in the affirmative when a lawyer during a trial asked him if he considered himself to be the best heart surgeon in the world. “Don’t you think that’s being rather immodest?” the lawyer replied. “Perhaps,” Dr. Cooley responded. “But remember I’m under oath.”

Buenos Aires – Perhaps it was just coincidence, a chance occurrence for the dates, perhaps it was some sort of fear about what we might serve for our artificial heart dinner – it was, after all, 40 years to the day since Dr. Cooley, quoted above, and Dr. Domingo Liotta, implanted the first artificial heart (of their own design) in a patient, one Haskell Karp. Now, we’ve had dinners commemorating far stranger things, including in the medical world. Perhaps it was a concern that we would be serving plate after plate of innards….

But no, there are many possibilities, from dim sum, to “touch the heart”, to hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, candy hearts, and many others. And innards. Of course.

The star of the dinner for me, an artichoke heart sauce – quite similar to a classic putanesca in many ways – I sauteed garlic in a mix of butter and olive oil, then one by one added in capers, chilies, black olives, artichoke hearts, peeled plum tomatoes, and finished it with a little lemon juice and some chicken stock with a little flour dissolved in it to thicken the sauce. Salt and pepper, and voila. Served it tossed with langanelli, random shaped whole wheat pasta (3½ cups whole wheat flour, ½ cup pasta flour, 4 eggs, 1 tablespoon olive oil, all mixed and kneaded together), and topped with grated parmesan.

Other dishes, a “dim sum” of smoked salmon, squash and homemade cream cheese, a traditional Asti minestrone, chicken gizzards and hearts done up Peruvian style, and a cheesecake spiked with bitter chocolate and chilies over a cocoa crust, and topped with dark chocolate ganache.