A 40-course meal for a 40th birthday

Ian Saunders is saying farewell to his 30s today, not with misgiving but with, well, a big bash and a mega-meal.

He's marking the transition to the big 4-0 tonight with a 40-course mega-meal, much of which he will prepare. Mega, as in the need for 640 plates and 240 wine glasses, which wiped out a rental outfit with everything but its Christmas settings. ("It's not like I had 640 plates in the cupboard," he said.)

And mega, as in the price tag.

"Probably about $2,500," he said. "I figure you only turn 40 once. 'What do I do when I turn 80?' is the real question."

"I was looking for the ultimate creative way to avoid turning 40," said Saunders, the creative director for a local advertising agency. "I wanted to blow out my 30s in a weird way to show 40 can't beat me."

Saunders is no stranger to a kitchen, though.

As a writer on the "Bill Nye the Science Guy" show in the 1990s, he played Vivian Cupcake, a Julia-Child-inspired character he helped create for the show.

For his 40-course shindig, he's moving the furniture out of his small Capitol Hill house to accommodate dozens of guests.

He also sent Facebook messages to two classmates he hadn't seen in a decade. They replied within an hour, offering to fly to Seattle and help him with the cooking. They showed up Friday.

The only rule: The food must be French. (Saunders and his wife visit France every year, always staying in the same room in the same Paris hotel.)

Choosing the guests wasn't easy, said Saunders, who worries about those he left off the list. He chose friends who had cooked unforgettable meals for him, those who had traveled to France and appreciate all things French, and family members.

He said people are flying in from Canada, Florida and Los Angeles for the event.

"When I got this idea, my wife said I was crazy," said Saunders, who notes that he's been cooking all family meals since his year-old daughter was born.

Most items on the menu are secret, but a few have leaked out: Chicken-liver mousse, fava-bean soup, a single radish with salt and herbed butter, and a special chocolate dessert.

Out of necessity, some dishes will amount to simply a bite or two. He wants to make the final course a single strawberry he'll pick himself from a greenhouse, served with a dollop of lemon quark.

How will he pull it off? Saunders has created a spread sheet, mapping everything that needs to be done in five-minute increments.

He planned to cook all day Friday and today, with a 5 p.m. kickoff.

And the last burning question: Who's going to do the dishes?

"It's a fair question and we haven't quite agreed," said Saunders. "We'll cross that bridge on Sunday, and may recruit folks to help."

But it won't be his wife.

"Definitely not my wife. She won't have to clean up after this mess. She'll be doing no dishes, certainly not 1,000 of them."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com