Not the French starter-main-dessert grid, but the bourgeois East Prussian structure that Arendt carried from one continent to another: a hot midday meal (Mittagessen) built around a single hearty dish, then the sacred ritual of afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen (strong coffee + yeast cake), and finally the frugal evening Abendbrot. In New York, this German framework blended with frugalities learned during the Parisian flight. Coffee is not an afterthought: it is the fuel of long nocturnal conversations, almost a meal in itself.

Two markers: the tart caper, signature of the cuisine of Königsberg, her hometown; and the strong coffee, companion of all her nights of thought and her smoky tables of friends. One comes from childhood, the other from the life of an exile — both say who she was.