Challenge accepted.
First, let’s skip the charcoal. A cuisine is not based on food color. I feel like our primary flavor is a combination of Sweet and Bitter. This is common in all the most popular gothic drinks; Coffee, Red Wine, and Absinthe. It would favor elaborate, ornate, near Victorian presentation and plating. People’s values are also expressed in food so I feel that handcrafting, niche and novelty, as well as authenticity would come through. Cooking methods would probably prefer open flame and aging.
So okay, with that in mind here are some ideas.
All goths love a a Charcuterie: You eat it with a knife and it pairs well with wine and absinthe. Breads in dark Rye (discuss the argot they may have formed! #witchtrials) and cheeses cave aged - like bats.
Nightshades and bitter greens salad: Some tomatoes and peppers come in black. Black tomatoes specifically will look very very similar to belladonna. A salad made with dark, bitter greens like radicchio or endive, and black cherry tomatoes is a great combination. Add a balsamic vinaigrette for some sweetness and acidity. Is my date giving me healthy salad or deadly poison? Either way I love them. Bon Appetite!
Charcoal-grilled aubergine: Aubergine (yes, use the fancy word) is already a deep purple and has a natural bitterness that can be enhanced by grilling it over charcoal. Technically eggplants also contain nicotine so I feel they will feature heavily.
Squid ink pasta: Hella people said it, so sure why not?
Dark Cherry and dark chocolate: Make a tart, serve as a sideboard with the absinthe, leave it as a gift on your dead lover’s grave. There are no bad options for this deliciously gothic and bittersweet treat.
Black rice and root vegetables: The first is black and is notable for being black and sometimes called “forbidden”. Sick. And the second can come in black, deep red, and purples. Also they’re totally under ground. Fire roast these.
Candle Light: Not optional. If a meal comes on plates it comes with candles
Some more suggestions:
Rip open a pomegranate for a charcuterie centerpiece to evoke the Persephone Mythos, and (according to one infamous tumblr debacle) it's reminiscent of a gory heart
Actually, why stop at evoking a Heart? Chicken hearts are available at a ton of Asian and Hispanic grocery stores and are actually really easy to cook up quick (very underrated Low Spoons food!) and what's more Goth than eating an actual heart?
Depending on what Goth Subcultures you're part of, there's a lot of less-eaten organ and bone meats that are less-commonly eaten because they're not aesthetically palatable to Normies despite being delicious. Tongue, Liver, Kidney, eyes, intestines, genitalia and BLOOD are all staples of many cuisines worldwide and really make you think about the very goth nature of. There's Duck-Blood soup at my local polish place that is EXQUISITE.
Hell, if you really want to think about how you are eating a once-living thing, consider a whole-animal roast like Trout, whole duck, suckling pig or even Rabbit. Celebrate it's life by cooking it well, pick it's bones clean and Memento your own Mori.
Re: Candles: Agreed, if it comes on plates, it comes with candles, but consider your dishware too: Black is a classic and obvious choice, but consider jewel tones to pop against a dark tablecloth and provide some contrast to your food. You know how birds of paradise and sunset moths and a lot of other animals with SUPER dark pigmentation also have patches of intense color? Take if from a Biologist and Artist- Jewel tones make Blacks Blacker, like how moments of joy make the despair so much more intense.
You can also try gold-tone tableware to evoke that Dracula's-Golden-Cutlery literary motif!
Do you know what stone fruits, potatoes, asparagus, tapioca, Rhubarb and cashews have in common? They're all plants where only parts of it are edible, or they need to be cooked very carefully or they're extremely poisonous. Think about all you ancestors who took their lives into their hands figuring this out while you eat.
Granted, this last suggestion is more Punk than Goth, but I feel like it adds something to any cuisine: In the continental US and I think a good portion of Europe, almost everywhere has local farm co-ops and game-shares so you can eat in an environmentally friendly way that supports your community and is also HELLA fresh and doesn't go through the aesthetic screening that grocery store foods, and I feel like having some genuinely grotesque-looking produce on the table adds to the aesthetic.
