GATHER JOURNAL

Photograph by Grant Cornett Food Styling by Maggie Ruggiero Prop Styling by Janine Iversen


    
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack

Jelly Disco Floor

Desserts from Issue 9 – Summer 2016 – The 1970s

Until it was surpassed in 1992 by The Bodyguard, Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Composed by the Bee Gees (and featuring five of their songs), there was no more scintillating accompaniment to the story of Tony Manero, a disco-crazed, Italian kid from Bay Ridge who lived for the weekends when his star could shine on the dance floor. The film would revive the Bee Gees’ failing career and launch Travolta’s, and the album’s cultural impact is so considerable that it’s in the Library of Congress. We recreated the rainbow-lit checkerboard dance floor at 2001 Odyssey with a grid of colorful gelatin, its flavor inspired by Tony’s go-to drink order at the club: a 7 and 7.

serves 12 to 16



  • 10 Tbsp unflavored powdered gelatin (from about 12 (¼ oz) packets)
  • 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp chilled Seagram’s Seven Crown
  • 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 10 ½ cups (84 oz) 7UP
  • ½ cup fresh lemon juice
  • ½ cup fresh lime juice
  • blue, red, and yellow food coloring

  • 1

    Sprinkle gelatin over whiskey in a small bowl and let stand 5 minutes to soften. Very lightly oil three quarter-sized sheet pans (13 x 9½-inch).
  • 2

    Combine lemon and lime juices with 9 cups 7UP in a very large bowl or a large pot.
  • 3

    Bring sugar and remaining 1½ cups soda to a simmer in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in whiskey-gelatin mixture until completely dissolved then remove from heat. Add to the soda mixture and let the fizz settle. Measure out 4½ cups and color it blue, then pour into a sheet pan. Repeat with another 4½ cups and the red food coloring; and then again with the yellow. Chill until set, at least 3 hours or overnight.
  • 4

    Cut each tray into 1½ inch squares using a warm knife. If making yellow dots inside some red squares, using a 1-inch round cutter, punch out rounds of yellow and red from squares and insert yellow rounds into red openings.